Nutrition-Life-Style Clean Eating instead of Junk Food - What is behind it?

Clean Eating is a new nutritional lifestyle. It means freshly prepared natural foods, and to avoid industrially processed food as well as ready meals. Do it yourself is hot - with fruits, vegetables and wholemeal. Fish is also included, meat in moderation and dairy products.

What is clean eating?
Clean Eating is wholesome food in a new guise, in the US and now also in Germany a hype - especially on the Internet and especially among young women. In contrast to the cliché of the "cereal-eater" in Birkenstock-Latschen, it is explicitly about good looks and deliberate hedonism. So clean eating is not a diet but a lifestyle.

Fresh fruits and vegetables replace sugar and finished products. Image: sarsmis / fotolia.de

Books about "clean food"
The American classic "The Eat-Clean Diet" has been available in German since December 2015. As the first book from Germany, "Clean Eating" by Hannah Frey was published in March 2015 by Dort-Hagenhausen-Verlag. Frey's work is primarily intended for use and includes over 80 simple recipes from breakfast to entree, and from blueberry muffin porridge to hazelnut chocolate curd.

Christina Wiedemann wrote "Clean Eating - The cookbook" and says: "It's about providing the body permanently with valuable nutrients and not with empty calories." High-quality fats are as important as raw food.

A panacea?
Clean Eating fans on the Internet praise the benefits of this diet. As the website Center for Health writes: "The hair is shiny, the performance increases, the mood becomes more positive and you sleep better. Yes, you even think clearer, previous complaints are less and even in bed, everything is running optimally. "Clean Eating should help, for example, to headaches and keep the skin clean, relieve menstrual cramps or reduce the risk of cancer.

However, clean eating is neither a medical term, nor are health effects scientifically proven.

However, nutritionist Prof. Daniel König confirms that clean eating complies with the principles of whole foods from the German Nutrition Society. But because clean eating is not clearly defined, anyone can interpret the term as he sees fit. Anyone who calls for a lot of proteins and carbohydrates under the clean eating label should be treated with caution.

King says you can lose weight with clean eating without starving. Because whole grains and fresh vegetables delivered fiber and therefore saturated with relatively few calories. Without added sugar and without fats from finished products, you would be eating fewer calories anyway.

Basic rules of clean eating
Wiedemann advises beginners: sweeten sugar and white flour, instead planning more and more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Start with breakfast and then eat up to five more small meals.

Step-by-step, Clean-Eater produce everything you need in bags and cans in the discounter - with fresh ingredients: baby porridge and vegetable stew, pizza and pasta, ice cream or pudding.

No finished products in everyday life means: instead of a bakery almond-marzipan-crossaint a whole grain bread and almonds eat; Instead of buying ketchup, puree and season the tomatoes. However, clean eating is not too strict: if products are processed "clean", for example in health food stores or health food stores, they are allowed.

In crackers in the supermarket, for example, there are: potato powder, potato starch, wheat flour, vegetable fat, sugar, cooking salt, sweet whey powder, dextrose, onion powder, flavor, emulsifier: soy lecithin, yeast extract, acidifier: lactic acid and malic acid, parsley, garlic powder, milk protein, maltodextrin. All of these ingredients contradict clean eating.

The basic rules for clean eating are: to have sufficient breakfast, to combine complex carbohydrates with low-fat protein, to eat enough healthy fats (for example in nuts, coconut, linseed or rapeseed oil), to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Prepare healthy food at home and take it to work.

Typical clean eating foods are: beans for protein and fiber, fish for the omega-3 fatty acids, quinoa with minerals and vitamins, mushrooms with magnesium, calcium, zinc and manganese, tomatoes with vitamins A, C and E, zucchini with complex carbohydrates , Vitamins, potassium, calcium and sodium. For cooking and roasting, coconut oil and avocado oil are especially "clean", for cold dishes olive oil, walnut and macadamia oil.

Clean Eater replace, for example: basmati rice with whole grain rice, wheat flour with wholemeal flour, sugar with unsweetened apple juice, fats as a binder with crushed banana, flour with nutmeal, butter with olive oil, mashed potatoes with cauliflower puree, oatmeal breadcrumbs, cream with coconut milk, fruit yoghurt by Natrujoghurt with fresh fruits, crutons by nuts, canned fruit by fresh fruits, ice cream by frozen yogurt, iced tea from the supermarket by homemade unsweetened iced tea.

Should be avoided: soft drinks and sweetened drinks, artificial sweeteners, junk food, ready meals, white flour and sugar, saturated fats and trans fats (for example, in crisps, fried or frozen soups), diet meals, alcohol, foods with many calories. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)