Nutrient density
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Nutrient density identifies the amount of beneficial
nutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...
in a food product in proportion to e.g.
energy content In physics, energy density is the amount of energy stored in a given system or region of space per unit volume. It is sometimes confused with energy per unit mass which is properly called specific energy or . Often only the ''useful'' or extrac ...
, weight or amount of perceived detrimental nutrients. Terms such as nutrient rich and micronutrient dense refer to similar properties. Several different national and international standards have been developed and are in use (see
Nutritional rating systems Nutritional rating systems are used to communicate the nutritional value of food in a more-simplified manner, with a ranking (or rating), than nutrition facts labels. A system may be targeted at a specific audience. Rating systems have been develop ...
).


Definition and usage

According to the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
,
nutrient profiling Nutrient profiling, also nutritional profiling, is the science of classifying or ranking foods by their nutritional composition in order to promote health and prevent disease. A common use of nutrient profiling is in the creation of nutritional ra ...
classifies and/or ranks foods by their nutritional composition in order to promote human (and/or animal) health and to prevent disease. Ranking by nutrient density is one such nutrient profiling strategy. Ordering foods by nutrient density is a statistical method of comparing foods by the proportion of nutrients in foods. Some such comparisons can be the
glycemic index The glycemic (glycaemic) index (GI; ) is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food, with pure glucose arbitrarily given the value of 100, which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food. The GI of ...
and the
overall nutritional quality index The overall nutritional quality index was a nutritional rating system developed at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in 2008. A proprietary algorithm assigned foods a score between 1 and 100 intended to reflect the overall nutritional val ...
. When the density is defined in proportion to energy contents, nutrient-dense foods such as
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
s and
vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...
s are the opposite of energy-dense food (also called "
empty calorie In human nutrition, empty calories are those calories found in beverages (including alcoholic) and foods composed primarily or solely of sugars and/or certain fats and oils such as cholesterol, Saturated fat, saturated or trans fats, that provide l ...
" food), such as
alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...
and foods high in added
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
or processed
cereals A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food en ...
. Beyond its use to distinguish different ''types'' of food from each other, nutrient density allows comparison to be made for different examples or samples of the same kind of food. Nutrient density is correlated with soil quality and mineralization levels of the soil, although the relationship is complex and incorporates other dimensions. The
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is a 501(c)(6) trade association in the United States. With over 112,000 members, the association claims to be the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. It has registered dietitian nutr ...
reported in 2013 that:
Several indicators of nutrient quality have been summarized by the Academy. The Nutrient Rich Food Index has been developed by a research coalition involving food and nutrition practitioners. This index uses nutrient profiles that have been validated against accepted measures of a healthy diet, such as the Healthy Eating Index created by the USDA.


International standards

The Nutrient Profiling Scoring Calculator (NPSC) in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
is a calculator for determining whether health claims can be made for a food by its reference to the Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion (NPSC). It is defined by the FSANZ Board, which operates under the FSANZ Act. The United Kingdom Ofcom nutrient profiling model provides "a single score for any given food product, based on calculating the number of points for ‘negative’ nutrients which can be offset by points for ‘positive’ nutrients." A 2007 UK-commissioned review of nutrient profiling models commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency identified over 40 different schemes.Rayner, M., Scarborough, P., Lobtein, P., The UK Ofcom Nutrient Profiling Model, October 2009, accessed 10/15/2014
/ref> The
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
reviews scientific and operational issues related to human nutrition, specifically when developing world populations are impacted.


Criticism

The following aspects of nutrient density measures have been criticized.


Measuring in proportion to energy content

If nutrient density is measured in proportion to the food's energy content: # By design, it premiers
micronutrients Micronutrients are nutrient, essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. Micronutrient requirements differ between organisms; for exam ...
over
macronutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...
, since most macronutrients contribute to
food energy Food energy is chemical energy that animals (including humans) derive from their food to sustain their metabolism, including their muscle, muscular activity. Most animals derive most of their energy from aerobic respiration, namely combining the ...
content (and thereby decrease the density measure). # A food product with excellent micronutrient content may get a very low nutrient density, if it also has significant energy content, even if that energy is provided by healthy macronutrients like
essential amino acids An essential amino acid, or indispensable amino acid, is an amino acid that cannot be synthesized from scratch by the organism fast enough to supply its demand, and must therefore come from the diet. Of the 21 amino acids common to all life form ...
,
unsaturated fats In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...
and slow
carbohydrates In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or may ...
. # A food product with very low energy content may get a very high density, even if its actual micronutrient content is low. # Focusing on low-energy food may create or trigger already existing
eating disorders An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that negatively affect a person's physical or mental health. Only one eating disorder can be diagnosed at a given time. Types of eating disorders include binge eating ...
.


Using a single measure for multiple nutrients

No natural food product contains all
essential nutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excre ...
and nutrient density will not tell you which ones are missing. So even a diet based on a lot of high-density products could still lack several essential nutrients.


Choice of nutrients included in the measure

# If all essential nutrient or micronutrients are included in the measure, it will remove focus from the nutrients that are most often lacking in people's diets. # If a selection of nutrients is made (e.g. based on how often they are lacking in people's diets), the selection will not be relevant to everyone, because some people lack completely different nutrients.


See also

*
Bioavailability In pharmacology, bioavailability is a subcategory of absorption and is the fraction (%) of an administered drug that reaches the systemic circulation. By definition, when a medication is administered intravenously, its bioavailability is 100%. H ...
*
Concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', an ...
, abundance of a constituent divided by total volume of mixture *
Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
*
Food composition Food composition data (FCD) are detailed sets of information on the nutritionally important components of foods and provide values for energy and nutrients including protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals and for other important food com ...
*
Glycemic index The glycemic (glycaemic) index (GI; ) is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food, with pure glucose arbitrarily given the value of 100, which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food. The GI of ...
*
List of micronutrients Micronutrients are nutrients such as vitamins and minerals required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. The following is a list of micronutrients. Minerals * ...
*
List of phytochemicals in food While there is ample evidence to indicate the health benefits of diets rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts, no specific food has been acknowledged by scientists and government regulatory authorities as providing a health bene ...
*
Macronutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...
,
chemical substances A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent Chemical element, elements by physical separation m ...
humans consume in largest quantities *
Nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...
*
Nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...
*
Nutritionism Nutritionism is a paradigm that assumes that it is the scientifically identified nutrients in foods that determine the value of individual food stuffs in the diet. In other words, it is the idea that the nutritional value of a food is the sum of ...
, reductionist theory that scientifically identified
nutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...
in foods determine value of individual foodstuffs in human
diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
, often leading to targeted supplementation rather than reliance on whole foods *
Overall nutritional quality index The overall nutritional quality index was a nutritional rating system developed at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in 2008. A proprietary algorithm assigned foods a score between 1 and 100 intended to reflect the overall nutritional val ...
*
Mineralization (soil science) Mineralization in soil science is the decomposition (i.e., oxidation) of the chemical compounds in organic matter, by which the nutrients in those compounds are released in soluble inorganic forms that may be available to plants. Mineralization ...


References


External References

* * * Cason, K. L., Clemson University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Nutrient Density (Consumer Judging—Junior/Senior). February 2005. * Dooley, D. A. Island Scene Online. Nutrient Density: An Idea Whose Time Has Finally Come. (Hawaii Medical Service Association), July 27, 2005. http://www.islandscene.com/Article.aspx?id=2641, accessed 10/15/2014. * * * * * *{{cite web , vauthors=Rayner M, Scarborough P, Boxer A, Stockley L , title=Annex II , date=December 2005 , work=Nutrient profiles: Development of final model , publisher=Food Standards Agency , location=London , url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20111207035647/http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/nutprofr.pdf * University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension. Nutrient Density: Optimize Your Intake! Nutrition Dietetics