One of our new members Robin asked, what are the guidelines for weight loss, when you are eating in a nutrient rich way? Well the answer to this question reveals The Most Basic Way to Eat Nutrient Rich. Ironically, the way to drop the weight of the past, and ultimately the default way to eat Nutrient Rich are the same thing!
I’ve always found this answer to to be interesting and it reinforces why eating “nutrient rich” IS the way to lose weight naturally, because the guidelines merely outline the basic way to eat healthy! A person needing to lose 20 lbs or 100lbs eats basically the same way I do and vice versa if we’re committed to eating healthy.
This is a good question that get’s right at the heart of this eating style.
We call this The Most Basic Way to Eat Nutrient Rich.
There are countless ways to eat “healthy” but there is a basic way to eat healthy that is doable by everyone virtually all the time which is essential to know for this eating style to work.
Even though we have Simple Quick & Easy Recipes, the most basic way to eat nutrient rich is even simpler and is the default way to eat.
I learned this in association with the nutritional research of Dr.Fuhrman and have been practicing this for years.
-
1-2 lbs of leafy green and green and colored non starch vegetables each day. This is a big salad, and maybe a 12-16 oz of steamed greens like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach etc.
It also includes tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, eggplant, peppers…
The reason this is so important is because this eating style has vegetables at the base, as they are low in calories, highest in nutrients, and protein and can be eaten in high volume. You want 30-70% of your daily calories to be vegetables depending on several factors. It’s also how you lose weight.
Cost $3.50 – Two bags of mixed frozen greens from the supermarket.
1 cup or more, (the whole can’s worth) of Beans
-
The reason this is so important is that these protein and carbohydrate rich foods are higher in calories, and super nutrient rich as well, and are loaded with slow digestible and resistant starch – which rendered up to 50% of the calories in these foods undigested in the stomach. You get the nutrients, but don’t get the calories, and the fibers are digested in the gut as food for bacteria (probiotics) resulting in additional substances that aid further in weight loss.They are tasty, plentiful, cheap and people love them, and they go a long way.
.89 Cents – $1.80 two can’s of beans from whole foods.
-
2-6 fruits per day.
Low sugar fruits such as kiwis, green apples, oranges, and berries. and then all other fruits. Super high in phytochemicals, and nutrients, and sweet, the multiple ways of eating fruits with vegetable based meals, creates a sweet “sister act” and a dessert like feeling as well. As whole foods, processed into sorbets, ice creams, chunked on salads, in smoothies etc these are amazing and plentiful foods.$2.50 what’s your favorite?
-
1-2 oz of seeds and nuts or moreDepending on activity levels, these foods are essential to the most basic way to eat nutrient rich. They are high in sterols and stanols which lower cholesterol and omega 3 fats (walnuts, hemp seeds, chia seeds and flax seeds).
$1.00 Prorated based on size of bag.
What are Phytosterols?
Phytosterols (referred to as plant sterols and stanol esters) are a group of naturally occurring compounds found in plant cell membranes. Because phytosterols are structurally similar to the body’s cholesterol, when they are consumed they compete with cholesterol for absorption in the digestive system. As a result, cholesterol absorption is blocked, and blood cholesterol levels reduced.
They are approximately 180 calories per oz, so you want to eat these in small quantities unless you have high activity levels – exercise and training. Great way add more calories into your diet quickly, without a huge volume of foods and excellent to eat with greens as they help increase absorption of the carotenoids and other phytochemicals with their nutrient rich oil and fat content. Note: This does not happen with olive oil or other isolated oils even if from nuts).
Consider the fact that a woman can get buy with ease eating 1000-1200 nutrient rich calories, even if mildly active and you can see how quickly nuts can add up. So go easy on nuts. DO NOT SNACK ON NUTS.
-
Whole grains.
These are nutrient rich foods, but the least nutrient rich of all the foods, and the highest in starch. For carbohydrate sensitive people (people who gain weight easily), they should be eaten in low quantities and added to salads or as a side dish, never the main dish (which should be the leafy and green vegetable based salad meal)A cup is fine, and stick to wild rice, black rice and quinoa (intact grains, not processed).Starch Potato’s are a close sister to these foods, and the least nutrient rich, so only eat them once in a while and not on a daily basis, stick with yams, winter squashes, spaghetti squashes etc, which can be eaten daily.
.50 cents
That’s $9.30
-
Small amounts of animal products like white chicken or fish. Less than 10% of total calories and no more than 12 oz per week or so. These are calorie rich, nutrient poor foods, that promote rapid growth, raise IGF-1 (growth hormone) and age us faster. They can be used as small additions, condiments or for an added an familiar flavor.See Failure to Thrive – the nutritional adequacy of 100% plant based diets, an article that I had written with Michael Klaper MD. one of the longest practicing vegan doctors alive today. Even he speaks of why a small amount of animal products may be needed for people, since we are not natural vegans, and get’s into why some people do not do well on 100% plant based diets and provides recommendations. He also endorses the 90% or More Plant Based Nutrient Rich approach.
-
Refined foods, less than 10% of total dietary intake. They share the same 10% as animal products. So, if you were to eat 1000 calories or day only 200 could be both animal products and refined foods “combined”. This is because we are trying to limit nutrient poor and in this case nutrient barren calories from the diet.You can’t build a nutrient rich body that is fully nourished, detoxified and free of toxic hunger cravings, stable and strong eating comfortably more or less food than you have in the past, and healthy beyond most people’s current imagination IF you are eating more than 10% of your calories from animal products and refined foods.
References:
See The 3 Classes of Foods. Read the definitions of each class and burn those definitions into your head ok?
See Failure to Thrive – the nutritional adequacy of 100% plant based diets, an article that I had written with Michael Klaper MD.
See 90% or More Plant-Based Nutrient Rich® – Achieve the 7 Success Results of Healthy Eating – Guide