Top Nutrient-Dense Foods and Their Benefits
September 26, 2021
Original article and page source found here.
While you may have never heard the term nutrient density before, you’re likely already familiar with the concept of eating mostly nutrient-dense foods.
There are many ways that health experts describe the idea of eating a nutrient-dense diet. For example, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of the book “Eat to Live,” coined the now-trendy term “nutritarian.” I love this term!
A nutritarian describes someone who chooses foods based on their micronutrient per calorie content. In other words, a nutritarian doesn’t bother counting calories, eating only low-fat foods or sticking to a raw food diet. Nor does a nutritarian follow a “one-size-fits-all” diet plan or theory.
Rather, he or she focuses on eating a variety of the most nutrient dense foods available — in other words, unprocessed, whole foods — in order to feel satisfied and remain healthy.
What Is Nutrient Density?
Nutrient density refers to the amount of beneficial nutrients in a food in proportion to how many calories it has (or its energy content).
According to the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “nutrient-dense foods” are those that provide a high amount nutrients but have relatively few calories.
Fruits and veggies are probably what come to mind when you think of healthy foods, but other whole foods have high nutrient density values, too. Examples include wild-caught fish, cage-free eggs, beans and peas, raw nuts and seeds, grass-fed lean meats and poultry, and ancient/whole grains.
Let’s look at eggs as an example: are eggs nutrient-dense? Yes, free-range eggs are considered by most to be healthy foods — because in just 75 calories per large egg, you’ll get plenty of B vitamins, choline, vitamin D, plus healthy fats like omega-3s, and some protein, too.
Why Are Nutrient-Dense Foods Important?
Healthy, whole foods provide us with essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids (that form protein), fatty acids and more. Another way a nutrient-dense diet could be described is as an anti-inflammatory diet, which we know is important for preventing chronic diseases and risk factors like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.
Many experts believe that your overall health may be determined in part by your nutrient intake divided by your calorie intake. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture tells us that the overall quality of people’s diets depends upon factors, including:
The level of micronutrients and macronutrients they obtain per calorie that they eat.
Whether they continuously eat an appropriate amount of calories (in the form of macronutrients) in order to meet their individual needs. This means the ability to avoid excessive caloric intake but also avoiding under-eating or nutrient deficiencies.
Avoidance of toxic substances, such as trans fats, sodium and refined sugars.
Here’s another way to look at it: In terms of the amount of nutrients you’d get per calorie consumed, 600 calories worth of fast food french fries is obviously NOT the same as 600 calories of kale.
In the same vein, 600 calories of brown rice is NOT the same as 600 calories of kale either. Sure, brown rice is a natural food, but it is also far less nutrient-dense than kale (and a host of other foods, too).
On Dr. Fuhrman’s “Nutrient Density Scale,” oatmeal has a score of 53. To give a little perspective, you would have to eat four bowls of oatmeal to equal the nutrient density of just one bowl of strawberries. And you’d have to eat about 20 bowls of oatmeal to get the equivalent nutrients of one bowl of kale!
Related: What You Need to Know About the Most Common Nutrient Deficiencies in Women
Top 30 Nutrient-Dense Foods
Nutrient-dense foods are real and unprocessed as opposed to chemically altered, manmade or filled with synthetic ingredients.
Nutrients found in healthy, whole food include micronutrients like essential vitamins, trace minerals and electrolytes like magnesium/calcium/potassium, plus macronutrients, including carbohydrates (both “simple” and “complex”), proteins (amino acids) and different types of healthy fats.
A well-rounded, largely unprocessed diet is superior to taking supplements and eating a processed diet because real foods have complex chemical structures that are very difficult to replicate. For example, antioxidants and phytochemicals found in many plant foods support the immune system, the body’s detoxification processes and cellular repair.
What foods are most nutrient-dense?
Based on the amount of nutrients in proportion to the amount of calories that these foods have, here are the most nutrient-dense foods available to us:
Seaweeds
Liver (beef and chicken)
Leafy greens, like kale, collards, spinach, watercress, dandelion greens and arugula
Broccoli rabe, broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous veggies like cabbage or Brussels sprouts
Exotic berries like acai, goji and camu camu
Red, yellow, green and orange bell peppers
Carrots and parsnips
Garlic
Parsley, cilantro, basil and other herbs
Berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
Asparagus
Beets
Wild salmon and sardines
Bone broth
Grass-fed beef
Green beans
Egg yolks
Pumpkin
Lentils
Artichokes
Tomatoes
Wild mushrooms
Seeds: pumpkin, sunflower, chia and flax
Raw cheese and kefir
Sweet potatoes
Black beans
Wild rice
Yogurt
Cacao
Avocado
Weight Loss Connection
In addition to preventing nutrient deficiencies, eating more whole foods is beneficial for maintaining a healthy weight.
Unfortunately, as the American Heart Association puts it, “the standard American diet (SAD) is energy-rich and nutrient-poor.”
A diet that includes high-fiber, nutrient-dense foods can lead to weight loss/weight management, since this approach cuts out empty calories from things like added sugar, processed grains and refined oils.
When you repeatedly choose foods that pack fewer calories into each bite, you naturally lower the overall calorie density of your diet. This helps you get all the essential vitamins and minerals you need without feeling hungry or deprived, and it also prevents over-consuming calories and gaining weight.
A big advantage to following a nutrient-dense diet is that you can maintain a healthy weight without cutting out any particular foods or food groups, following any fad diets or counting calories. It’s much easier to eat an appropriate amount of calories, even without restricting yourself, when you simply reduce or remove processed foods from your diet that are high in sugar, chemicals, sodium and additives.
In fact, because nutrient-dense foods are low in calories to begin with (because they tend to have lots of fiber, water and no additives), you may be able to actually eat MORE food but still lose weight in the process. Healthy foods like veggies, fruits, and in moderation legumes/beans or whole grains are very voluminous and filling — therefore not very easy to overeat.
How to Add More Nutrients to Diet
Ready to increase the amount of nutrients you pack into your meals? Here are some tips for adding the most nutrient dense foods to your diet:
1. Avoid Highly-Processed Foods
Author and lecturer Michael Pollan points out that there are 80,000 known edible plant foods, about 3,000 of which have been, or still are, in common use in the human diet. And yet over 60 percent of calorie intake worldwide consists of just four highly subsidized, industrialized crops: corn, rice, soy and wheat.
This is a problem because it means that people obtain so many of their daily calories from foods that don’t offer many nutrients.
While whole foods provide lots of essential nutrients, all with a low calorie “price tag,” processed foods tend to offer the opposite — lots of “empty calories” but little real nutritional benefit in return.
What foods are not nutrient dense? Examples of low nutrient-dense foods and drinks include:
Processed meats (bacon, salami, cold cuts, etc.)
Instant noodles
Convenience meals
Sugar-sweetened beverages (soda, sweet tea, juice, sports drinks)
Refined vegetable oils
Potato chips
Margarine
Store-bought cookies, cakes and pastries
Artificial sweeteners
French fries