I'm new to the concept of "clean" food which I've seen used by people when talking about good food that will help in a fat loss program. Could people please list their favorite clean food to eat?

Also more importantly could you please list some definitely not-clean food. Things you should stay away from or use only sparingly. List things that you usually eat but figured out later was something to stay away from. It may help others.

How about different types of cheese? Which are good and which bad? I'm sure mozzarella cheese on pizza is not good for you, which is why pizza would be not clean food (right?). I mean the dough and tomato sauce don't seem too bad, so the cheese has got to be the bad part right?

Some clean foods that I can think of would be:
Chicken
Tuna
Oatmeal
Turkey
Egg Beaters
Fruits
Vegetables
Olive Oil

Not clean foods would be something like:
Anything with empty calories (like soft drinks, cake, etc.)
Anything really high in saturated fat

I'm sure others can make a much bigger list than I can, but I hope its a start.

heres a thread that will give you a good start...
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81315

+ its a great forum too!

Also more importantly could you please list some definitely not-clean food. Things you should stay away from or use only sparingly. List things that you usually eat but figured out later was something to stay away from. It may help others.

How about different types of cheese? Which are good and which bad? I'm sure mozzarella cheese on pizza is not good for you, which is why pizza would be not clean food (right?). I mean the dough and tomato sauce don't seem too bad, so the cheese has got to be the bad part right?

As a rule, if you got it out of a package, it's not clean. In fact, as a rule, if it didn't require significant perparation, it probably isn't clean, if it's not a raw fruit or vegetable.

On, for example, pizza, it makes a lot of difference on the details. If you're talking a pizza made by a chain, there are probably tons of bad fats in the oil in the crust, the only contact with a cow that the cheese ever had is the guy who was making it thought about the farm he grew up on while he pushed the button to stir the vat, and the tomato sauce is probably just red thanks to FD&C.

But, if you're talking about pizza with a whole wheat crust, made with fresh tomato sauce and skim mozarella, it might really not be all that bad. You need some fat and protein, and getting them from olive oil in the sauce and protein in the cheese isn't necessarily a bad way to go, if you can limit your slice intake to a small enough number of calories.

Of course, when you're talking fat loss, I'd say net calories are a lot more important than whether they're "clean" or not. Current health research says, if you burn 2,500 calories a day and are overweight, it's a lot better to eat 2,000 calories a day of McDonald's and lose the weight than it is to eat 2,600 calories a day of "clean" food. The trouble, of course, is that it's generally quite hard to only eat 2,000 calories a day at McDonald's. The nice thing about "clean" foods for weight loss is that they tend to be bulkier, so you can eat a much larger volume of them than dirty foods and feel more full for the same number of calories.

TQ

Thanks for the site taffer, really was what I was looking for. Thank you too quark. yeah I think I'll stay away from McDonalds and stick with clean foods.

Well for me clean food vs unclean food is biblical. I am not any religous maniac or anything but I am a christian. Look at Leviticus for the complete listing of clean and unclean foods. Unclean foods goes much further than McDonalds or junk food.

Also eating a more up to date "biblical clean food diet" has trimmed alot of fat off me at this point and I am eating plenty. I am also getting stronger. I just put a muscle gain/fat loss strategy together with the proper clean food choices. I follow Dave Maurices Core Diet plan. You can find all you need to know about it at the HGRT.