Nutrient Density

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I'm a big fan of Dr. Joel Fuhrman. About 3 years ago a business friend gave me Fuhrman's book, "Eat to Live", and we've benefited from the precepts in it since. Although the book can seem like a diet fad to lose weight, it actually describes a fundamental shift in thinking, which takes you to ever-improving levels of good health almost effortlessly. I know because that's what's been happening to me over these same few years.

The crux of Fuhrman's philosophy is to consider what he refers to as "nutrient density" of every mouthful of food we eat. The key consideration is: what nutrition will our bodies derive from the foods (calories) which are passing our lips? To quote his book:

"Food supplies us with both nutrients and calories (energy). All calories come from only three elements: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Nutrients are derived from noncaloric food factors--including vitamins, minerals, fibers, and phytochemicals. These noncaloric nutrients are vitally important to health. Your key to permanent weight loss is to eat predominantly those foods that have a high proportion of nutrients (noncaloric food factors) to calories (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins)." (emphasis his).

That's it... that's the secret. It's all about the density of nutrition in the foods we are eating. Let's consider some examples of high-nutrient-density foods compared to low-nutrient-density foods:

whole grain bread - high nutrient density
     white bread from bleached flour - low nutrient density
salad with dark greens and fresh vegetables - high nutrient density
     breaded fried chicken - low nutrient density
fresh berries (or frozen) - high nutrient density
     Twinkies, cookies or crackers of pretty much any kind - low nutrient density

When it comes to food choices, I'm a 90/10 kind of eater - I choose to consume about 90% of my calories from high-nutrient-density foods (much of which are plant-based calories) and 10% from low-nutrient-density foods (refined grains, processed foods in general, convenience foods). Many days I find I'm a 100/0 eater, and I have to say those are days I feel the best, think most clearly and sleep well at night.

Cleaning out our pantries of low-nutrient-density foods can seem like a huge undertaking. All those refined grains, all the stuff with high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils, all the flavor-enhanced food-like products with MSG... cleaning all that up is a big undertaking. It's been a good two years for us as a family, and I have to say we have a fairly clean pantry now. Lot's of high-nutrient-density foods, and the health of our whole family benefits from that. So, how's your pantry?

By the Way

Another MD who agrees with the fundamental idea of nutrient density is Dr. Mark Hyman. While I haven't read his two books, "The Blood Sugar Solution" and "The 10-Day Detox Diet", they are both on my reading list.

Learn more about Dr. Hyman here: www.drhyman.com 

Whether you've decided you need to permanently shed pounds, or you just can't live with the joint pains, brain fog and feeling run down all the time, check out Dr. Fuhrman and Dr. Hyman. Their guidance and content are invaluable to sustained health and I know you'll be glad you did.