Here at Ballymena Today we love food and the latest craze is clean eating. We reckon lots of Ballymena folks have made a New Years Resolution to eat more healthily and that is why now is a good time to investigate the Clean eating trend.
Thankfully Clean Eating isn’t a diet – we are not fans of cutting things out of our meals. Clean Eating is actually a very simple concept – it is all about eating food which is as close to it’s natural state as possible. Avoid things which have been processed and refined foods in exchange for well prepared, healthily cooked food. So it does sound simple when it is explained like that but how easy is it to eat clean in real life.
Here are some tips from Clean Eating Magazine which should help you make your meals healthier:
- Drink two litres of water each day.
- Eat three good meals each day and snack on fruit and vegetables in between.
- Read the label. Look out for foods with one or two ingredients on the list. The shorter the ingredient list the better. At first this seems like a bit of an impossible task but once you find products that you like your shopping will be much easier.
- Keep away from bad fats. Avoid any food which has been deep fat fried or is high in trans-fats. Also keep an eye on how much sugar is lurking in your foods and sauces. Avoid consuming more because of these hidden sugars that you may miss otherwise.
- Try to buy locally. If you buy produce which is grown locally chances are that it hasn’t been sprayed or treated as it would if it was being shipped a long distance. You will also benefit from getting all the nutrients in the food before it gets lost in transit.
- In Ballymena we have the opportunity to buy fresh produce from places such as Slemish Market Garden and we also have some great local butchers who can get you some beautiful pieces of meat and advise you on the best way to cook them. Don’t be scared to ask!
If you are interested in finding out more about Clean Eating click here to visit the Clean Eating Magazine YouTube channel which full of advice and recipes. Here is a sneak peek.
It might be difficult to start with but we think that it is a positive change to your mealtimes. Don’t get us wrong we still have a bag of mini eggs in the cupboard and will enjoy the odd pizza but we are sure that we can make some small changes to work towards clean eating. Here at Ballymena Today we will be trying to eat clean in 2015