It’s time to take out those calories filled with nothing but junk and introduce something much more useful to your body. What is the nutrient density of your diet?
When it comes to eating a healthy diet, there are many perspectives, factions, and agendas out there creating a wealth of contradictory information. However, virtually every diet camp can agree upon one thing: for better health, eat more fruits and vegetables. There might be disagreement on the amounts and types of these foods, but it is universally accepted that eating more fruits and vegetables will make you healthier, and with good reason. One of the best ways to improve your diet is by making it more nutrient dense, and there are no foods on earth more nutrient dense than fruits and vegetables.
But what is nutrient density? Nutrient density can be defined as the amount of nutrients per calorie of food eaten (ND = Nut/Cal), and making your diet more nutrient dense simply entails getting the most nutrient bang for your calorie buck. Think the exact opposite concept as empty calories. No matter what diet you follow or what genetic predispositions you have, eating a more nutrient dense diet with more fruits and vegetables will improve your health, physique, and resistance to disease.
So now that you know what nutrient density is and why it matters, how do you go about making your diet more nutrient-dense? I work with all my clients on how to accomplish this, and here are three of my favorite tricks:
Smoothies:
There’s no easier way to pack in a ton of health-promoting produce than by throwing it all in a blender. Use a variety of fruit to make it sweet and colorful, then throw in some veggies like spinach, beets, or carrots to really increase the nutrient density, and if you want to top it off with some protein, add your favorite Sunwarrior protein as well!
Two big salads a day:
When eating out at a nice restaurant, a lot of people order salads to start the meal. Why not continue this practice at home? There’s nothing more nutrient dense than leafy green vegetables, and having a big salad before lunch and dinner will go a long way towards making you feel more satisfied and preventing over eating. Important Tip: skip the high fat dressings and go for a vinaigrette or fruit-juice based dressing to keep the calories low and the nutrition maximized.
Fruit or vegetables every time you eat:
Making sure to get produce in at two or three of your big meals is pretty easy, but what about all your snacks or meals on the go? If you make sure you include a fruit, vegetable, or both every time you eat even a snack, you will go a long way towards maximizing your daily intake of these foods, and this will again prevent you from overeating less nutritious fare.
The above tips may seem pretty common sense at first glance, but take a look at your own diet and see how many of them you’re doing every day. Odds are, it’s not all of them or all the time, so try to change that and see what impacts it has on the way you look and the way you feel. You can incorporate whichever varieties you like or make it a goal to try something new every week, but regardless of how you go about it, I can guarantee you won’t regret eating a more nutrient dense diet!
