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From Bethany: This was one of those podcasts that was really instrumental in helping me grasp the significance of making nutrient dense foods the foundation of our diet. At the same time, it helped me realize the need for supplementation for most people to offset the dangers of nutrient inadequacies stemming from our modern diet and lifestyle. After listening to this episode, I started taking Chris' Bio-Avail Multi supplement and noticed huge differences in my sleep and recovery, as well as overall energy levels...something I hadn't noticed from taking other types of multivitamins.
1-paragraph summary
The vast majority of people are getting inadequate amounts of many micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). One way to help remedy this is to make nutrient-dense foods the foundation of your diet. When evaluating the nutrient density of foods, it’s crucial to consider the bioavailability of the nutrients in that food. When considered in this light, the most nutrient dense foods available are organ meats, shellfish, and green leafy vegetables. On the whole, animal foods are better from a nutrient density perspective than fruits and vegetables!
Key takeaways
Which foods are the most nutrient dense?
When thinking about nutrient density, you have to think about not only how much of a nutrient a particular food has, but also how much your body actually absorbs (the concept of “bioavailability”).
Example: On paper, spinach looks like it has quite a bit of calcium. But in reality, you’re only going to absorb 5% of it, at most, because of compounds found in spinach (like oxalic acid).
There was a paper published in 2022 that ranked various foods based not only on nutrient content, but also corrected for bioavailability - making it likely the most accurate information on nutrient density that we currently have.
In this paper, the top 10 nutrient-dense foods are dominated by organ meats (i.e., liver and heart), beef and goat, shellfish, eggs, and dark leafy greens.
The paper evaluated various foods and assigned each food a number based on how much of that food you would need to eat to attain a certain level of essential nutrients. This means that the lower the number a food has, the better it is in terms of nutrient density.
The top nutrient dense food was liver - score of 11.
Dark leafy greens: 72.
Beef: 275 (still much more nutrient dense than the majority of fruits and vegetables, but not nearly as nutrient dense as liver).
Carrots/red peppers: 297.
Quinoa: 789.
Boneless, skinless chicken breast: 1,103
Whole grains: 1,768.
Even while recognizing the amazing value of foods like liver, realize that more is not necessarily better. For example, there is a serious danger of iron overload from consuming too much liver. You should view liver as a very powerful, almost medicinal food. 3-6 ounces per week is sufficient for most people to derive the benefits.
What are the most common nutrient inadequacies, and why are they so insidious?
Sub-clinical nutrient deficiencies are surprisingly common in our modern world. It can be hard to diagnose them, however, because the symptoms tend to be very nonspecific – general malaise, poor digestion, poor sleep, brain fog, etc.
Kresser: “Every single process that happens in the body requires micronutrients, like vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, and other compounds.”
Most people in our modern world are getting enough of most nutrients in order to stave off overt disease – they get enough to survive. But few people in our modern world get enough nutrients to actually enjoy optimal, vibrant health.
According to the Linus Pauling Institute, the vast majority (90+% of people) are chronically short on nutrients such as potassium, vitamin D, choline, and vitamin E. Kresser believes upwards of 90% of people are chronically deficient in magnesium as well.
Many factors come into play when thinking about why nutrient inadequacies are so common. Here are a few:
Declining soil quality, which leads to less nutritious plant foods (some people have ventured a guess that we’d need to eat 8 of today’s oranges to get the amount of nutrition that even our grandparents got from just a single orange)
Growing toxic burdens from the modern world (heavy metals, Glyphosate)
Shift from local agriculture to industrial agriculture (as soon as you take a plant out of the ground, nutrients start to degrade, and we’re shipping foods longer distances than ever)
Ubiquity of chronic diseases, which both impair nutrient absorption and increase nutrient needs
Nuances to consider
There are several factors that go into determining how much of a nutrient someone needs – age, gender, pregnancy status, health status, and body weight. If you’re heavier, your need for nutrients is going to be higher than someone who is lighter.
This is relevant to the RDA that has been established for each nutrient. In most cases, the RDA was established when the average body weight was much lower. This is one reason why the RDA may be set too low for most people.
Wolf: “It’s a…self-reinforcing cycle. Hyper-palatable, low nutrient-dense foods allow us to really easily overeat. We get to a higher body weight. It arguably increases our micronutrient need, which is then under-met and makes us feel bad and lethargic and low energy.”
We also need to understand nutrient synergy – the way certain nutrients work in tandem in our bodies. For example, magnesium requires vitamin D to be absorbed in the intestine. So even if you’re getting enough magnesium, you won’t be maximally absorbing it if you’re deficient in vitamin D.
Nutrient inadequacies and the carnivore diet
Kresser’s take on the carnivore diet is that it can be borderline miraculous for some people - usually people with severe autoimmunity or other immunological issues. By dramatically simplifying the diet and only eating meat, you’re giving your gut a rest to allow for healing (since meat is primarily digested in the small intestine) and essentially eating a fasting-mimicking diet. So with carnivore, you’re getting the benefits of fasting for longer. We also need to acknowledge that we simply don’t know what will happen long-term if someone eats this type of diet for years or decades. It may be that full-time carnivores are low in certain nutrients and the full effects won’t be apparent until much later in life.
Kresser: “I think there’s probably a similar phenomenon with carnivore [as with veganism], that for reasons that are both understood and not understood, some people are able to eat a limited diet and do pretty well even for an extended period, whereas other people after even just a few months on carnivore, it’s terrible for them.”
Kresser again: “...mild nutrient deficiencies that develop on a really limited diet aren’t enough to cause overt clinical symptoms right away, but still could potentially contribute long term to the aging process and diseases of aging.”
Optimizing nutrient status is what is known as a pleiotropic intervention – an intervention that has multiple benefits across many different body systems. It’s a foundational tenet of functional medicine.
Top Practical Applications
From Bethany: Podcasts like this can easily make you feel overwhelmed, like you're doing everything wrong and you'll never be able to reach this ideal of "optimal." Slow down and take a breath, and remember that "perfect is the enemy of good."
Then, just pick ONE highly nutrient-dense food you want to start incorporating more into your diet (maybe shellfish, or liver, or sardines, or green leafy vegetables, or red meat). Find a way to incorporate that food into just ONE meal in your upcoming week, and make that a habit. When that starts to feel easy, pick another food and repeat the process.
If you need help with this process, this is exactly what I do when coaching clients one-on-one. I help you evaluate your current diet and determine incremental changes you can start making today to move you towards a healthier, more nutrient-dense diet. I don't ask you to overhaul everything at once or prescribe a cookie-cutter meal plan. I take you where you're at and help you improve.
If you think you might be interested in one-on-one health coaching with me, book a free 15-minute call by clicking the button below:
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