Nutrient Dense Foods

Nutrient-Dense Foods

Lastly, a new focus in nutrition has been on advocating the consumption of nutrient-dense foods. Nutrient-dense food can be defined as food that provides substantial amounts of vitamins and minerals and relatively fewer calories.  Examples of nutrient-dense food includes whole-grain breads, rice, beans, vegetables and fruit.

On the opposite spectrum, "empty calories" are foods that are low-nutrient, energy-dense foods, including sugar-sweetened beverages.  Examples of these types of food are candy bars, donuts, cookies and chips.

The theory is that if people consume more nutrient-dense foods, they will be able to meet their nutritional needs without consuming too many calories.  This may be a way to help fight the obesity epidemic in the United States and to assure that patients are getting the optimal benefits from the food they eat.

Conclusion

Our patients look to us for far more than acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine when they are sick.  They look to us to guide them on how to be healthy, and nutrition is paramount in the quest for living disease-free.  With the tools learned in this course, you can now calculate the daily caloric needs of your patients and guide them to make healthier food choices.