Nutrient Dense Food? ... What the heck is that?

In the next few minutes you are going to hear the story of nutrient dense foods and how this information can change your life.I think you are going to love the story of nutrient dense foods for several reasons.

1. It is interesting.

2. It will change the way you think about every bite of food you consume for the rest of your life....in a positive way.

3. It will help you become healthier, live longer and have more energy.

4. It will help you reach your weight goals...and much more!

OK, let's get started. The easiest way for me to explain what nutrient dense food is all about is to first talk about a food that we are all very familiar with, "bread."

Most of us eat bread on a regular basis. There are many, many varieties of bread, but for now I am only going to talk about 2 varieties....white bread, and whole wheat, (dark) bread.First, let me give you a little history on white bread. Do you know why white bread came into existence?In the days of our grandparents, farmers grew vegetables, grains, etc. on local farms and the harvest went straight from the fields to your grandparents’ dinner table. This was a time when local farms were the main source of food, when bread was baked fresh every day with fresh-harvested grains.

Milk came from cows who lived in natural, stress-free environments, and were not injected with hormones and antibiotics.As the population grew, farms become bigger and centralized. Distribution channels were set up so that farmers could sell their products to consumers hundreds of miles away.

But, there was a problem....a very big problem.Farmers began to notice that their nutritious bread was spoiling and growing moldy before the consumers even had a chance to buy it. The "shelf life" of the nutritious bread they were shipping was very low. They needed to increase the shelf life of their bread products.Enter "White Bread."White bread is bread made from wheat flour from which the bran and germ have been removed, in contrast to whole wheat bread made from whole wheat flour, in which these parts are retained and contribute a brownish color. In addition, this white flour is generally bleached using potassium bromate or chlorine dioxide gas to remove any slight yellow color and make its baking properties more predictable.

Most of the vitamins inherent in wheat are removed along with the germ or destroyed in the bleaching process.OK, so what does this have to do with the nutrient dense food story?I want you to think about the difference between a one ounce slice of bleached white bread and a one ounce slice of whole wheat bread.Which of these 2 kinds of breads do you think has a higher nutrient density?

You guessed it....the wheat bread which still has its germ and vitamins intact has more nutrients per ounce than the white bread.OK, so now let's take this formula and apply it to all the foods that we eat. What we want is to consume as much "nutrient dense" food as possible.

Why? The human body is an extremely complicated machine; it requires a wide variety of nutrients to maintain a constant state of health. But the simple truth is that the average American does not get the nourishment needed to maintain a healthy body free of disease. The reason is that they are consuming processed "nutrient poor" foods. They are getting calories but they are not getting quality nutrition.We can take the knowledge we gained from the story of "nutrient dense" foods and apply it to our lives for positive change.How do we do that?

It is actually very easy. Make it a habit to start thinking about the food that you consume on a daily basis. Think about the nutrient density of the food. If it is processed food it will likely have a poor nutrient density.

If it is an organically grown fresh vegetable it will likely have a high nutrient density. The idea is to eat more nutrient dense foods. Look for foods that are closest to their natural state such as fresh fruits and vegetables and other raw foods. Fresh foods have higher nutrient values than processed food.

Read the nutritional labels of the food you buy.

I am here to help you, help yourself, enjoy a Vibrant Life.

Best of Health,

Margie Garrison