Bazilian Wendy - Eat Clean, Stay Lean

This book is intended as a reference volume only, not as a medical manual. The information given here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment that may have been prescribed by your doctor. If you suspect that you have a medical problem, we urge you to seek competent medical help.

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Art direction and book design by Amy C. King
Photographs by Mitch Mandel/Rodale Images except Regular Bagged Greens image Corbis
Food styling recipes: Khalil Hymore
Food styling categories: Chelsea Zimmer
Food styling cover: Chris Barsch
Prop styling recipes: Kira Corbin

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.
ISBN-13: 9781623365288 paperback
ISBN: 9781623365295 ebook

We inspire and enable people to improve their lives and the world around them.
RodaleWellness.com

To anyone who eats clean,

has tried to eat clean,

or has even once thought about eating clean.

You inspire and motivate us.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

The single best investment you can make daily for your health is to eat well. Eating well is about eating quality foods, in delicious combinations, on a regular basis, giving you energy to run on, mental clarity to make those 1,001 daily decisions, and a glow that reflects your inner beauty and overall health. As a doctor of public health, a registered dietitian, and a certified exercise physiologist, I constantly evaluate scientific research on health so that I can help people come up with solid, practical food and fitness solutions for the real world we live in. With my clients, we talk about food a lot, from the freshest produce to the most overprocessed, packaged stuff. And we look at food labels. But my favorite foods are those without a label: The cleanest foods you can eat are real foods themselveswhole, fresh foods that havent been highly processed, refined, and poured into big boxes, crinkly bags, or shiny wrappers. Research shows that these whole, foods are the best at creating, restoring, and preserving the healthiest bodies.

Real whole foods come first, but what about convenience? Packaged foods made up of more than one ingredient make life easier, for sureand, fortunately, there are plenty of clean options out thereyou just need to know how to find them. The pages ahead will help you navigate the bazilians of choices in the places you like to shop so that you can learn to distinguish those clean nutritional superstars from the imposters. Its really pretty simpleand funonce you get the hang of it. The best part is that you will feel and see the rewards quickly as you journey toward an energized, vital, and leaner you.

At the end of the day, the pleasure from eating flavorful food feels so good! And ultimately, while being healthy itself is a compelling goal, you know you probably wont stick with a plan if it doesnt also taste delicious. Great news: Clean foods, prepared creatively like the recipes youll find inside, will tantalize your taste buds, too.

Enjoy each stepand biteof your clean-eating journey!

Wendy Bazilian, DrPH, RD

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS CLEAN EATING?

Youve undoubtedly seen it on magazine covers and heard it rolling out of the mouths of celebrities, athletes, nutritionists, maybe even some of your friends. But what the heck does clean eating really mean? If youre confused, youre not alone. In todays world, were all bombarded with so much information about different diets, new food studies, and food-packaging labels that seem to promise big but hidden health benefitsgluten-free, sugar-free, Paleo-friendly, low-fat, high-fiber, all-natural, organic, grass-fed, the list goes onthat its hard to know what to put in your mouth on a daily basis, let alone what to buy for the week.

But unlike traditional and fad diets, eating clean isnt just shopping for one food label or eating a specific way, where you give up gluten or dairy, or start slashing calories, carbs, or sodium. Eating clean has nearly replaced eating healthy in how we talk about food. And the reason so many people are talking about it is that its simple to do, not a fad, and best of allit makes you feel and look great.

So what is clean eating? While the term means different things to different people, the root of it all is the effort to consume as many whole foods as possible that have undergone as little processing as possiblefoods that look and taste like they came fresh out of the ground or from a tree, a farm, the ocean, or even someones kitchen, not like they are fresh off the conveyor belt of a factory. Eating clean means choosing foods that dont have a ton of (or any) added chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, preservatives, or artificial sweeteners, flavors, and colors. For many, eating clean also means trying to eat organic and local whenever possible.

A diet rich in unprocessed whole foods automatically increases your intake of vitamins, nutrients, minerals, and phytochemicals, and decreases unhealthy fats, added sugar, excess sodium, chemicals, pesticides, and preservatives. In short, clean eating is a simple and delicious way to stay lean, healthy, and feeling great.

But clean eating isnt just about health and weight lossits about enjoying more of the foods you eat every day. Clean eating opens your diet up to a delicious and fresher array of flavors and textures. Youll start to crave garden-picked fruits and vegetables, hearty whole grains, savory beans, crunchy seeds and nuts, filling cuts of lean meat, and just-off-the-boat seafood. Youll feel fuller and more satisfied eating clean, which means youll naturally want to avoid all the fried foods, sugary treats, and processed junk found in the Standard American Diet (SAD, for short). We know all this because while the idea of clean eating has grown in popularity lately, the practice is hardly new: Before Western society turned toward eating more and more processed foods, most of our ancestors ate clean without even trying or thinking about itand they were naturally thinner, had lower incidence of chronic disease, and likely had more energy as a result.