Unlike quick-fix diet books that recommend unnatural eating habits, Tosca Reno’s The Eat-Clean Diet is exactly what the title suggests – eating clean.
The benefits of this simple strategy are tremendous, but sadly, most of us have forgotten how to eat clean. This book elucidates good eating habits and takes readers by the hand to clean eating habits.
This diet became so popular that many additional books were created to complement it such as the Eat Clean Diet Cookbook and the Eat Clean Diet workout book
The Eat-Clean Diet Overview
A number of clear cut principles drives this book. The first and the most important principle is to eat clean. Avoid processed, pre-packages, sugary foods. Instead, opt for whole foods, lean protein and lots of fruits and vegetables. This might seem simplistic but if you look back at what you have eaten in the last few days, you might discover that your own food plan is somewhat at loggerheads with this strategy.
There are other, equally important principles to be put into practice. The author recommends 5-6 small meals every day, which means that followers are free to eat every 2-3 hours. Food combining is important which is why the author recommends combining complex carbs and lean protein for every meal. Although the author does not recommend calorie counting, she recommends sticking to portion sizes rigorously as this ensures weight loss.
Reno is a great fan of good and wholesome breakfast, and this explains why she has dedicated an entire chapter to it. She also advocates other measures like packing nutritious foods, avoiding alcohol and rejecting calorie dense foods to aid weight loss. Importance is given to proper hydration.
Sufficient importance is given to exercise. The program recommends both aerobic as well as weight training to achieve a great body. In fact, the operation principle of the book, if you could call it that, is the author’s unique formula to achieve the body of your dreams: 80% good nutrition, 10% training and 10% genes. We may not have much control over the last factor but the first two are well within our grasp.
To make it easy, the author has laid out a number of nutritious, easy-to-make and delicious recipes. The book also contains a lot of helpful information like tips for eating out, a shopping list, a list of kitchen gadgets and other tips for diet management.
In the book, Reno treads lightly on a more controversial subject as she identifies a number of supplements and herbs that she claims has beneficial effects and promotes weight loss.
There is nothing exceptionally new about what is said in the book, and that is perhaps its charm. It elaborates on the author’s struggle with weight loss and is an attempt to provide the right way forward to others who are engaged in a similar struggle. To that extent, the book is inspirational and the text is an interesting read.
Eating clean is not terribly hard when you have specific and clear guidelines on everything. The author encourages followers to eat from a wide variety of choices and includes different kinds of food in their daily diet. Equal importance is given to exercising and drinking sufficient quantities of water.
Eat Clean Diet Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Stresses the importance of eating healthy foods
- Gives sufficient importance to all the principles of healthy eating
- Exercise is important
- Detailed recipes are provided
- Meal plans are provided
- An interesting read
- Lots of helpful tips
Cons:
- Requires a lot of focus
- Requires some amount of work
- Glosses over the psychological aspects of eating and weight loss
In Conclusion:
The author has used her own amazing transformation from a fat and dowdy matron to a swimsuit model, to lay down an effective weight loss plan. The principles are sound. They are built on easy eating practices that were once a part of our life but we have now forgotten. The aim of The Eat-Clean Diet is to show us that just as one can learn bad habits, it is possible to re-learn good habits!
