Lifestyle Library

Clean Lifestyles: From What You Eat to How You Live

A lifestyle is what you eat and how you live, and both move the same needle. The whole-food approaches below (keto, vegetarian, vegan, macrobiotic and Mediterranean) each have decades (or centuries) of practice behind them, refined by clinicians and traditional healers. Beside them sit the daily routines that decide how that food lands: when you eat, the quality of what you buy, how you sleep, how you move. Every page here shows the clean version of its subject, whether that is a way of eating or a daily habit: real food and sustainable routines, not the processed or extreme cousin that borrows the same name.

Why "Clean" Matters

Same Name, Very Different Foods

Almost every diet on earth has a clean version and a dirty version. "Dirty keto" is hot-dog wraps and zero-calorie energy drinks. "Junk vegan" is potato chips and sandwich cookies. Even traditional macrobiotics can be over-simplified into "just brown rice for months."

Each guide below describes the whole-food version: real ingredients, traditional preparation and the practical knowledge of the traditions that developed each approach.

💡 No single diet is right for everyone. Genetics, gut microbiome, activity level, medical conditions and life stage all shape what works. Use these as starting frameworks, and adapt them with a qualified practitioner, especially during pregnancy, childhood or any chronic illness.

100%

whole-food first, whatever the path

Decades

of published research sit behind these eating patterns, and each guide lists what is established and what is not

shared rule: real, whole, traditional foods

Whole foods

are the common thread across every pattern here, whatever else they disagree about

Choose Your Path

Whole-Food Eating Patterns

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Clean Keto

Very-low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein eating built around grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, wild fatty fish, leafy vegetables and traditional fats, distinguished from "dirty keto" by an absence of processed bacon, fake sweeteners and deep-fried foods.

Influences: clinical research on nutritional ketosis
Carbs: typically 20 to 50 g net per day
Vegetables: at every meal
Strong electrolyte and intermittent fasting integration

View Clean Keto →

🥗

Clean Vegetarian

Plant-based eating that includes pastured eggs and traditionally prepared dairy. The clean version is built on soaked legumes, whole grains, vegetables and ferments, not bread, cheese and pasta.

Roots: ancient Hindu/Buddhist/Jain traditions; modern Western revival from the 1970s
Whole grains and legumes properly soaked or sprouted
Pastured eggs and grass-fed, pasteurized dairy if used
B12, iron, zinc and omega-⁠3 considerations

View Clean Vegetarian →

🌱

Clean Vegan (Whole-Food Plant-Based)

Fully plant-based eating focused on whole foods, not on mock meats and refined oils. Drawn from the whole-food plant-based (WFPB) research tradition.

Roots: term "vegan" coined by Donald Watson, 1944; modern WFPB clinical research from the 1980s to present
Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, sea vegetables
B12 supplementation is mandatory
Vitamin D, omega-⁠3 (algae), iron, zinc, iodine, calcium planning

View Clean Vegan →

🍚

Clean Macrobiotic

A traditional Japanese-influenced way of eating built around whole grains, seasonal local vegetables, sea vegetables, beans and fermented foods, balanced according to yin-yang principles.

Founders: Sagen Ishizuka, George Ohsawa, Michio & Aveline Kushi
50 to 60% whole grains, 20 to 25% vegetables, beans + sea vegetables, soups, ferments
Eat local, seasonal, chewed thoroughly
Avoid: dairy, refined sugar, tropical fruits, processed foods; nightshades in moderation

View Clean Macrobiotic →

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Clean Mediterranean

The eating pattern of Crete, the rest of Greece and southern Italy, built on extra-virgin olive oil, vegetables and legumes, whole grains, fatty fish, modest dairy and wine only if you already drink. One of the most studied eating patterns, with large trial evidence for heart health.

Roots: Ancel Keys's Seven Countries Study; PREDIMED clinical trial; traditional Greek/Italian/Spanish eating
Cornerstone: extra-virgin olive oil daily, 2 to 4 tablespoons
Fatty fish 2 to 3x/week, legumes daily, vegetables 5+ servings/day
Avoid: deep-fried and ultra-processed foods, refined breads, processed cheese, sugar-sweetened drinks

View Clean Mediterranean →

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Universal Heroes of Every Lifestyle: Fermented Foods & Seaweed

Two ingredient families show up in every clean lifestyle above, and earn that universality through measurable contributions to gut microbiome diversity, mineral status, immune function and longevity. Include them regularly, whichever whole-food path you follow. Keep seaweed to small amounts (mostly nori), and if you have a thyroid condition ask your clinician before eating it daily.

🌶️ Fermented Foods

Live, wild-fermented vegetables and dairy can deliver large numbers of live microbes per serving, predigested nutrients and bioactive compounds your gut can use immediately.

Examples

Sauerkraut raw, unpasteurized fermented cabbage; the simplest and most studied
Kimchi Korean fermented vegetables (cabbage, radish, ginger, garlic, chili)
Kefir fermented milk or water with 30+ probiotic strains
Miso, Tempeh, Natto traditional fermented soy preparations
Yogurt plain, traditional whole-milk (not sweetened commercial)
Salt-brined pickles not vinegar-pickled
Kombucha raw, lower-sugar varieties

Holistic Benefits

Support gut microbiome diversity
May ease digestion and bloating for some people; the evidence is mixed
Support immune function (much of the immune system sits in the gut wall)
Increase bioavailability of B vitamins, K2 and minerals
Lowered several inflammation markers in one small trial
Studied for links to mood and cognition through the gut-brain axis; trials are small

🌊 Seaweed (Sea Vegetables)

Sea vegetables deliver minerals (iodine, magnesium, calcium, iron) that few land vegetables can match, plus unique compounds with antioxidant and prebiotic activity.

Examples (raw & cooked)

Nori raw sushi sheets, snack strips or crushed over rice
Wakame hydrated raw in cucumber salad, or cooked in miso soup
Dulse raw, sometimes toasted; the "bacon" of the sea
Kombu cooked in dashi broth, beans or stock (also reduces gas in beans)
Hijiki best avoided: food safety agencies advise against eating it because it is high in inorganic arsenic
Arame, Sea Lettuce raw in salads or cooked in soups
Spirulina, Chlorella algae powders, usually added to smoothies

Holistic Benefits

Iodine for thyroid function, though the amount varies enormously between types, and kombu and kelp can exceed the safe upper limit in a single portion
Minerals for bones and electrolyte balance
Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds (fucoidan, polysaccharides)
Prebiotic fibers feed beneficial gut bacteria
Cardiovascular and metabolic support; modulate blood pressure and lipids
Source of EPA/DHA precursors and chlorophyll (algae)

A small regular serving of each is enough. For everyday seaweed, nori is among the lowest in iodine; kombu and kelp carry far more, so keep those occasional. People with thyroid conditions or kidney disease, and people on blood thinners, should check with their healthcare provider regarding iodine and vitamin K intake from seaweed.

Before the Pattern

Quality First, Whatever You Eat

Two plates can follow the same pattern and not be the same food. How it was grown, raised, stored and handled changes what arrives on the fork. Aim for the best quality you can reach, as often as you can reach it.

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What "Good Quality" Means Here

Worth reaching for

Whole. The shortest ingredient list wins. This one matters more than every other item in this list.
Organic. Where you can afford it. Mostly about what is not on the food: fewer pesticide residues, and far fewer synthetic additives permitted in processing.
Pasture-raised. How an animal lived and ate changes the fat profile of the meat, eggs and dairy it gives. Wild-caught fatty fish for the same reason.
Local. Less time between harvest and plate usually means more flavor and better texture, and the money stays near home.
Seasonal. Food picked in its own season is picked ripe rather than early, and it is nearly always cheaper.

Keep it in proportion

Conventional counts. A conventional vegetable beats no vegetable, every time, without exception.
Frozen counts. Frozen at harvest is often fresher than "fresh" that has traveled for a week, and it costs less and wastes less.
Spend where it counts. If the budget stretches to one upgrade, most people put it on the animal foods they eat most often.
Not a membership fee. Cooking real food at home is the change that does the work. The labels are an improvement on top of it, not the entry price.

💡 "As often as you can reach it" is part of the advice, not a disclaimer. Price, distance and time are real constraints, and a pattern you can actually afford to keep will do more for you than a perfect one you abandon in a month.

Beyond the Plate

Daily Habits, Not Just Daily Meals

What you eat is half of it. When you eat, how you sleep and how you move all change what the same meal does in your body. This part of the library is being built out over time.

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Intermittent Fasting

A schedule, and what you eat still matters. What a fourteen to eighteen hour fast actually does, what is claimed more confidently than the evidence allows, who should not try it and the practical detail that decides whether it works.

Read the Fasting guide →

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Sleep

The habit that decides how well every other habit works. What too little sleep does to appetite, blood sugar, blood pressure and mood, and the evening that reliably gets it back.

Read the Sleep guide →

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Vitamin D

What it does in the body, down to the genes it helps switch on and off, who tends to run low, how to get enough from sun, food and a supplement, and when a blood test is worth having.

Read the Vitamin D guide →

Next Steps

Start With the Condition You Are Working On

If you have a specific condition you are working on, our condition guides and symptom checker can help you choose. Diets are tools; match the tool to the job.

Take the Symptom Checker → Review the One-Day Gut Support Protocol →