The Guide

Nutrient Density + Nutrient Diversity = Optimal Nutrition + Vitality “The greatest health challenge we face today is finding a way to increase levels of nutrients in our diet and broaden the variety of foods we eat each day - without increasing our calorie intake!” says Dr. Fred Hooper of the GNLD Scientific Advisory Board. The ultimate goal of the diet is to provide an abundance and a wide variety of nutrients - that is, nutrient density and nutrient diversity. Diets without both can compromise vitality now and health later. Nutrient Density Ideally, our foods would be low in calories but high in nutrients. In reality, however, we get too many calories and too few nutrients. When we eat a food such as French fries, for example, we remove the nutrient-rich potato peel, leaving an almost pure-starch mass which is cut, fried, and salted. Such processed foods are nutrient-poor and calorie-rich, and they rarely provide the nutrient density of their whole-food parents. Nutrient Diversity Th

Do you eat to live or live to eat? “You are what you eat” is more that just a catchy phrase your mother used to get you to eat right. It's a profound truth. From the Stone Age to the Industrial Age, people have recognized the healthful properties of certain foods. And now, in the Information Age, the importance of nutrition is so well recognized and supported by scientific evidence that virtually every major public health organization in the world makes dietary recommendations. The link between good nutrition and disease prevention is similarly strong. In the United States, for example, the American Cancer Society estimates that 35% of cancers that are not genetically predetermined can be prevented simply by eating right! “We must shift our national focus from avoiding nutritional deficiencies to understanding the preventive miracles proper nutrition offers,” wrote Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, in her book A New Prescription for Wom