This month on the Farmshed Blog, we’re going to be looking into nutrition. Nutrition is the study of how the food and the nutrients within the food affect your body. It’s important to remember as we delve into this topic that nutrition is a relatively new science. The first vitamin was discovered in 1929, less than 100 years ago. The discovery has done extraordinary things such as making nutrient deficiency diseases, like scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and anemia (iron deficiency), treatable and curable. However, we are still learning new things about the effects of different foods on different people. For example, some people can’t properly digest lactose but others can. One of the most conclusive discoveries is that there is no perfect diet for everyone. The best diet is the one that brings you personally the greatest health and pleasure. With that said, let’s dive into what we know about nutrition.
The science of nutrition breaks food down into its essential components, micronutrients and macronutrients. Micronutrients consist of vitamins and minerals. There are many known vitamins and minerals that our body needs and there may be more that we don’t know about yet. One of the most interesting parts of food science is that every whole food, like a beet, is packed with vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals (in plants) and fibers, that all interact with each other in unique ways. When we try to isolate just one part, like vitamin C, we may lose benefits that were caused by relationships and interactions that the vitamin C has with other nutrients within the beet. This is why taking a vitamin supplement will not give you the same benefits as eating a whole food. As you might imagine, such complex interactions within foods can make studying vitamins and minerals a tricky business.
As far as micronutrients go, most foods can be divided into two categories, nutrient dense or calorie dense. Nutrient dense foods are foods that contain a larger percentage of nutrients than calories: fruits, vegetables, eggs, lean meats, seafood, nuts, and other whole foods. Calorie dense foods are foods that have a low nutrient content compared to the amount of calories they provide. Most heavily processed foods, like chips, cookies and sodas fall into the calorie dense category. Many of these calorie dense foods may have isolated nutrients, like iron or folate, added back after the processing removes the undesirable, but most nutritious part of the food, like the germ of a wheat kernel that keeps flour from being white. Adding back the nutrients that were removed ensures the population doesn’t become nutrient deficient is a process called fortifying. It does the job of keeping us from being nutrient deficient, but it robs us of the benefits of the whole food.
Macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates. There have been a lot of misconceptions about each over the decades, but your body NEEDS all three. The average person needs 10-35% of daily calories from protein, 20-35% of daily calories from fat and 45-65% of daily calories from carbohydrates in a variety of forms to function optimally. Each macronutrient has a specific purpose in your body. Carbohydrates are your brain and muscle’s first choice of energy. Proteins and fats contain essential amino acids and fatty acids that you need to create new cells and absorb nutrients.
You probably noticed that each macronutrient recommendation has quite a wide range, and that’s because our body is pretty good at making due with whatever it’s fed. When you go on a low carb, or low fat, or high protein diet, your body will adapt and use a less efficient fuel system. Pretty much any food you put in your body can be used to keep it moving forward, and if you want it to work at it’s best, variety and balance are key components.
Graphic courtesy of Pinterest
How can you meet that variety and balance? Overall, the key to a healthy diet is best put by Michael Pollen in his book, In Defense of Food, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Let’s break that down:
“Eat food.” - “Food” refers to whole, unprocessed foods. If the food comes in dinosaur shapes or in vibrant boxes covered in cartoon characters, he considers that a ‘food-like product,’ not real food.
“Not too much.” - When you eat a diet of nutrient dense foods, you may find that you eat less food and consume less calories. The fibers, natural fats, proteins, and starches in nutrient dense foods make us feel fuller longer than the same components in a calorie dense food, because your body takes longer to digest them when they aren’t already partially broken down by processing.
“Mostly plants.” - Experts recommend eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Whether it’s fresh, frozen, or canned, a serving of fruits and vegetables is between ½ - 1 cup of produce depending on the density. For example, a serving of berries is ½ cup, while a serving of spinach is 1 cup. A cup of 100% juice is another great way to start your day with a serving of fruit. If you make most of the foods you eat plants, you will more easily get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Variety is important in a healthy diet. Variety allows us to meet all our essential micro and macronutrients. More realistically, eating a variety of foods keeps you from getting bored. Preparing your food in different ways and incorporating different textures into every meal keeps cooking interesting and eating exciting. Eating different things better ensures you're consuming the widest variety of nutrients to support your body. One guideline to practice this is by “eating the rainbow”. Fruits and vegetables come in a beautiful variety of colors, and if you make it a priority to eat every color of the rainbow each week, you’ll keep your taste buds and the rest of your body happy.
Image courtesy of Harvard Health
Still thinking that eating healthy sounds like a miserable, iceberg lettuce-filled existence? Fear not. Eating things you hate is not a requirement of a healthy diet. In fact, it’s the enemy of eating a healthy diet. If you can’t stand onions, or kale, or broccoli, don’t eat them. Eat bell peppers, carrots and spinach, or whatever you like instead. When we eat foods we genuinely enjoy, we actually absorb more nutrients from them. A study done in 1977 tested this by taking a group of Thai women and a group of Swedish women and giving them both a traditional Thai meal that the Thai women adored but the Swedish women did not. The Thai women absorbed nearly 50% more nutrients than the Swedish women. The same group of Thai women who had adored the dish before, absorbed 70% less iron when the same dish was presented in an unappetizing way. So experiment with your produce and your cooking to find recipes and plants that you love to enhance your diet and your life.
To recap all of that:
Nutrient dense > Calorie dense
Proteins, carbs, and fats are all essential nutrients
Less processed > More processed
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Eat the rainbow
Find the foods that make you happy AND healthy
These are the rules that have helped me create a healthy lifestyle for myself, but what works for you might be different, so explore, branch out and find what makes you feel great.
Stay curious,
Neena
Ready to start making changes to your lifestyle? The first step to any goal setting or behavior change is identifying what you want the results of your goal to be. In regards to diet and incorporating more fruits and vegetables, are you doing it to lose weight? To have more energy? To be healthier? Or because it’s what you think you’re supposed to do. The best goals are the ones with the strongest motivators behind them, and the strongest motivation comes from within. In our next post, we’re going to be diving into goal setting for meaningful change. See you there!
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