![]() ![]() oil, cream, butter, etc.), we still get about 40% of calories from fat.Īlthough we’re getting more than half the weight of the food from bulky nutrient-dense non-starchy vegetables, the non-fibre carbohydrate is still less than 40 grams. ![]() Protein tends to come with foods that contain plenty of vitamins, minerals and essential fats. At the bottom of the chart, we see that we can easily achieve optimal intakes of phosphorus, sodium and iron, while at the top of the chart we see that we need to work harder to get enough omega 3, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin B1 from our modern food system. The nutrient fingerprint chart below shows the essential nutrients as a proportion of the Optimal Nutrient Intakes across the eight thousand foods in the USDA food database. So, what nutrients do we need to prioritise and which foods contain more of them? Nutrients in all food We can then use the ONIs to compare which foods and dietary approaches provide the nutrients that we need to thrive, not just survive. While the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) define the minimum intake of essential nutrients to avoid diseases of deficiency, the ONIs define the optimal amount achievable with food that aligns with increased satiety and helps us to maintain a healthy appetite and body composition. This is why we defined Optimal Nutrient Intakes (ONIs). However, if you provide your body with more than the minimum, it will be able to optimise for longevity and healthy ageing. While there is some debate around the Recommended Dietary Intakes for the various nutrients, the DRIs are only the minimum amount of the essential nutrients required to prevent diseases of deficiency in the short term.Īccording to Bruce Ames, if your diet contains fewer nutrients, you will “triage” the available nutrients and prioritise short term survival. But sadly, the discussion about nutrition rarely involves nutrients. nutrient density) is the most crucial factor in nutrition and optimising our health.Īs you will see in this article, food quality and quantity are intimately related. Our data analysis suggests that getting enough nutrients without excess energy (i.e. Very few of us seem to be able to balance the calories in vs calories out equation successfully.īut perhaps more important than our health and appearance, understanding how we can eat to regenerate our bodies and our environment is critical to enable us to support a healthy population, now and in the future. The amount we eat is important, not only to optimise our metabolic health (obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc.) and our economy (spiralling health costs and reduced productivity), it’s also important to understand how our dietary choices affect our use of limited planetary resources. People that care enough about their health to conscientiously implement a particular dietary approach are typically looking after their health in a multitude of other ways and thus confound the data.įortunately, our detailed analysis of forty thousand days of food logging from more than a thousand people provides useful insight into the parameters of nutrition to enable us to better manage our food quantity and quality. However, I find it hard to believe that these improvements are due to reducing plants/carbs/fat/animal-based foods when the common factor in all of the dietary approaches that work is the exclusion of heavily processed hyperpalatable junk food. “Why isn’t everyone eating this way?” they say. When people switch to diet, their health miraculously improves! ![]() Unfortunately, it’s impossible to draw clear conclusions from epidemiological data.Įvery study or conversion experience seems to come from the background of a heavily processed nutrient-poor western diet. Who can we trust for nutritional information? Once they believe this they will buy more products from Big Food grown by highly subsidised and profitable industrial agricultural practices. If you were a little cynical, you might wonder if all these films are designed to simply make people fearful of animal-based foods. Still, if you listen to the latest “nutrition documentaries” and other people talking loudly about vegan diet you would think EVERYTHING wrong with our food system is simply due to eating animals. Most people agree that we should avoid highly processed, nutrient-poor foods. Will the debate around eating plants vs animals ever end?Įver since Cain and Abel, people have been zealous about their chosen way of eating.īut when religious beliefs, ethical conviction, environmental sustainability and big business align around food, they are a force to be reckoned with. ![]()
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