The Two Most Important Nutrition Concepts???

Today I want to discuss two nutrition concepts that I believe are under-discussed and often forgotten.  I also think that these two concepts should be at the forefront of your mind when eating for fat-loss, health, or even performance.  While I obviously believe in a paleo/primal template, I think that these two concepts go beyond paleo/primal and should be adhered to even if you’re not adhering to a paleo/primal template.  In short I think these may be the two most important nutrition concepts!

So, what are these two overarching concepts you ask???  They are: Nutrient Density, and Caloric Density.  I’ll discuss each in kind and then tie them together at the end…

The Concept of Nutrient Density

Nutrient density is pretty much exactly what it sounds like…  How many nutrients, or how much nutrition are you getting per unit eaten.  We’ve all heard the term (and understand the term?) “empty calories”.  Well, nutrient dense foods are pretty much the opposite of empty calories.  For illustration purposes let’s look at potato choices… 

	Potassium	Fiber	Calcium	Vit. C	Vit. B-6	Magnesium	Vit. A
White Potato	421mg	2.2g	1% RDA	32% RDA	15% RDA	0% RDA	0% RDA
Sweet Potato	337mg	3g	3% RDA	4% RDA	10% RDA	6% RDA	283% RDA
Yam	816mg	4.1g	1% RDA	28% RDA	15% RDA	5% RDA	2% RDA
Russet	417mg	1.3g	1% RDA	9% RDA	15% RDA	5% RDA	0% RDA
Instant Potato	240mg	1g	0% RDA	27% RDA	0% RDA	0% RDA	0% RDA

The chart above represents the nutrition information per 100g serving of each kind of potato.   I’ve removed the “noise” and narrowed it down to only applicable beneficial nutrients, ignoring other nutrition high points like calories and macronutrients.  I’ve noted the high values in a column with a red font, and the low values with a green font.  When I look at this chart it looks pretty obvious to me that Yam’s and Sweet Potatoes contain the most nutrition per 100g serving, with White Potato and Russet Potato close behind.  It’s also VERY obvious to me that instant potatoes have the least nutrition per 100g serving.  As a side note the instant potatoes are also more than 4 times higher in calories for the 100g serving!  More to come on that soon…

Here’s one more chart for illustration purposes:

	Potassium	Fiber	Calcium	Vit. C	Vit. A
360 Calories of Ho Ho’s	0mg	1g	2%	0%	0%
360 Calories of Broccoli	229mg	36g	42%	1163%	332%

I believe it’s pretty hard to argue with the idea that we should put nutritious foods in our body.  Whether you buy into a paleo template, prefer a vegan diet, or believe in some other way of eating, I think we can all get behind this idea.  When considering what to put into your body, consider which food is most nutrient dense.  You may not know off the top of your head whether broccoli is more nutrient dense than kale, but I bet you know whether asparagus is more nutrient dense than Kraft macaroni and cheese.  It feels like I’m stating the obvious here, but I feel this concept is missed by many…

You’re trying to not only power your body, but feed it the nutrition in needs to thrive.  We can easily accomplish this if we keep the concept of nutrient density in mind.  Avoiding empty calories is a great start, but always considering the nutrient density of what you’re about to consume is taking it to the next level.  Keep nutrient density at the forefront of your mind as you make choices about what goes in your mouth.

The Concept of Caloric Density

This concept is also pretty straight forward but often overlooked.  Caloric density is about how many calories a food brings you per unit consumed.  Intrinsically we know that a Reeses peanut butter cup is more calorically dense than say broccoli, but again let’s take it a step further…

Let’s go back to the foods we looked at above:

	Calories
White Potato	69
Sweet Potato	86
Yam	118
Russet	79
Instant Potato	365

Looking at the difference between the processed packaged food and the whole foods, it’s pretty easy to imagine how eating a lot of these calorically dense foods might be a problem.  This may seem pretty obvious when vilifying something like instant mashed potato, but let’s look at a couple other scenarios…

	Calories
2-slices Daves Killer Bread Good Seed Light	150
2-Leaves Romaine Lettuce	15
2-Slices Paleo Bread (Julien Baking Co.)	120
1-serving Spinach Fettuccini (Z Pasta Co.)	200
1-cup Spaghetti Squash	42

The point here is that even if we’re looking at seemingly “healthy” options like Dave’s Killer Bread, Paleo Bread, or Spinach Fettuccini, we’re still looking at calorically dense items, and these items won’t help you be the healthiest version of yourself.  If you’re looking to make a sandwhich, your best option will always be lettuce instead of bread no matter what the bread is.  Likewise, if you’re looking to have a pasta dinner, your best option will always be a veggie substitute for pasta (spaghetti squash, zucchini noodles, etc), no matter what the pasta is.

Putting it Together

Taking these two concepts on their own merit is good, but putting them together you end up with a foundation for making nutritional choices no matter what your eating framework (Paleo, Vegetarian, Vegan, etc.) is.  If the question is what should I drink with dinner, your best option will almost always be the least calorically dense (water, tea, etc); unless you have an option that if relatively nutritionally dense for the number of calories it brings (IE- low sugar Kombucha).  Taking into account nutrient density and caloric density almost always leads you to the least processed food, which is exactly where most of us should be headed. 

Are there exceptions to this policy?  Well, yes… But not many.  A couple that come to mind off the top of my head are post-workout nutrition for athletes, and people eating a ketogenic diet.  Athletes MAY want to pursue quick digesting carbs and protein in the post-workout window, and these foods tend to be less nutrient dense and more calorically dense.  Someone trying to maintain nutritional ketosis will often want to choose foods that are very high in fat, which are very calorically dense.  That said, aside from a few small exceptions this policy works for almost all people almost all of the time…

As you go out into the world to make nutritional choices today, consider using nutrient density and caloric density to guide your decision making!