Here is this week’s installment of Sunday SAGe, an email communication that shares wellness inspiration from The Wellness Ethic to help people thrive during the coming week and beyond.

Nutrient-Dense Foods & Your Health

An excerpt from The Wellness Ethic:

Eating nutrient-dense foods (high ratio of nutrients to calories) optimizes nutrition and reduces the risk of obesity (a win-win).

To bring more nutrient-dense foods into your diet, you can start by reading the nutritional labels of what you eat to understand the levels of vitamins and minerals and other nutrients you get for the calories consumed (if a nutrition label isn’t available, check online). That awareness alone can trigger your SAGe to nudge you to choose healthy foods that cover the gamut of your nutritional needs.

Another way to make nutrient density a part of your diet is to eat a “rainbow” of plants daily. Besides providing essential nutrition, plants also contain phytonutrients, which are compounds that give plants color and help protect them against pathogens and insects. Phytonutrients also benefit humans by reducing the risk of many diseases. Each color—red, orange and yellow, green, blue and purple, and white and brown—provides different health benefits.

What It Means

If you build healthy eating habits—what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat—you should get all the nutrition you need without going on a specialized diet or taking supplements. The operative word is if. Of course, there are always exceptions to that rule, such as being pregnant, having a nutritional deficiency, training for a sport, or having a medical condition.

Your Call to Action

When you go grocery shopping, have nutrient density be top of mind. Stock up with nutrient-dense food superstars like leafy greens, carrots, black beans, avocados, blueberries, garlic, eggs, broccoli, Greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, almonds, quinoa, chickpeas, bananas, tomatoes, soy products, apples, oranges, brown rice, bell peppers, and a host of others.

Have fun buying nutrient-dense foods and experimenting with recipes. If you find a nutrient-dense food unappetizing—no matter how you prepare it—simply drown it with hot sauce. A longitudinal scientific study conducted in my kitchen has shown that hot sauce makes everything taste better.

Have a nutritious week!

Nutrient-Dense Foods & Your Health