Has anyone looked up all the vitamins and minerals we need from food and...

[samy23]

Has anyone looked up all the vitamins and minerals we need from food, and then made a list of the best food sources to get those vitamins and minerals from?

I'm thinking of doing this, then chosing the food sources which everyone in my family likes, and include them into either breakfast, lunch, dinners or snacks on a daily basis to make sure we are getting all the vitamins and minerals we should be.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone already done it? -I'm hoping the list of foods I end up with isn't too big, maybe maximum 10, and hopefully foods that are easy to include with all kinds of different meals/snacks.

It just seems like a good idea to me, because then I won't have to worry about whether we are getting good sources of vitamins/minerals, I'll know we are, andon a daily basis too. Thinking "eat a balanced diet and you should get everything you need" or something similar...just isn't good enough imo.

[ursusarctos]

Check out www.whfoods.com. It has lists of both essential nutrients (with article about the nutrient and then best sources) and a list of about 100 "healthiest foods" that includes most fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, some meat, with an article about each food and a detailed nutritional profile.

I found this website extremely helpful on my journey to a better diet and I still consult it when I'm curious about something. I think you will find after a while that if you eat real, unprocessed food 95% of the time you won't feel the need for the nutritional info after a while

[MyLittleWarrior]

Also check out nutritiondata.com You can imput your food choices and it has a really detailed breakdown of the nutrition information. Also you can search foods that are high in specific nutrients.

[rayo de sol]

I've looked up the most nutrient-dense foods in the past.

I was surprised to learn that grains are practically useless from a nutritional standpoint--meaning that there are so many more nutrient-dense foods, none of them grains.

I learned that liver is an amazing food--great source of vitamin A, folate, iron, and B vitamins. I strive to eat more liver and other organ meats like heart, a good source of inositol.

Also, homemade broths (from boiling bones) are very, very nutritious. I've read that traditionally in Asian countries they drink broth with every meal.

Seafood is very high in nutrients.

Red meat is very important for iron.

Eggs and dairy products are very high in nutrients.

Almonds and sunflower seeds are good sources of vitamin E.

And of course, fruits and vegetables have a lot of important nutrients.

I like the whfoods site too, but it seems a bit biased in favor of eating vegetarian.

[ursusarctos]

You're right rayo de sol, whfoods is veggie biased, and also biased in the (imo) wrong direction with meat and fat: the list doesn't include organ/fatty meats or full fat dairy at all, for example. Mostly I use it to check the nutrition content of veggies or legumes though so I just ignore that part. And I think the nutrient profiles do include organ meats, etc. in their "best sources of nutrient x" charts.

I would disagree about grains being useless though. True, they are not the most nutrient-dense food compared to something like liver but properly prepared (soaked/sprouted/fermented) whole grains are still very nutritious and provide fiber, protein, energy, antioxidants, b vitamins, and many minerals. And since grains are generally eaten in larger amounts than very rich nutrient dense foods the more dispersed nutrients add up. Of course, grains obviously aren't necessary in a diet and for some people are actually detrimental, but they are far from useless.

[rayo de sol]

Originally Posted by ursusarctos

Of course, grains obviously aren't necessary in a diet and for some people are actually detrimental, but they are far from useless.

I guess "useless" might have been too strong a word to use. I think we agree. I just meant that if your goal is to eat The Most Nutrient-Dense Foods, grains really aren't at the top of the list. They're at the bottom.

I was thinking of the US government's food pyramid and how they say we should get more servings of cereal grains than any other category of food. That's a bizarre (and a probably corporate-influenced) recommendation seeing as grains (especially the processed breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals that pass as "grains" most of the time) have less nutrients than any other whole food.

[samy23]

Originally Posted by rayo de sol

I guess "useless" might have been too strong a word to use. I think we agree. I just meant that if your goal is to eat The Most Nutrient-Dense Foods, grains really aren't at the top of the list. They're at the bottom.

Are oats a grain? I know they contain some good nutrients.

And about the bone broth, we don't really eat much soup, so could I just get those same nutrients if I were to put the bones in a casserole/stew instead? Seems like the same thing. I do worry we don't get enough calcium, and im thinking the bones would give that?

[Teenytoona]

This is the one post I keep referring back to when trying to get my nutrients via food sorted out. WuWei is quite a wealth of information on whole food sources of nutrients.

[Teenytoona]

Originally Posted by samy23

Are oats a grain? I know they contain some good nutrients.

And about the bone broth, we don't really eat much soup, so could I just get those same nutrients if I were to put the bones in a casserole/stew instead? Seems like the same thing. I do worry we don't get enough calcium, and im thinking the bones would give that?

Yeap, oats are grains.

You can use bone broth to make rice, or any other grain, if you're not much into soups. Bone broth is great for calcium and I believe several other minerals too. You can also make sauces of bone broth.

Also I've been working on incorporating infusions into my daily diet. The kids don't like it, so I sneak it into things like sauces, or soups.