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Lecture Notes

So we're going to switch gears here. In the final few slides we'll talk about concepts that are important for planning a nutritious diet. And the first of these is your nutrient-calorie benefit ratio. And simply what we mean here is the amount of nutrient per energy unit or per calorie, so how many nutrients are your getting per calorie. And ideally, we want nutrient-dense foods, meaning you want the most nutrients with the fewest amount of calories. So you want a lot of bang for your buck here, if you will. A lot of nutrients for as few calories as possible.

So, for example, if we compared two foods, let's compare green leafy vegetables on one hand that have lots of vitamins and minerals in them, compared to a candy bar. The green leafy vegetables are going to have tons of nutrients and very few calories, compared to the candy bar that's going to have very few nutrients and high calories. So you're green leafy vegetables, in this case, would have a much higher nutrient-calorie benefit ratio.