When eating clean you may feel limited on what to use to add flavor to your foods. Mayo and ketchup contain fat and sugars, while many salad dressings are the same. There are a few spices you may not use on a regular basis that are not only flavorful but have health benefits as well. Here are several just to start off.

Ginger
This spice tastes great in almost everything. Often used in Asian cuisine, it can also be used in desserts or made into tea. Health benefits include reduction of joint pain as it contains polyphenols which are anti-inflammatory compounds.

Cinnamon
Another great spice to add to oatmeal, cereals, smoothies, or on top of fruit. Cinnamon is known for its cholesterol lowering benefits.

Red Chili Peppers
I’ve written about the benefits hot peppers before and if you like spice don’t be afraid to use it. Chili peppers contain capsaicin which is known to reduce osteoarthritis pain as well as causing a slight boost in metabolism.

Turmeric
Often used in rice dishes, this spice contains curcumin which is believed to reduce muscle soreness as well as protect the brain from Alzheimer’s.

Vanilla
This spice goes well with so many foods and contains antioxidants that may help reduce muscle soreness and fight off age related diseases.

Homemade Salsa
Salsa is so easy to make yourself. A basic recipe is onion, green peppers, jalapenos, cilantro, and lemon. Chop up all of the vegetables by hand or using a food processor. Add a dash of salt to taste and squeeze some lemon juice into the mix. You have a low calorie condiment to liven up any dish.

Lemon
Squeezing lemon over fish or chicken or even creating a salad dressing with it adds some extra flavor to your food. Lemons are known to help aid in digestion as well as helping to flush out toxins.

Personally I think eating clean alleviates some of the hassle of counting every calorie. Since you are not consuming junk, you knock out a ton of calories by default. There are still many people who do the calorie counting thing regardless and if you have ever counted calories, you understand how tedious and annoying it can become.

Luckily there are some cool programs online that take the hassle out of calorie counting and makes it actually kind of fun. The two I am going to talk about are both web based which is great for those of us who work in front of a computer most of the day. It makes logging our meals that much easier.

FitDay
www.fitday.com

I’ve used FitDay before and loved it. It has awesome reporting features that produce charts track your calories eaten and calories burned from your activity that you log throughout the day. It’s a really robust meal and fitness tracker and the best part is that it is free. The only downside - at least back when I used it, was that you have to manually enter the calories of certain food items but once you have them in there you’re good to go.

The Daily Plate
www.thedailyplate.com

I have not tried this site out so the information I am giving is second hand but reliable! My sister gave this program a try and she really liked the fact that when someone enters the calories for popular food items, everyone can share it. Unlike Fit Day where it is saved for each account. Like Fit Day, it is easy to use and has good reporting. She did mention that the reporting isn’t as nice as Fit Day but I think they offer more reporting features if you upgrade.

There are several other meal and fitness trackers on the web and you can do a quick search to find many of them. If you don’t care either way about counting calories but do like keeping a food journal, these web based programs can help if you’re not into carrying a notebook around.

image credit: stock.xchng

May’s Muscle & Fitness magazine had a good article on specific fruits and how they do the body good. Here is a quick rundown on the ones they mentioned.

Blueberries
1 cup = 84 calories, 1 g protein, 22 g carbs, 1 g fat, 4 g fiber

Health benefits:

• More antioxidants than most fruits
• Brain boosting effect

Cherries
1 cup = 87 calories, 2 g protein, 22 g carbs, 0 g fat, 3 g fiber

Health benefits:

• Contains antioxidant called anthocyanins (reduces inflammation)

Grapefruit
1 large = 106 calories, 2 g protein, 27 g carbs, 0 g fat, 4 g fiber

Health benefits:

• Keeps insulin levels steady
• Influences fat loss

Pomegranate
1/2 seeds only = 80 calories, 1 g protein, 18 g carbs, 1 g fat, 0 g fiber

Health benefits

• Antioxidants
• Enhance nitric oxide levels (dilates blood vessels)

Watermelon
1 slice = 86 calories, 2 g protein, 22 g carbs, 0 g fat, 1 g fiber

Health benefits

• Amino acid citruline which converts to arginine (produces nitric oxide)
• High in lycopene