Nutrient Dense Foods: The Best Deal in Town

When the weather changes my brain gets stuck on shopping.

Shopping.

Shopping.

Shopping.

It's like I'm a CD that has a nasty scratch in it and I can't move past it.  I have a full closet of clothes that have waited for me since last winter, but ineveitably I get the itch to find something new.

So, since I have shopping on the brain, I can't help but use it in an anology:

Who loves a good sale? How about a great sale?

Let's say you found a store where you could score a pair of name brand clothes and shoes that are 75% off ALL THE TIME.  The clothes always fit you, you were always in style, they always had what you needed, and you never went over the shopping budget.  This would probably become your home away from home and you would start buying all your clothes and shoes exclusively from this place.   The deals would be too sweet to walk away from.

Everything your heart desires for waaaayyyy less money.

Sound too good to be true?  It is.  To my sadness, no where like that exists.  Not even Marshalls and TJ Maxx are that good.

However, back to the analogy.  Nutrient dense foods are the just like that imaginary store:  they give your everything your body needs for less.  Less calories, that is.

These are foods that give your body the most bang for your buck. They have the good stuff your body needs: 

 vitamins, 

minerals, 

essential fatty acids, 

protein,

fiber.

The sweet part of the deal is nutrient dense foods provides all this awesomeness with relatively lower amounts of calories.  

In a nutshell:  

THEY ARE THE ROCKSTARS OF THE FOOD WORLD 

AND 

WE SHOULD EAT THEM.

Why does this matter?

And all those vitamins and minerals are like a deep tissue massage for the basic functions your body performs.

And, as if that weren't enough, choosing foods that are high in nutrients and lower in calories will help us maintain and lose weight.  This happens because we stay fuller longer with nutrient dense foods.  

A comparison:  

In one corner of the ring we have Lucky Charms.

In the other Kashi GoLean.  

At only 142 calories and only 1 measly gram of fat, Lucky Charms isn't doing too bad, right?  Let's keep looking.  

There are only 2g of dietary fiber, and 2g of protein.  And a whopping 14g of sugar.  Now not looking so great.

Let's turn our attention over to GoLean Kashi Cereal.  For a 1 cup serving it is 148 calories and 1g of fat-- again, not bad.  Dietary fiber is 10g, protein is an impressive 14g and sugars are much lower at 6g.  Basically, GoLean is champion as far as cereals go.  It not only is a reasonable amount of calories, but offers so much more to your body as far as filling fiber, powerful proteins and low sugars.

** I just checked out the sodium -- whoa!  238 mg vs. 86 mg.  Another punch for the GoLean Kashi!

Here are some nutrient dense

A-listers:

all vegetables

all fruits

100% whole grain products

eggs

beans

legumes

nuts 

seeds

lean meats

low-fat cheeses

low-fat dairy products

An entire list of nutrient dense foods would fill a very large book.

Wow, we have a lot of eating to do, gals.

I'm not complaining :)

**Disclosure:  This post was not sponsored in any way by Kashi Cereal.  It was just the easiest thing I could think of to make a comparison.  I really do love it, though :)


Hey Fit Mommas, what are your favorite nutrient dense foods?  Comment below and tell us WHAT WORKS!

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