Are you familiar with the latest nutrition trends? Then you’ve probably heard of Clean Eating, after all, there has been a lot of coverage of this diet in recent years. We’ll take a closer look at the concept and see if it’s more of a long-term diet or if it’s only recommended as a short-term diet!

Clean Eating – a definition

Clean eating refers to a way of eating that avoids industrially processed foods such as convenience products. Instead, fresh, unprocessed foods are on the menu. Depending on the variant, gluten, meat or fish and certain dairy products are also not consumed.

Prohibited foods

Perhaps these rules sound confusing at first, so we would like to list a few foods besides the classic convenience foods that are not allowed according to this diet.

Clean Eating = healthy?

Now that you know more about the topic, we wanted to turn to the original question: “Is Clean Eating healthy?” Well, the question is not so easy to answer, let’s take a closer look!

Many of the processed products that are not allowed are clearly not good for our health in the quantities we consume them. Many convenience foods hide sugar and “empty calories”, i.e. foods that contain very few nutrients other than energy, such as proteins or vitamins. Clean eating is therefore much healthier in terms of nutrient composition alone.

Furthermore, you automatically become more concerned with the permitted foods and thus build up an awareness of the preparation methods and ingredients. So you know at all times which nutrients are being fed to your body.

In addition, some healthy components of the food are lost through heavy industrial processing. Clean eating guarantees that the individual ingredients are still rich in vitamins and minerals before you process them gently.

Last but not least, Clean Eating can awaken or renew the fun of cooking! Numerous cookbooks or posts on social media with the addition #cleaneating give tips or suggestions on how you can design your Clean Eating meals.

Clean Eating – what should you consider?

So at first glance, Clean Eating seems to offer only advantages: the unprocessed foods have a higher nutrient content and you are more engaged with the products you are feeding your body. So it’s absolutely recommendable, isn’t it?

There are a few things we would like to point out here before you start the Clean Eating diet!

The Clean Eating concept is particularly successful in regions or countries where the rules on permitted additives in food are rather relaxed. In the European Union or in Austria, where genetically modified ingredients or additives must be indicated and the trend is also towards products without colourings, preservatives or additives, the question of the meaningfulness of the Clean Eating concept therefore arises. If certain ready-made meals or processed foods are not as unhealthy as assumed, should we not make exceptions now and then when we have to be quick?

Besides, Clean Eating can also make you feel stressed! Always cooking healthy food yourself requires a lot of time, which we often don’t have or don’t take in today’s society. The pressure to eat the right foods and to control eating behaviour is not recommended for people with a history of eating disorders!

The comparison with others who also follow this diet and are supposedly better at it is also not conducive.

Another point is where you draw the line! If you strictly adhere to the concept, bread, rice or sugar, for example, are forbidden. However, maple syrup, for example, is allowed, and it has to be processed before it can be consumed.

Conclusion – is Clean Eating healthy?

Our answer is: balance is the key!

For the body, there can be definite advantages to taking a look at what products are fed to the body on a daily basis and leaving out unhealthy components or products. By keeping the products as unprocessed as possible, many nutrients are still present in full.

However, you should not ignore your psyche! If Clean Eating causes too much stress or pressure, a milder form such as only eating it on certain days or only omitting certain foods can be the solution.

In summary, Clean Eating in its strict form can serve as a temporary diet, while a healthy diet is generally recommended. Moreover, exceptions or cheat days do not mean the end of the world! As with everything, try it out, see how you feel and change the concept according to your needs!

How to achieve Clean Eating at breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal of the day and therefore also important to have enough energy for the day! Ideally, a healthy breakfast not only provides long-term energy, but also supplies the important nutrients. In particular, foods with a high sugar content should be avoided in order to maintain concentration over a longer period of time and not just in the short term.

So a Clean Eating breakfast could look like this:

You can find a general overview of the different recommended products here.

Clean Eating with Verival

So as you can see, oat flakes are ideal as the basis for a healthy breakfast! The cereal convinces with the vitamins and minerals it contains, such as biotin or magnesium, as well as the long-chain dietary fibres beta-glucans, which ensure that you stay full for a long time.

Processed into a delicious porridge, our Verival Porridges definitely fall into the “clean” category – after all, our porridges come without added sugar! We also use healthy whole grain oats.

Since the focus of Clean Eating is on foods that are as natural as possible, our heritage grain mueslis are also particularly interesting! Here, we only use special, old types of grain that are particularly well tolerated.

For all those who like to mix their own breakfast, we also have various pure flakes on offer as well as cereals or grains that you can process at home.

Clean Eating Recipes

Oatmeal is a recipe that can help you start the day and, depending on the season, can be enhanced with fresh fruit. Below you will find our simple basic recipe for every day.

Our sugar-free apple-cherry bars are perfect for those little hunger pangs in between meals! If you want to make vegan bars, simply replace the butter with plant-based alternatives.