By Roberta H. Anding MS, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital
Food companies often boast that their products are high in fiber or certain vitamins and minerals. Studies show that variety is key in a diet, but which foods should we focus on to get our recommended daily allowance of nutrients?
There are only minor differences in the nutritional quality of food depending on the production methods. Meanwhile, in modern times—and for the first time in human history due to globalization—we have access to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables year-round. It’s important to take advantage of that. You can find tomatoes, strawberries, and bananas—a variety of fruits and vegetables that will have a much greater impact on your overall nutrition than the mild differences between different food production methods.
Micronutrients
Vitamins are only part of the nutritional content of the food that we need to be concerned with, part of what we call the micronutrients. A subset of what we get from our food are the macronutrients, those parts of food from which we get calories or energy, and also structural components, the stuff that we build our bodies out of. There are some essential fatty acids and amino acids, but these are not technically vitamins. We need them in larger amounts, placing them in the macronutrient category.
Let’s discuss the three main types of macronutrients that we get in our diet: These include carbohydrates which are sugars and also starches, like bread or pasta; lipids, or fats and oils; and protein, which comes from meats as well as nuts and legumes.
Minerals
Food also contains, in addition to vitamins and the macronutrients, many minerals or “trace minerals” as they’re often called. These include calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, sodium, and potassium. These are also sometimes referred to as electrolytes. Electrolytes are simply minerals that exist in our bodies in their ionic form. For example, sodium with a positive charge is the electrolyte sodium, but, it is still considered a mineral that we get from our food.
This is a transcript from the video series Nutrition Made Clear. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Incidentally, you can overdose on minerals as you can on many of the vitamins. The most common mineral overdose is iron and is the most common childhood overdose of all. This is because children will often get iron from vitamins which they may think of as candy, not necessarily medicine. Adult males do not need to supplement iron at all; they recycle almost all of their iron. Therefore, the only people who need to supplement are those who are anemic or women who are menstruating because they need to replace the iron they lose each month.
Learn more about how to make sense of the barrage of nutritional information—and misinformation—surrounding you
Where to Find Vitamins in Food
How do we get all the things that I spoke about in our food? We can do this through optimal nutrition. There is general agreement in the scientific community that the best way to get good nutrition is through a well-balanced, varied diet. Variety is the key. You should avoid highly restrictive or narrow diets that are dependent on just a few different kinds of food. The USDA food pyramid goes over the rough proportions of different kinds of foods that would be contained in a healthy diet.
Here’s a basic overview. A healthy diet should contain and should emphasize these things: about two cups of fruit and two-and-a-half cups of vegetables per day. They don’t have to be measured out precisely, but a guideline to help you estimate that you’re getting enough of the different kinds of food you should be eating. When you do eat vegetables, you should try to pick from the different subgroups of vegetables. These include dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, legumes, starchy vegetables, and other vegetables.
Also, you should get three or more ounce-equivalents of whole-grain products per day with the rest of your carbohydrates coming from either enriched or whole-grain products. You should also have three cups per day of fat-free or low-fat milk or equivalent milk products. Of course, to round out your diet, you’re also going to be getting protein from lean meats as well as eggs, nuts, and legumes.
Learn more about the basic functions of the gastrointestinal tract
Superfoods
What about superfoods—some foods that are so nutritious that we can get great nutrition just from eating a small amount of them? The bottom line is that there is no food in a pill and there is no food that you can take in tiny amounts that will have a significant impact on your overall nutrition. Examples of some kinds of foods that are marketed as so-called superfoods include spirulina, essentially a pond algae. There’s also wheatgrass juice. The notion is that it contains special nutrients like chlorophyll and high doses of vitamins that can act as a superfood, however, it’s not very tasty. In reality, it has no more vitamins or nutritional content than common fruits and vegetables that are much tastier.
Super Juice
Tropical super juice, like açaí juice, claim to have all kinds of vitamins and nutrients. But, when you look at the data, it’s just another kind of fruit juice.
There’s also the latest fad: Tropical super juice, like açaí juice, for example. It’s claimed to have all kinds of vitamins and nutrients. But, again, when you actually look at the data, it’s just another kind of fruit juice.
What about natural vitamins? If you do supplement for whatever reason, should you look for natural vitamins instead of synthetic vitamins, based on the notion that they will be more effective or that they will have more of a healthful effect?
It turns out that ascorbic acid is ascorbic acid, for example. If you have synthetic vitamin C versus vitamin C that is derived from say a plant source, the chemical structure is identical. Therefore, the chemical properties are identical as well. The source doesn’t matter to the chemical properties of that molecule.
Learn more about the effects of caffeine and alcohol on the body’s hydration levels
Soil Depletion
One topic that comes up frequently among those who are concerned about the nutritional quality of our food is soil depletion. There are reports that perhaps due to modern agriculture, we are depleting our soil of necessary minerals, therefore, we’re losing those trace minerals from our diet. Most people who make this point or who are concerned about this will refer to a 1936 Congressional statement. It turns out that, when you look at it closely, this was an article that was written in Cosmopolitan magazine, a literary magazine. This was inserted into the Congressional Record by Senator Duncan Fletcher from Florida. But, that becomes a primary reference for those who argue that our soil is depleted. They say that if it was that depleted in 1936, it must be worse today.
Reports that our soils are depleted of minerals are often misinterpreted. It turns out that soil is actually frequently tested for its mineral content. Minerals are added to the farming process through the fertilization process of the soil. The plants need minerals to grow as well. Agricultural companies want to replete those minerals so that their yields will be maximal. That mineral content is in the food.
Frozen food is better than canned in terms of its nutritional content. Click To TweetFresh vs Frozen and More
Which different types of food are most nutritious depends on how it’s prepared and packaged. It is true that cooking decreases the nutrient content of food—not too much, but it is measurable. It is important to eat fresh fruits and vegetables to get maximal nutrition—or just lightly steam them. You should avoid thoroughly boiling food because that does leach out much of the vitamins and minerals.
What about frozen versus fresh and canned? Frozen food is better than canned in terms of its nutritional content. Frozen vegetables may be slightly better than fresh if they are picked at the peak of ripeness and frozen at that time—versus vegetables which are allowed to ripen in transport or the stores, for example.
What about organic food? The reviews of published evidence showing that there are only negligible differences in the nutritional quality between organic and non-organically grown food.
Armed with an understanding of the differences between the kinds of food we eat, nutritional content, what we need, and how we take it into our bodies, can help us to make better choices in optimizing our diets.
Learn more about the appropriate protein needs for an average adult
Common Questions About Optimizing Nutrition
To optimize your nutrient intake, you should incorporate a variety of foods into your diet and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.
To increase your nutrient absorption, you should combine foods high in Vitamin C with iron, eat healthy fats, and take probiotics, which will help improve your digestion, ensuring that you absorb beneficial nutrients.
The nutrient balance score enables you to create healthier meals more objectively by providing a circle graph along with a Completeness Score based on 23 essential nutrients.
Nutrient density is defined by the amount of nutrients in food in proportion to the calories. If you want to lose weight, you should eat foods such as whole vegetables, which are low in calories but still help you to feel nourished and satiated.
