What single food is the most nutritionally perfect?

I don't know! It's a good question. I'm sure the answer exists.

Edamame is the healthiest thing I eat.

AMRROL wrote: »

While no single food is nutritionally perfect, is there one single food that comes close to being the most nutritionally perfect? (ie has the best ratios of vitamins and macronutrients) Liver? Brown Rice? Legumes?

In my own diet, it's kale...and I juice it with some other fruits and veggies, then blend back in some of the pulp.
I detest veggies otherwise and just will not eat them. No matter what my mix is, kale is a staple. It's very nutritious and cheap.

Hmm, I don't think any one food is perfect. Is that even possible? Anyway, if I had to choose I would vote for cottage cheese with pineapple - the brand I use has 90cal, 10g carbs, 10g protein and 1g fat per 100g. The carbs are mostly sugar, but still, a good balance I reckon.

Pizza has all the macros.

I had a nutrition professor tell us to always guess "broccoli" if we're asked to name a food that is high in XYZ nutrients.

If supplements counted, I would say Soylent, but who would want to live off a liquid diet?

stevencloser wrote: »

AMRROL wrote: »

While no single food is nutritionally perfect, is there one single food that comes close to being the most nutritionally perfect? (ie has the best ratios of vitamins and macronutrients) Liver? Brown Rice? Legumes?

I tend to say "If you want to have the most nutrient dense food possible, you'd have to crush up multivitamin pills into your protein shake" whenever someone argues X is better than Y because it has more nutrients.

Don't look for a single perfect food; it doesn't exist and even if it did you wouldn't live happily if you tried to eat only that to meet your goals. Instead make your overall diet fit, with foods that are high in protein, others high in micros and so on, and at the end of the day you probably will have some room left to eat whatever the hell you want.

I agree with these.

I don't think any one food is going to be ideal, or particularly better than some other food. That's why all of the "would you be healthy only eating ___" arguments are ridiculous. Who thinks it's a good idea to only eat one thing.

Well, I guess that's what the Soylent efforts are about, but I'm not interested.

That said, if I had to pick something, I'd go with a pasta dish with whole wheat pasta, lots of vegetables, and lean meat, cooked with olive oil. Pretty balanced macros, allows for a range of vegetables and some additional fiber.

(You could achieve basically the same thing in a pizza too.)

My enjoyment of these foods would decline drastically if that were all I ate, though, and getting a variety of fat sources, vegetables, sources of fiber and protein, and also some things not represented, like fruit and legumes and fish would likely result in a better and healthier overall diet, though.

Avocado ⭐️ Poached eggs ⭐️ Pink Lady apples ⭐️

Hmm. I'd say it's between kale and seaweed. Kale because of the higher protein and other nutrients along with low-calorie according to research and reviews. And seaweed because of what I've learned from the Thai people at this buddhist temple I meditate at. Apparently seaweed is very popular in their home country and their country has a low obesity rate and less health issues. They cook seaweed dishes at the temple sometimes. Tasty!

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Sandwiches or pizza?

Bacon. Better yet, bacon on pizza.

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Pinnacle_IAO wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

Pinnacle_IAO wrote: »

AMRROL wrote: »

While no single food is nutritionally perfect, is there one single food that comes close to being the most nutritionally perfect? (ie has the best ratios of vitamins and macronutrients) Liver? Brown Rice? Legumes?

In my own diet, it's kale...and I juice it with some other fruits and veggies, then blend back in some of the pulp.
I detest veggies otherwise and just will not eat them. No matter what my mix is, kale is a staple. It's very nutritious and cheap.

How much protein does kale have?

Kale has tons of protein...when you chop it and serve it over salmon or include it in a smoothie with greek yogurt. .

Seriously, protein has never been my issue. I get that easily. Veggies are my challenge.

If you only ate kale you'd have a problem with protein. And more significantly, calories. I would have enough protein in 1500 calories, but I cannot imagine eating 1500 calories of kale, and I like kale. (I prefer spinach and collards and chard and from a nutritional perspective believe that eating a wide variety of greens and other veggies is likely best.)

Anyway, I never understand having issues with vegetables. I love vegetables, especially pan fried, roasted, or in a nice pasta sauce (which usually means pan fried in olive oil with some meat and tomatoes and ideally olives).

mhollencamp102012 wrote: »

Avocados ! (Kale is really good too but unless you drink it you have to use a lot of it)

Just avocado would give you 20 g of protein for 1600 calories, so no.