These days, a lot of food sources can be found in various places. It's obvious that cafe and restaurant options are endless, and food trends seems to be popping up every now and then. However, if you pay close attention to the type of foods that are being advertised, how often does it come across as an unprocessed, healthy type of food? Not often, right? On this week's journal, we will be discussing about the importance of clean eating for your overall health, so read on!
Whether you're hoping to lose weight or simply maintain your health as you age, eating clean makes up a key component of a healthy lifestyle. Aiming to give a more positive change to your lifestyle, it is certainly not about strict diets, unrealistic eating habits, or depriving yourself of the food you love to eat. Rather, it's about eating healthy in order to have more energy, stabilize your mood and improve your general well-being.
The objective with eating clean is to eat food that is real and fresh, food that is unprocessed or minimally processed, unrefined, and minimally preserved, making what you put in your body as close to its natural form as possible. It is arguably the best way to eat food with a high nutritional content. What then are the benefits of eating clean?
1. Improves cardiovascular health
Some of the greatest health risks faced by the modern society are diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. It really shouldn't be a surprise, looking at how many foods out there are made from sugar, flour, as well as containing oil and trans fats.
Clean eating advocates eating organic fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. Produces like fruits and vegetables help protect the body against the chances of getting heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. Vitamin C found in lots of fruits and vegetables also helps keep the blood vessels strong, which contributes to keeping your heart healthy and helps prevent stroke. Meanwhile, healthy fats like those found in fish, nuts and avocados helps to lower low-density cholesterol (LDL) and raise high-density cholesterol (HDL).
2. Helps prevent cancer
Processed foods, fried foods and trans fats are all major contributors to the growth of cancer cells in the body. Therefore, clean eating can help you prevent cancer before it can even start to grow. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain phytonutrients and antioxidants, which are cancer fighters. Broccoli, kale, and tomatoes are especially high in these nutrients and should be a daily part of your clean eating lifestyle.
3. Keeps you energized throughout the day
A healthy diet that properly nourishes your body helps you feel energetic and productive. Several nutrients, including the B-complex vitamins and iron, help your cells access fuel so that they can function properly.
Eating clean also helps regulate your blood sugar, helping you avoid fatigue-inducing blood sugar spikes, which can occur after you eat processed carbohydrates, such as sweets or refined grains. Therefore, you might want to jump-start your energy levels with a breakfast that includes fiber-rich fruits and whole grains, which are able to provide energy that lasts you through to lunch.
4. Aids mental health
Not only will a healthy diet benefits your physical well-being, but it also supports your mental well-being. Some of the nutrients from your diet, like vitamin B6, helps produce dopamine, a chemical involved in feelings of pleasure. Omega-3 fatty acid also supports good mental health, while a deficiency can cause moodiness and depression.
5. Helps you get better sleep
During sleep, the body heals itself from the rigors of everyday life. Cells are rejuvenated, the mind gets a break from the continual processing of information, and muscles grow. Clean eating can help improve the quality of your sleep so that your body can do the job it was born to do, and that is keeping you healthy and having lesser stress.
