3 Tips for Cleaning Up Your Diet

Clean eating means ditching processed and chemical-laden foods in favour of fresh fruits, vegetables and wholegrains. Eating fresh food as close to its natural state as possible has been linked with better sleep, improved brain function and enhanced mood. Here are three tips for cleaning up your diet.

Filter Your Water

When you cook with and drink unfiltered tap water you're consuming all sorts of pesticides, bacteria and traces of heavy metals. As if that wasn't bad enough, chlorinated tap water is thought to be connected to an increase in birth defects. A key step to cleaning up your diet is ridding your drinking water of toxins by filtering it. Here's an overview of two popular types of home water filters:

Jug Filters—These filters are ideal for keeping in your fridge and will filter 1-2 litres of water at a time. You fill the jug with tap water, which runs through a cartridge filter that uses activated charcoal to draw out impurities before the water reaches the main jug compartment. Jug water filters don't remove fluoride and you need to change the cartridge every few months.

Under Sink Filters—Both reverse osmosis filters and activated carbon filters connect to the pipes under your sink and deliver filtered water whenever you turn on the tap. Reverse osmosis filtration works by pushing water molecules backwards through a semi-permeable membrane, which captures contaminants.

Activated carbon filters use a replaceable carbon cartridge to draw out contaminants and are cheaper than the reverse osmosis filters. Both types of under sink filters remove fluoride, traces of heavy metals, bacteria, and chlorine. Learn more by talking to suppliers like Water Filter Warehouse.

Choose Your Produce Wisely

When buying fruits and vegetables it's best to opt for organic varieties and reduce your pesticide consumption, but organic produce can be expensive and isn't always available. If you can't go 100% organic, stick to the Environmental Working Group's list of conventional produce that contains the least amount of pesticide residue. The Environmental Working Group tests a wide range of fruits and vegetables each year and publishes a list of the twelve that contain the most pesticide residue and the fifteen that contain the least.

Reduce Your Refined Sugar Intake

Refined sugar has been linked to heart disease, obesity, cognitive decline, and liver damage. It's an addictive substance that offers nothing of value to your body, but it seems to be everywhere. Try cutting out all forms of refined sugar for two weeks and you'll likely feel an improvement in your overall health.

Ditching or reducing your refined sugar intake doesn't mean you can't enjoy the occasional sweet treat, but try to incorporate natural sweeteners into your cooking. Consider sweetening muffins with apple sauce or mashed bananas, or drizzling your oatmeal with a little pure honey.

You don't have to incorporate all of these tips at once. Add them into your routine one at a time and see for yourself the difference cleaning up your diet can make to your health.


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