Eating Well with 'Clean Start' Author Terry Walters

CBN.com Eating clean is not about living or eating like someone else. Nor is it making your family consume soy-based products pretending it tastes like something when it doesn’t! 

“Eating clean is about taking the same foods you are already consuming and making good choices,” says Terry.  She teaches families to read labels on foods.  “Clean food is whole, minimally processed and close to the source for maximum nutrition.”

Terry says it’s easy to start eating clean, and she knows everyone gets started at different places in their lives.  As a health coach counselor, sometimes Terry recommends meat for people, sometimes she doesn’t.  Sometimes dairy is okay and sometimes it’s not.  For others, eating clean may mean eliminating preservatives and artificial ingredients.  For the next, it might mean going directly to the farm to buy clean food.

Terry says it’s important not to take foods away but rather to add them.  “By taking foods away that you can’t eat might make you feel deprived,” she says.  “It’s better to add foods to make long-lasting lifestyle changes.”  A clean start has to fit your unique lifestyle and not set you up for failure.

The basic concept of eating clean means looking at the food in your diet.  What colors are represented on the plate?  Terry says to find out what colors are missing from your diet.  The more colorful your diet, the more nutrient rich it is.  “It’s easy for everyone to add greens to their diet.  Everyone can benefit by eating more greens,” says Terry.  She says greens are cleansing, healing and rich in calcium and minerals.  Try using them in salads, soups, sauces and even smoothies. 

The idea of family mealtimes is rapidly deteriorating in this country.  Growing up, Terry says her mother made meals that were made from scratch with natural ingredients.  “We did not eat perfect diets, nor were we a model family,” says Terry.  “But we were nourished and nurtured by wholesome foods, the energy and love that was cooked into them and by the ritual of mealtime.”

Terry recommends eating foods that are grown, not manufactured.  Skip the packaging.  “A package is the first sign that you’ve moved away from the source,” she says.  Look for foods that don’t require a label to reveal what’s inside.  She says to try one new clean food each week.  Start with something green if you don’t know where to start.  “If you add one new clean food each week, that’s 52 new things you and your family have tried.  If you only like half, then you are still benefiting from eating clean food.”