5 Things You Need to Know About Nutrient Dense Food

1. Cut Calories With Nutrient Dense Foods

A nutrient-dense food is one that has a high number of nutrients in comparison to the number of calories it provides. They are the opposite of empty calorie foods like donuts or candy, which provide a lot of calories and little nutrition. Nutrient-dense foods are an important part of any weight loss program because they allow you to cut calories without sacrificing good nutrition.

2. Choose the Right Calories

Two foods can have the same amount of calories and much different levels of nutrients and vitamins. For example, a portion of potato chips and a baked potato are both about 100 calories. However, the potato chips are empty calories with few nutrients, but the baked potato offers twice the fiber and four times the vitamin C. Fruits and vegetables are nutrient-dense as are whole-grain breads, beans and whole-grain rice.

3. Find Out What's the Best

The United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service has online software that allows you to determine how much of a particular nutrient is in the foods you eat. You can click on a particular nutrient and the software will show a list of the foods that contain that nutrient beginning with the food that contains the highest amount. Of course, you can also find information about nutrients on product labels, but this software will steer you toward foods that are nutrient dense.

4. Don't Just Survive: Thrive

Food labels tell us the percentage of nutrients that we get based on the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs.) These percentages tell us what we need to avoid as well as vitamin and mineral deficiencies. However, the Suggested Optimal Daily Nutritional Allowances (SONA), tell us how much we need to be in optimal health. There is also an individual component; some people need more nutrients than other people, and life circumstances such as pregnancy, disease or stress can cause an increase in nutritional needs. It's important to get as many nutrients as possible from our food. It is almost impossible to overdose on vitamins if we rely on food and don't take nutritional supplements.

5. Do it Yourself

You can make the foods you eat every day more nutrient-dense. For example, strawberries are high in fiber, vitamin C and folate, but they are low in calories. Adding them to your cereal or yogurt will make that food more nutrient dense. Add some broccoli to your macaroni and cheese or some fresh carrots to your canned soup to make it more nutrient dense without adding lots of calories.