A foodie loves, no, adores food. And the more the spices, oil, sugar, and salt combined with presentation tricks, you’ve got a salivating foodie on your hands.
Hey, chill, we’ve all been there. Variety of cuisines, flavours, ingredients – what’s not to love? ?
Except that most food that hooks a foodie puts taste above nutrition. And that’s fine too, till some numbers start falling out of range in the medical reports! And that’s when the foodie has to think of a cleaner diet!
And his or her number one fear is: Will I not be able to eat my favourite foods? Let’s address that, shall we? ?
The foodie’s food on the clean eating path
In clean eating, we make momos to modaks, pav bhaji to pakodas and nice-creams to halwas and kheers … even dahi wadas! You can have foods from different cuisines and enjoy an even wider range of ingredients.
These dishes are equally appealing and with multi-fold nutrition. That’s because the focus widens from only taste and appearance to nutrition.
Clean eating allows you to truly appreciate the taste of food as it was intended to be consumed. This happens when we choose whole or minimally processed ingredients over processed items with artificial colours, sweeteners and chemicals.
Our cooking methods change too to retain original food flavours as well as nutrients.
Instead of deep frying, we choose baking.
Instead of boiling, we choose steaming.
So you see, you can continue to be a foodie throughout your life without getting stressed about the portion size, calorie count, suppressing your cravings or hunger. All that, without damaging your body.
And the best part is, if you do your own cooking, these dishes take only half the prep and cook time versus conventional meals!
Can I eat out as a clean eater?
Since people have only started becoming aware of the many health benefits of eating clean, it’s not always easy to find clean foods anywhere and everywhere. (It’s ironic how easily accessible chemical-laden foods are, isn’t it?)
However, awareness is on the rise. And many clean food restaurants have come up in various metros. We need to plan our outings, research for such places and be willing to shell out some extra money (another irony, but more on that in another post). Keep in mind though, savings in medical expenses recompenses for the extra you shell out here!
For Bangalore, at least, I can share names of tested and tried clean food restaurants:
We hope your fears as a foodie are allayed to some extent. If not, you need to look at this thali down here.
So, do you think a foodie can be a clean eater? Let me know in the comments. ?