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12 Best Cookbooks for Clean Eating

Clean eating is all about pushing out the bad food in your life and focusing on the nutrient dense and wholesome food. Find out what cookbooks are the best for this ultimate body goal.

By Milagros Cruz

The term "clean eating" has a different definition to everyone, but it's all about eating the best foods that you possibly can—and eating less of the not-so-good-for-you foods. Eating more ancient grains, vegetables, and fruit is a great place to start. Also, cutting out sugars and junk food is also a huge step in the right direction. Trying to eat healthier and transition into clean eating is sometimes hard so if you don't know the exact foods to cut out of your diet we have 12 cookbooks that can help.

We have cookbooks that solely focus on veganism, others focus on living a Paleo lifestyle, and some focus on the right foods to assist with brain function and mortality. We spoke to over 10 nutritionists and doctors who provided us with 12 different books that they recommend to patients and friends alike. Each cookbook has a different approach with the same goal in mind: try to eat better and eliminate certain foods so you can become healthier, feel stronger, and live better.

If you're new to clean eating the best place to start is with the Clean Eats cookbook by cardiologist Dr. Alejandro Junger. This cookbook starts off with an extensive introduction on what it means to eat clean with seven different essays.

There are 12 cookbooks that come highly recommended and we're sure that you will find one that fits your lifestyle and taste buds. And if you want to take a short cut without totally falling off the wagon, don't miss these 15 New Healthy Frozen Foods that Make Clean Eating a Breeze!

The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out

Leave all of the terrible, deceptive ingredients behind—like fat-free butter—and focus on cleaning eating. This book will make you glow from the inside out with over 100 mouth-watering recipes that are packed with flavor. You can enjoy everything from a noodle bowl with orange-maple miso to a walnut and avocado salad with mushrooms and red onion. The recipes in The Oh She Glows Cookbook are all about plant-based cooking and eliminating no-good-for-you foods. There's also over 50 gluten-free recipes and many of the recipes are free of nuts, soy, sugar, and grains, too!

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Superfood Smoothies: 100 Delicious, Energizing & Nutrient-dense Recipes

We're a little biased—we love smoothies so much that we created the Zero Belly Smoothies book based on the hit Zero Belly Diet book, after all! Because while you shouldn't follow a smoothie-only diet 24/7, you should totally incorporate a smoothie into your diet once in a while; sipping one after a workout or as a morning pick me up. The key to smoothies is to make sure that your staying away from sugar syrups and are packing them with veggies, fruit, and leafy greens. Lauren O'Connor, MS, RD owner/nutritional consultant for Nutri-Savvy says author Julie Morris "focuses on whole food ingredients, gives you the tools to create and invent your own, but really inspires with her tasty, satisfying creations that are generally only 5 -10 ingredients."

This cookbook has 100 nutrient-rich recipes using mineral, antioxidant, and vitamin- packed foods. There's a smoothie for every occasion: energy- boosting, cleansing, and more. You even have a substitution chart for hard-to-find ingredients.

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Clean Eats: Over 200 Delicious Recipes to Reset Your Body's Natural Balance and Discover What It Means to Be Truly Healthy

The cookbook Clean Eats by cardiologist Dr. Alejandro Junger starts off with an extensive introduction on what it means to eat clean with seven different essays, and then he provides you with over 200 recipes that cater to a clean, vegetarian, and Paleo diet. These recipes will give you good health inside and out, whether you suffer from digestive problems, depression, anxiety, or just want to try and eat better.

The recipes in this cookbook come from all over the world, they are chef-sourced, delicious, and you are given variations on meals so you won't get bored of what you're eating. It's the perfect way to restart your body.

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Eating Clean: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body

This cookbook is the essential guide to fighting inflammation, healing and resetting your body, and clean eating. With this cookbook, you'll be able to maintain a healthy diet with the pressures of life, work, and more. This book has a 21-day elimination diet, instructions on how to introduce foods back into your body, a 2-week meal plan, and a pantry list. You'll also be granted access to over 200 recipes that are free of gluten, soy, dairy, corn, eggs, and refined sugars. Speaking of inflammation, don't miss these 20 Anti-Inflammatory Foods for Weight Loss!

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Giada's Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets

Look into the healthy world of Giada De Laurentiis with her cookbook Giada's Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets. In this cookbook, you'll find her secrets to staying fit and feeling great, along with healthy recipes that include calorie counts and nutritional information.

You'll have 120 recipes ranging from breakfast, juices, lunch, dessert, and dinner that can be combined into a month of healthy meals. You'll find gluten, dairy-free, vegetarian, and vegan recipes. This book also provides readers with workout suggestions, beauty tips, and the keys to staying healthy while eating out.

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Vegan Under Pressure: Perfect Vegan Meals Made Quick and Easy in Your Pressure Cooker

This is the perfect quick-cooking vegan cookbook because it shows you how to take your favorite vegan staples and cook them in half of the time. Many people don't eat healthy because it may be expensive and/or cooking methods may be too intimidating. Vegan Under Pressure: Perfect Vegan Meals Made Quick and Easy in Your Pressure Cooker drastically shortens the cooking time of your favorite grains and vegetables. Dried beans, ancient grains, and hummus-from-scratch can now become weeknight meals because of your pressure cooker. With this cookbook you'll learn how to use the appliance safely and effectively—then you'll get to eat some of the amazing dishes Jill Nussinow has in this book such as white bean dip, veggie burgers, harissa-glazed carrots, and more!

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Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London's Ottolenghi

This cookbook is a follow-up to Yotam Ottolenghi's first book Plenty and here is where he continues to explore the world of vegetarian food in a wholly original way. There are over 150 vegetarian recipes categorized by cooking method and each recipe with its own take on bold flavors, spices, and seasonality. There is no other vegetarian cookbook like this one!

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Sweet Paleo: Gluten-Free, Grain-Free Delights

Clean eating doesn't necessarily mean that you have to give up all desserts. The Sweet Paleo: Gluten-Free, Grain-Free Delights has amazing breakfast and dessert recipes that cater to a Paleo, primal, or gluten-free lifestyle. You are given the ultimate guide to using grain-free flours, dairy-free alternatives, and unrefined sweeteners. You'll enjoy 90 recipes that are nutrient-dense and can cater to your diet—so that now you can have your cake, and eat it, too.

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Inspiralized: Turn Vegetables into Healthy, Creative, Satisfying Meals

If you're on board the spiralizer train, then there's no doubt you love a good set of spiralizer recipes! This cookbook works for all types of diets: low-carb, gluten-free, Paleo, or raw. Inspiralized: Turn Vegetables into Healthy, Creative, Satisfying Meals takes 20 different fruits and vegetables and turns them into creative meals that taste and feel like the originals that you love. Turn zucchini into spaghetti, jicama into shoestring fries, sweet potatoes into "fried rice," and more. This is the perfect cookbook if you want to eat healthier, lose weight, or simply try something a little different. All of Ali Maffucci's recipes are easy to follow, taste delicious, and—best of all—are fresh and flavorful.

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The Uncook Book: The Essential Guide to a Raw Food Lifestyle

One way to eliminate processed food out of your diet is by eating more raw foods. The The Uncook Book: The Essential Guide to a Raw Food Lifestyle gives you details on how to increase the number of raw foods you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All of the recipes in this cookbook are easy to source and are familiar ingredients—meaning you don't have to go way out of your comfort zone if you're a raw food newbie.

You'll have a guide through the basics of a raw food lifestyle with the addition of family favorites, entertaining tips, and learning how to stock your pantry. This is the perfect guide for a raw lifestyle.

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The Art of Eating Well: Hemsley and Hemsley

This is the one cookbook where you will forget that the premise is health and nutrition. The Hemsley sisters created a cookbook that has exciting and innovative recipes that are so delicious you forget that they're super healthy for you.

The Art of Eating Well: Hemsley and Hemsley is a cookbook full of advice, recipes, and knowledge on how to switch gears and live a healthier lifestyle. All of the recipes in this cookbook are organic, nutrient-rich, grain and gluten-free, and free of refined sugar.

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The Healthy Mind Cookbook: Big-Flavor Recipes to Enhance Brain Function, Mood, Memory, and Mental Clarity

While many parts of our brain may still be mysterious, studies have shown that the food we eat has a lot to do with the way our brains function. Rebecca Katz researched foods that support our brain health and created amazing recipes that are nutrient-dense foods that promote a healthy brain from childhood through adulthood.

This cookbook provides readers with recipes for every meal of the day, along with the benefits of the ingredients and the nutritional information on each dish. Try out a few of these recipes and see how clearer your mind will feel—and make sure you find out these 22 Best & Worst Foods for Your Brain before your next trip to the grocery store!

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