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The first two principles in my nutrition philosophy have mostly to do with what type of foods we’re choosing. Unlike other coaches, I’m not usually going to give you a list of approved and un-approved foods. This is "dieting for adults," remember? So what I am going to do is give you some simple criteria for determining for yourself what foods should be making up the majority of your diet.
First, we’re targeting protein-rich foods (ideally from animal sources - foods like meat, fish, eggs, and high-quality dairy products).
Here's the second principle:
Target micronutrients with your food choices.
Nutrient density vs. caloric density
One of the keys to making good food choices is understanding the difference between nutrient-dense foods and calorie-dense foods, and then understanding in what situations each type of food might be appropriate. Let’s explore these two ends of the spectrum.
What is nutrient density?
The term "nutrient density" refers to the concentration of micronutrients found in a given amount of food.
Micronutrients, by the way, are compounds needed by our bodies in small amounts. They include vitamins, minerals, and other compounds found in both plant and animal foods (i.e., omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, and creatine).
Foods that are nutrient-dense have a naturally high concentration of vitamins and minerals, usually without a big influx of calories. If you think of calories as currency, nutrient dense foods give you a ton of value in exchange for not much money. Nutrient dense foods give you the biggest "bang for your buck."
What is caloric density?
By contrast, foods that are calorie-dense have a high concentration of calories in a given amount of that food, and usually don't give you much in the way of necessary nutrition (like micronutrients or protein). These types of foods give you a lot of “bang for your buck” in terms of calories — which could be a good or bad thing depending on the situation. For example, if you’re on a multi-day hike where you're expending a lot of energy and can't carry a lot of food in terms of volume, calorie-dense foods may be a good choice for you because you don’t need much of them to provide a bolus of energy.
However, these types of situations tend to be the exception in modern life. If you live the typical Western lifestyle where you’re sedentary for most of the day (even if you exercise regularly!) or if you’re overweight, calorie-dense foods are not your friend. What you need instead is an appropriate amount of calories and a lot of nutrition (protein and micronutrients).
Please note that foods exist on a spectrum - foods can tend to be more nutrient-dense or more calorie-dense, but most foods are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Dark leafy greens are an example of a food that provide a big bolus of nutrients with barely any calories, while oil or flour are on the other end of the spectrum, providing pure energy without providing much (if any) real nutrition.
If you're interested in learning more about this concept, check out The P:E Diet by Ted Naiman.
The worst type of food to make the cornerstone of a diet
The perfect storm arises when we have foods that are BOTH devoid of much nutrition, AND very dense in calories. If you’ve ever heard the term “empty calories,” this is what we’re talking about — a huge influx of (most likely unnecessary) energy, without any of the good stuff that your body is actually craving (protein and micronutrients).
So what kind of foods am I talking about here? Here are some examples of foods (note that all of them have oil, flour, and/or sugar as their base ingredients, and all of them also happen to be delicious):
Baked goods
Sugary drinks
Cakes and candies
Pizza
These are just a few examples. Please understand - I’m not saying that you can never eat these foods again if you care about your health. What I’m saying is that these foods should never make up the cornerstone of your diet. If they do, you'll find yourself with a surplus of energy and a depletion of nutrition, which will eventually manifest as obesity and metabolic disease.
So what foods should be the cornerstone of your diet?
The best foods to make the cornerstone of your diet
One of the principles of building a healthy diet is learning which foods you have available to you that are the most nutrient dense, and making those foods the focal point of your diet. This is a much better strategy than making nutrient-poor foods the foundation of your diet and then taking a multivitamin in an attempt to put a band-aid on your chronically poor nutrition.
Here’s the rule of thumb: if you choose mostly whole, minimally-processed foods, you’re going to get the most bang for your buck from a nutritional standpoint. Here are the foods I’m talking about:
Meat and organ meats
Organ meats are especially nutrient dense! See my summary of Robb Wolf's podcast with Chris Kresser here.
Seafood (fish, shellfish, crustaceans, etc.)
Like organ meats, shellfish are one of the most nutrient-dense choices you could possibly make.
Eggs
Dairy (if tolerated)
Vegetables
Herbs and spices
Fruit
Nuts and seeds (if tolerated)
Incidentally, these foods also tend to be the types of foods that the human species has thrived on throughout its existence - this is not a coincidence!
My advice is to make sure that 80% or more of your food choices are these types of foods — foods that are as close to their whole, natural, unprocessed form as possible. Assuming you get a decent variety, and especially if you make nutrient powerhouses like liver and shellfish a staple of your diet, you should be pretty well-covered from a nutritional standpoint.
For most people who are reasonably healthy, this foundation of nutrient-density should provide you with some flexibility in your diet to include some "fun" foods every now and then. You will most likely find, however, that once you start focusing on protein and nutrient-density, your craving for those hyper-sweet, hyper-palatable foods starts to diminish significantly.
Where to go from here
As I mentioned earlier, simply tweaking your diet in the direction of protein and nutrient-density may be all that you need to get the majority of health benefits that you could get from a healthy diet. You may very well find that with this approach, you're able to maintain a healthy body weight and stable energy without much extra effort. If that's you, then congratulations - you've achieved the goal of robust health without ever needing to count a single calorie.
However, it's also possible that you'll need an extra level of attention before you get where you want to be. There are some situations where a focus on protein and whole foods isn't quite enough to get you to your goals, especially if you're significantly overweight or dealing with a chronic health condition.
To continue building the foundation of a healthy, sustainable diet, we’re going to need to take a closer look at calories. Click the button below to go to the next article in the series.
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