Nutritious foods contain a high concentration of nutrients relative to calories, according to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who argues in his book "Eat to Live" that health is predicted by your nutrient intake divided by your intake of calories. Nutrient-dense foods contain large proportions of noncaloric food factors, including vitamins, minerals, fibers and phytochemicals. According to this method of measuring nutrient density, the most nutritious foods on the planet are leafy green vegetables.
Scoring Method
Dr. Fuhrman's Aggregate Nutrient Density Index, or ANDI, measures the nutrient content for a variety of foods based on an equal caloric amount of each food. The nutrients included in the index are the 13 essential vitamins, in addition to minerals, fiber and nutrient subclasses such as carotenoids and glucosinates. The index also takes into consideration a food's ORAC score, which measures the antioxidant capacity of foods. The sum of a given food's total nutrient value is then multiplied by a fraction to make the highest number equal to 1,000.
The Winner
The foods that received perfect nutrient-per-calorie density scores of 1,000 are all leafy green vegetables. These leafy greens include mustard greens, watercress, kale, turnip greens and collard greens. Not only are leafy green vegetables higher in noncaloric nutrients than any other food, they are also excellent sources of protein, notes Fuhrman, who argues that the biggest animals all eat predominantly green vegetation to derive their strength. In addition, green vegetables derive their carbohydrates directly from the sun, the ultimate energy source. For a given vegetable, the darker the green, the richer the nutrient content.
Example
Many of the phytochemicals that are used to calculate the ANDI do not appear on standard nutritional labels. Standard labels generally list the amounts of only five of the major nutrients, which are iron, calcium, fiber, vitamin A and vitamin C. The amount of these nutrients in a 1-cup serving of steamed kale provides additional perspective into the nutritiousness of leafy greens. One such serving of kale contains over 640 percent of the daily requirement for vitamin A, 160 percent of vitamin C, 16 percent of calcium and 11 percent of iron. It provides 10 g of dietary fiber.
Recommendations
Green vegetables are associated with lower rates of cancer and heart disease, and increasing your caloric intake from these foods offers dramatic health benefits, argues Furhman, who recommends eating these foods, mixed with other high-nutrient foods such as solid green vegetables, non-green vegetables, legumes and fresh fruit, in unlimited quantities. To increase your daily dose of nutrition, eat a big raw salad each day and accompany it with a bowl of steamed greens.
References
- "Eat for Health"; Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; 2008
- "Eat to Live"; Joel Fuhrman; 2005
- Dr. Fuhrman: Nutrient Density
- LIVESTRONG.COM MyPlate: Calories in Kale, Steamed
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