What's a Healthy Diet?: Nutrient Density | BreakNutrition.com
Like 2 Dislike 0 Published on 26 Aug 2017
What’s a healthy diet? (for any animal)
A healthy diet is one which sustainably helps maintain a baseline level of health or more that can be expected from observing the animal in its natural habitat.
4 things to make a diet healthy
- Species appropriate (e.g. a healthy diet for a giraffe is different than for a cat)
- Context appropriate (e.g. breast milk is suitably healthy for infants but, by definition, not beyond the age of weaning)
- Sufficient calories (e.g. what you eat doesn’t mess with your body’s innate ability to regulate how much you will eat to maintain health)
- Sufficient nutrients (e.g. whatever the body can’t produce itself, obtain enough of by itself or obtain from non-dietary sources, should be provided by the diet with enough of a margin to cope with changing conditions, like disease or pregnancy)
Where does the idea of "nutrient density" fit into a healthy diet?
In science ⇒ Density = mass / volume
In nutrition ⇒ (nutrient) Density = grams of nutrients / calories
⇒ (nutrient) Density = grams of nutrients / grams of food
Grams of nutrients / calories = plant foods are generally more nutritionally dense
Grams of nutrients / grams of foods = animals are generally more nutritionally dense
A nutrient dense diet provides enough nutrients in the right balance in line with your food intake (whether measured in grams or calories).
I want to improve my diet and heard it’s got to be nutrient dense--how do I do that?
You can improve the nutrient density of your diet by eating foods that maximize the amount of nutrients and minimize the amount of *anti-nutrients in your total food intake.
*anti-nutrient = something stopping you from properly absorbing or using nutrients, e.g. the molecule phytic acid (found in high quantities in legumes, cereals and nuts).
To use make good use of nutritional guidelines, like RDIs, we must understand that the data on some nutrients is trustworthy but not on others. For example, 30mg of daily vitamin C from food may be a bit on the low side for someone eating a typical higher-carbohydrate modern diet. For someone eating a low-carb or ketogenic diet whilst avoiding processed oils and flours, 30mg of daily vitamin C may be unnecessary. This is because less carbs you eat, the less vitamin C you need. This illustrates the importance of considering nutrient needs according to context.
Example of an omnivorous nutrient dense meal: poached salmon and eggs with kale and onions sautéed in coconut oil accompanied by a side of mixed nuts, berries and +85% dark chocolate. Water to drink.
Example of a carnivorous nutrient dense meal: beef liver and shrimp cooked in butter with a side of full-fat raw dairy. Water to drink.
Example of a nutrient poor meal: spaghetti bolognaise with cheesecake for dessert. Beer to drink.
Vegetables, nuts, fruit and seeds can be part a healthy nutrient dense diet. Nevertheless, diets higher in animal foods tend to be more nutritionally dense than those higher in plants. This is because animal foods contain all the essential and conditionally-essential protein (amino acids), fats (fatty acids), vitamins and minerals. This doesn’t mean a carnivorous diet is the best diet for humans, what it means is that any nutrient dense diet must contain a decent amount of animal foods.
Supplementation of specific vitamins, minerals, fatty and amino acids can help but you simply cannot out-supplement a poor diet.
If you wanna turn this theory into practice and take your nutrition and fitness to the next level, visit BreakNutrition.com. There are podcasts, articles, you can even ask experts. Follow them on Twitter (Twitter.com/breaknutrition) and Facebook (FaceBook.com/breaknutritionblog).
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