Food

K

Krille007

Cathlete
Hi everyone!

I am new to the forum and read the last couple days about clean eating and have some question now. I am coming from a low carb diet, I didn't need to loose any weight (sure I want to loose the last 10 pounds, but I try this since 2 years), so I wanted to tone up easier and faster and it improved a little bit, but I was always really sluggish and tired, so I started adding back more carbs, like whole wheat pasta and bread and seem to do better on that. I read a lot about clean eating and would like to know, if it is ok to eat all fruits and all vegetables, or do you avoid some? How about milk, do you use milk?
And how much did you notice a change in your body, since you eat clean?
I would appreciate any input I could get.

Have a great day
Kristine
 
I've never really agreed much with Low Carb. I eat all fruits and vegetables unless I don't like them. I am also a vegetarian! The only milk I use is soymilk. I noticed a big change when I quit eating animal protein....but also different things work for different people and once I cleaned up my diet I got the results I wanted...:)...Carole
 
Hi, Kristine, and welcome!

"Clean eating" generally means avoiding foods that are overly processed and have a ton of additives. As far as I know, all fruits and vegetables are "welcome" on this type of eating program, as is milk; depending on your activity level and fat consumption from other sources, you want to consider skim, 1%, or 2% milk as opposed to whole milk.

I myself follow a fairly, but not exclusively, "clean" diet, although I don't cut out snack foods (salty snack foods are my favorite) totally, just keep them in moderation. Same with sweets; if I want a sugary treat every now and then I'm not going to deny myself. Life's too short.

My personal opinion is: when your exercise program is in balance - i.e. you're getting an adequate amount of cardio, strength and flexibility both in terms of volume and intensity - your body tells you what IT needs and wants, and usually it craves healthier, "cleaner" foods. I do find that when I limit the more processed foods I feel better and peppier, and I think better.

HTH -

A-Jock
 
I also find the cleaner I eat, the better I feel. I limit processed foods as much as I can. If I have bread/pasta it is true WW stuff and no more than 1 serving a day. I try to get in 2 servings a day of veggies and 1 serving of fruit a day. Also water water water is my downfall. I aim for 64 oz a day. Oh and I follow BFL so I have a cheat day once a week on Saturdays. In the beginning, I gorged and felt awful. Now I do cheat but not as extreme as I used to. It might be that I have a regular bagel without any protein for breakfast, etc. rather than 25 pancakes <G>

Colleen
 
Hi Kristine, if you're exercising a lot, you do need a certain amount of carbs. I have been very busy the last 3-4 months and even though I still manage to get my workouts in, my eating has suffered... not as clean as it could be, and now I have a spare tire.:) Well, I've been going low carb since last weekend -- not as low at Atkins, but lower than the Zone, which is the eating plan I follow -- and in three days my tummy is smaller.

I've been eating egg whites, lean chicken and fish for protein, and oatmeal, salads with barely any dressing, steamed vegetables and fruits for carbs. I usually have my power oatmeal (with protein powder and wheat germ) before I lift weights because I need all my energy for that. I can go for lower carbs when I'm doing cardio since my body seems to find that "easier" than weightlifting. (Cathe's cardio workouts are not a walk in the park, so I use the word loosely.)

I don't limit my fruits and vegetables to only certain kinds. I do eat even those "unfavorables" according to the Zone diet, like cherries and mangoes, carrots and peas. I just don't eat too much of them. I love soy milk and buy the plain kind which has 7 grams of carbs per serving. I know they just came up with a lower carb version that has 4 grams of carbs per serving, but I prefer my soy milk plain. Vanilla is also good, about 8-10 grams of carbs per serving depending on the brand. I don't drink regular milk because I'm lactose intolerant, but when I'm cooking I use low-fat evaporated milk or 2% milk. I also eat low-fat cheese every now and then. I prefer low-fat over non-fat since low-fat has more flavor.

I'm hoping to feel and look better in a couple of weeks. That is, if I can stick to what I just started with. It's tough to eat clean when you're constantly on the run.

Pinky
 
Pinky,

I've been doing Phase I South Beach for a little over a week now and my stomach has also shrunk. I know a lot of people don't feel energized while eating this way but after the third day, I am feeling great. The only think I really miss is my oatmeal and fruit.

My tummy has shrunk considerably and I've already lost about 3 lbs. I feel it is mostly water as I am peeing a lot more than usual. My usual complaint is that I'm holding water so there must be something about carbs that causes me to store water. Anyway, I can see a lot of definition in my abs again!

Just wanted to share.
 
>My tummy has shrunk considerably and I've already lost about 3
>lbs. I feel it is mostly water as I am peeing a lot more than
>usual.

Hi Candi, thanks for sharing. Yeah, last night I woke up a lot to go to the bathroom.:) The first day I went back to a higher protein/lower carb menu, I felt really sluggish. Some apples and oranges helped me hang in there. I can't live on salad and steamed low glycemic vegetables alone since I like to lift weights.:) It does get easier by the day, although I admit... I've been eyeing my son's animal crackers. I normally don't eat those but I think my body's craving for the sweet starches it's gotten used to in the last few months. I haven't stepped on the scale for a long time, and I'd rather not right now. But my clothes are looser around the waist. I'm hoping to see progress in a week or two.:)

Pinky
 
I don't really believe the "listen to your body it will tell you". My body never tells me to eat more vegetables or when i'm really hungry i never hear it scream "eat the brocoli". More like "eat the cookies, the cakes and bready things". So i make sure to eat better and make better choices with food and not rely on what my body is telling me. Good for people that crave the apple and not the cake. Good for them. I'm not one of them. Nor am i one of those people that can just have one crisp and leave the rest. Never gonna happen. I want then all or why bother.

I like low carb (ie - reduce procesed carbs). Eat more meat. Eat more good fat (butter, olive oil, fatty fish) eat more vegetables and fruits and limit the stuff that mother nature does not herself give you. Never seen a bagel tree?

Wayne.
 
Wayne,
I'm going to respectfully disagree with you that butter is a good fat. I know, you probably mean it's better than margarine, which I agree with, but if you can avoid both, so much the better. Dip your bread in flavoured olive oil. It's yummy!!
-Nancy
 
Hey Nancy,

No worries about respectfully disagreeing with me...however

Isn't butter real? Its not heat processed? Right? It's real. It's a big ol' myth about saturated fat being bad for you (otherwise we [humans] wouldn't have made it this far [our diet was based on fatty animals, vegetables and fruits, nuts]). I once looked on Medline (on line database of medical journal articles) and found nothing to show butter was bad for the body. Nothing. Not a single thing. In fact, when a clogged artery cut open it has only a 26% clogging of saturated fat, the rest is mono-and polo unsaturated fats.

Wayne.
 
Wayne-
Have they determined that animal fat is as good for you as olive oil? If they have, I'm not telling my DH. He'll go back to eating butter, and he has enough fat in his diet! My nutritionist said that she prefers I eat butter over margarine, but olive oil is even better. But she may be stuck in the old way of looking at animal fat, which was the norm for decades. Everything changes. Reminds me of Woody Allen's "Sleeper" where he wakes up centuries later to find everyone eating whipped cream and smoking cigarettes for their health.

-Nancy
 
Cholesterol clogs arteries and a high saturated fat intake increases production of cholesterol. Remember when eggs where villainized because they contain so much but were later considered okay because it's not the cholesterol in foods that kills you but the cholesterol your body makes from eating saturated fat and transfats. Keeping your saturated fat intake to 10% is now and has always been the rule of thumb with a 30% overall fat intake. Eat butter but eat it in moderation. Mono unsaturated fats increase HDL good cholesterol levels and make a wonderful dip. I like it with fresh garlic and basil myself.
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

- Mary Oliver
 
Bobbi, once again i'm gonna disagree, sigh... but i thought this might interest you...

The link is at the bottom:

Framingham Heart Study
The most influential and respected investigation of the causes of heart disease is the Framingham Heart Study. This study was set up in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, by Harvard University Medical School in 1948 and is still going on today. It was this study that gave rise to the dietary 'risk factors' with which we all are so familiar today. The Framingham researchers thought that they knew exactly why some people had more cholesterol than others - they ate more in their diet. To prove the link, they measured cholesterol intake and compared it with blood cholesterol. As Table I shows, although subjects consumed cholesterol over a wide range, there was little or no difference in the levels of cholesterol in their blood and, thus, no relationship between the amount of cholesterol eaten and levels of blood cholesterol was found. (Although it is interesting that women who had the highest levels of cholesterol in their blood were ones who had eaten the least cholesterol.)

Next, the scientists studied intakes of saturated fats but again they could find no relation. There was still no relation when they studied total calorie intake. They then considered the possibility that something was masking the effects of diet, but no other factor made the slightest difference.

As you can see, myths are all around us. And this is one that just will not clog up and die. Pun intended.

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/cholesterol_myth_2.html
 
Ps - Nancy, your reply was really nice and i really appreciate you not poo pooing ideas that are different than your own. Thank you.

Wayne.
 
Don't sigh, Wayne. We are all grown ups and get to make our own choices, you know! You may disagree all you like, but you will never get me to eat more than moderate amounts of saturated and transfats. The Farmingham reiterates the statement I made regarding dietary cholesterol. It's not dietary cholesterol which causes problems. But look closely at say, The Nurses Study, and you'll find that scientists recommend reducing trans and sat fat intake (as opposed to overall fat intake) for reducing coronary risks. The high sat and transfat intake has a correlation with a high BMI and the higher the BMI the more likely you are to drop from heart disease. Dean Ornish has had great success reversing heart disease and damage with his rather stringent diet. The American Heart Association as well as most of my favorite sources, Walter Willett of Harvard and Andrew Weil, all site saturated and now trans fats as risk factors for coronary disease. Finland, which has among the highest intake of sat fat has among the most heart disease. Of course, there are genetic factors as well as others, such as smoking and being sedantary but I am sticking with my high complex carb, moderate fat diet, moderate protein intake because I don't believe you can eat all the meat and saturated fat and transfats without doing yourself harm. You have not convinced me! :)
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

- Mary Oliver
 
Awwwwww shucks guys (picture embarassed emoticon here - there is none on this forum). Liane and Wayne, you guys are nice too. :D

My mind is open, but my diet is exactly like Bobbi's.
 
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