Extraordinary Health Magazine EHMagazine Vol 36 | Page 14

Clean Slate
Mareya Ibrahim
Blazes a Trail to Eat Cleaner
by Kelly Merritt
When your inspiration is Garden of Life ® Brand Ambassador Mareya Ibrahim, going to the grocery store is no
longer a chore. There’s no anxiety upon opening the fridge. Trolling the pantry stops being stressful. For people
who have spent a lifetime struggling to eat healthfully, Ibrahim illuminates the way out of a murky existence.
“Eating clean is about what it can do for your
health, your mood and your ability to turn
back the clock, because you can change
your DNA with what you put in your mouth,”
Ibrahim says. “It is so freeing to know there’s
no need to pay penance, feel confused or be
upset every time you eat.”
Fans and devoted followers of Ibrahim’s
2013 The Clean Eating Handbook know
her best as ‘The Fit Foodie’, a nationally
recognized food safety and clean eating
expert, and celebrated television chef. She
is the CEO and founder of Grow Green Industries,
INC. and patented co-creator of the eatCleaner®, eatSafe™
and eatFresh™ line of all natural and organic products. And
with her new book, Eat Like You Give a Fork: The Real Dish on
Eating to Thrive due out this June, readers will have a new
healing force in their journey towards better eating.
Ibrahim credits her father's cancer diagnosis and recovery
with sparking the fire to help people improve their health.
He changed his eating habits to include a diet filled with
clean fruit, vegetables and lean protein.
12 Vol 36 • Extraordinary Health ™
“For me, it’s been a lifelong passion to shed
light on how to eat better but also to enjoy life
more,” says Ibrahim, who encourages living in
balance and indulging every once in a while.
“Part of that is how we have vilified food to the
point where it’s not fun anymore.”
Ibrahim was raised to go to the market to buy
produce and fresh fish and chicken, but she saw
how quickly her family’s health deteriorated when
exposed to processed foods during her childhood. At
culinary school, Ibrahim further recognized how the
use of so much cream, butter and heavy meats also
factored into not feeling great.
“I thought, I cannot eat this way—my system and my body can’t
handle it,” she recalls.
The first step to Ibrahim’s way of clean eating is to redefine
what it actually means. She’s not a fan of restrictive diets, but
enjoying food as nature intended. Ibrahim doesn’t recommend
eliminating whole classes of food, rather making a concerted
effort to eat the most unprocessed of all foods.
“I’m talking about pasture-raised eggs, buying hormone and
antibiotic free as much as possible, wild-caught fish, clean,