Where to Start with Nutrition?
It’s easy to become overwhelmed when choosing food for yourself or your family. We have a wealth of information (and misinformation) at our fingertips. Grocery stores now carry more types of foods than ever before, and their labels advertise their supposed health benefits.
I am a dietitian with a graduate degree in nutrition and over 15 years of experience counseling adults and children, and I get stuck!
Answering questions from my patients, friends, and family actually helps me reorient my mind to the bigger picture and purpose of nutrition and food.
In this article, I will outline the progressive hierarchy of nutrition needs. You will learn to look at the big picture and then filter nutrition information (including the anti-inflammatory diet) into a simple nutrition funnel I created to determine whether it is relevant to your situation (or perhaps better suited for a different season of life).
Hierarchy of Nutrition Needs
You may have heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which states that people need their basic needs (such as food, shelter, or rest) before their higher needs (such as relationships, esteem, and self-actualization) can be met.
As we grow and master each level of the pyramid, we can develop at the next level. Some people can work on different levels simultaneously, as portrayed by an updated graph of the hierarchy of needs. In certain seasons, you may have less capacity to grow and develop. For myself, I wasn’t able to focus on much besides the basics during post-partum and post-surgery healing.
One of my go-to nutrition resources from a registered dietitian, Ellyn Satter, shares the Hierarchy of Food Needs, which explains the need for access to adequate amounts of food before focusing on high-level food choices like whether to consume butter or olive oil, organic or non-GMO food, sugar substitutes, and food dyes.
I propose the following nutrition funnel I created to help you prioritize big-picture nutrition topics first and then progress to certain foods or preferences as you have the capacity.
Simple as ABC Nutrition Funnel
When you start making nutrition and lifestyle changes, focusing on the actions that will make the biggest impact and are possible for you is critical.
For example, choosing whether to eat butter, coconut, or olive oil is less impactful than developing a realistic plan to eat fruits and vegetables daily.
Finding a way to eat fruits and vegetables consistently at each meal will significantly impact your overall health and diet compared to the likely small amount of type of daily fat consumed.
Start with “Adequacy” and progress to “Balance” and “Certain” as you incorporate daily habits, showing you have mastered that part of the funnel. Use the questions in each funnel section to help guide your choices.
If a nutrition question or topic emerges, filter it through this funnel to prioritize whether this is a reasonable time to make those changes.
Adequacy
Start by fueling your body with enough food (or energy). When your body consistently experiences a deficit, whether from dieting or a lack of finances, it is uniquely designed to protect itself from starvation.
In response to inadequate intake, your metabolism slows to conserve energy and direct that energy to the brain to function.
Your body may neglect less pertinent areas like maintaining healthy skin and nails, or you may feel colder, have slowed digestion, suffer from constipation, and experience reduced essential hormone development.
Additionally, eating frequently enough throughout the day helps maintain mood and energy levels, prevents mindless eating or overeating, and regulates blood sugar and insulin levels.
Most children and adults must eat two to three meals and one to three snacks daily to meet their nutrient needs. This often requires eating every two to five hours during their awake hours. Skipping meals can reduce the quality of one’s diet and lead to feelings of hunger and overeating later in the day.
Questions to Consider When Addressing Adequacy:
- Am I eating enough food and calories to fuel my body to function well?
- Am I tired often, have cold hands, or have altered digestion with reduced intake?
- Am I eating frequently enough (every 2 to 5 hours) throughout the day?
- Do I feel satisfied or full after eating meals or snacks?
- Do I have feelings of extreme hunger, low energy, or altered mood at certain times of the day?
- Do I find myself eating more than usual when I have skipped meals earlier in the day?
- Do I have financial difficulties that prevent adequate food intake?
Balance
After consistently providing your body with adequate nutrition and food, you can start to work on improving your balance of macronutrients and a variety of food groups.
Food provides energy through three macronutrients – carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Your body needs the target ranges of each macronutrient for optimal health, disease prevention, and sustained energy.
Minor increases or decreases in each macronutrient type can facilitate health outcomes. For example, increasing protein can increase fullness, safe weight loss, and muscle building. For others, eating at the lower range of carbohydrates can help reduce elevated blood sugar levels.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends the following ranges for macronutrients:
- Carbohydrate intake ranges from 45 to 65% of total daily calories
- Protein intake ranges from 10 to 35% of total daily calories
- Fat intake ranges from 20 to 35% of total daily calories
Consuming a variety of food groups can help you meet your macronutrient and micronutrient needs. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals your body needs in “micro” or small amounts.
Eating several types of vegetables in one week will supply your body with different vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, and vitamin K.
Ideally, you should eat a mixture of different vegetables, fruits, grains, protein, fats, and dairy to meet your micronutrient and fiber needs. The more variety in your diet, the better! My meal planning visual helps you plan balanced meals with various foods.
Questions to Consider When Addressing Balance:
- Am I eating balanced macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat)?
- Is my plate ¼ protein, ¼ carbohydrate, and ½ vegetables with a few tablespoons of fat?
- Do I consume a variety of vegetables, fruit, grains, protein foods, fats, and dairy to meet my vitamin, mineral, and fiber needs?
- Am I excluding any food group completely?
- Do I eat the same couple of meals or foods on repeat for months at a time?
Certain
Now that you’ve reached the “C” of the nutrition funnel, you can focus on individual (or specific) nutrition needs and foods with their nutrient benefits. First, focus on adequate intake, balance, and variety before moving to certain needs and foods.
Certain needs and foods are often the first things you hear about on social media or in food product marketing.
Some examples include using cottage cheese in many food dishes, whether to use sugar or alternative sweeteners, and whether to use food dyes. While these are significant decisions, they play a smaller role in your overall intake and diet.
Individual food and needs can be highly beneficial. If you find you are iron-deficient, incorporating iron-rich foods into your meals and pairing them with vitamin C-rich foods can enhance your ability to absorb iron.
If you need to follow a gluten-free diet, knowing what foods are naturally gluten-free and provide comparable nutrients can ensure you meet your macronutrient and micronutrient needs.
As you decide about your eating, ensure you have the basics of eating enough, then balanced meals with variety, before diving into certain nutrition needs or foods. You may need expert help from a registered dietitian when addressing certain needs or foods.
Questions to Consider When Addressing Certain Foods or Needs:
- Am I eating enough with a balanced diet and various food groups?
- Do I have the capacity to focus on these higher-level foods or needs?
- Does incorporating certain foods (like oats, probiotic-rich kefir, or broccoli) help improve my health or meet particular nutrient needs?
- Do I have preferences (like choosing organic, non-GMO, grass-fed, vegetarian, or avoiding sugar substitutes or food dyes), and am I willing to make these changes?
- Do I keep the whole picture of nutrition in mind as I add certain individual foods or address specific nutrition needs?
This ABC Nutrition Funnel can help simplify nutrition into what matters most and what you have the capacity for at certain seasons of life.
How the Anti-Inflammatory Diet Fits
You may wonder how the anti-inflammatory diet fits into the ABC Nutrition Funnel.
An anti-inflammatory diet could be considered after ensuring your diet is adequate (or eating enough). It is not a first decision if you are struggling with eating enough.
The anti-inflammatory diet provides a balance of macronutrients and micronutrients, prioritizing consuming a variety of foods from all food groups. It also highlights certain foods and needs of individuals who have inflammation or are trying to prevent inflammation from health conditions.
The perk is that you can implement this eating style as it benefits everyone. Research repeatedly shows that these foods reduce whole-body inflammation and help prevent type 2 diabetes and heart disease, as well as the side effects of numerous health conditions.
An anti-inflammatory diet focuses on eating:
- large amounts of vegetables and fruit
- foods with healthy fats (omega-3 fats and unsaturated fats) like nuts, fish, and olive oil
- lean protein or meat options like chicken, poultry, and fish
- whole grains
- foods containing vitamins C and E and flavonoids (anti-inflammatory substances)
An anti-inflammatory diet is not a strict diet but a way of eating with general guidelines that help promote health and prevent disease. It can be used concurrently with other diets, such as gluten-free, vegetarian, or organic.
Takeaways
Focus on each section of the ABC Nutrition Funnel, and as you become competent with each, you can progress to the following section and more detailed nutrition needs.
Ensure your eating is adequate for your body to function well. Next, prioritize balance and variety. Last, focus on certain nutrition needs or foods and their ability to improve your health.
The anti-inflammatory diet can enter as you strive for balance and variety and later address certain nutrition needs or individual foods with health benefits.
If you become overwhelmed with a new food or nutrition question, consider where you are in your journey of making nutrition changes. If you consistently eat an adequate diet with balance and variety, this might be a good time to dive in to see if it could benefit you.
Suppose you are struggling with making time to eat each day or regularly incorporating vegetables daily. In that case, it may be a nutrition topic you should set aside for a future time in your life.
You only have so much mental energy and time to make changes. Make the nutrition and health choices that impact your life the most.
Eating enough is the priority, then choosing a diet like the anti-inflammatory diet that promotes balance and variety, and finally, focusing on certain nutrition needs or foods after that.
Read more about how anti-inflammatory diets can help reduce inflammation and benefit people of all ages and health conditions.
Or check out ways to make a bigger impact on your whole diet and health with a simple meal planning tool that encourages adequacy and balance. You can learn more about certain anti-inflammatory foods (oatmeal), drinks (coffee), or my Printable PDF Anti-Inflammatory Diet Food Lists.
Let’s get UNstuck and stay UNstuck!