Almost every single diet, nutrition program, or magical medicine has a couple of things in common with
each other: they all require a restriction of some sorts and they all concentrate on the bad nutrients:
fat, carbohydrates, and protein (ironically, the three components of total calories). However, as is often the case
when you only concentrate on one side of a problem, these diets often restrict many healthy and nutritious foods
in the process.
In the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the USDA proclaimed, "the American diet is increasingly energy-rich
but nutrient-poor." Simply put, we are eating to many foods that are high in calories yet low in vitamins & minerals
(think candy bars, soda-pop, fast-foods, frozen entrees, lunchmeat, chips, etc.) rather than the opposite (fresh
fruits & vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, fresh meat and poultry, etc.) Even the name brand dieting programs
are at fault. Granted, they're foods are low in calories but they are also low in healthful nutrients as well.
Either way you look at it, we just are not getting enough of the nutrients that our body craves. This deficiency has
caused all sorts of problems: increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and possibly even cancer (still under
investigation).
Great, so I should eat like a rabbit?!?
No, not necessarily! Granted, the foods which score above 300 points are typically vegetables, but variety is the spice of
life and you can use the FNR across the full spectrum of foods. The point of the FNR is not to say, "thou must only eat foods
with a 300+ score", but to provide you with a tool to quickly and easily find which foods are more nutritious without having to
examine the label and ingredients.
This is bogous! Bananas only scored 18!!!
Ahh, you must be thinking of that infamous sticker placed on Chiquita bananas that said something to the effect of "Quite possibly
the world's perfect food." That's what's known as brand advertising and it obviously had its effect! But, contrary to
what the person selling bananas would like you to think, bananas aren't perfect; as a matter of fact, they only contain on average 3%
of the Daily Value for most of their vitamins & minerals. Don't believe me,
have a look!
The FNR isn't about finding the lowest calorie foods, its about finding the most nutritious!
It's important to remember that you cannot compare everything to vegetables. Fruits, meats, and just about everything else typically
scores lower than vegetables. To truly benefit from the FNR, you should try to compare similar foods. For example, if you are craving a
banana you may want to eat strawberries instead...they score a 97, or an orange (83) or raspberries (46). The FNR is all about making
informed food choices. In a single glance, you can compare a wide variety of foods and immediately pick out the nutritiously dense
from the energy dense ones.
Okay, I'm sold, how do I use the FNR number?
The FNR number defines any particular foods ranking on a scale of 0 to 400, with 400 being a super-food of sorts. Because
the scale encompasses all foods, you'll notice that a lot of the fresh foods score high and processed, packaged, or boxed foods
score very low. This doesn't mean you should not eat the low scoring foods, it just means that fresh foods give you more bang for your
buck. To help you better understand the ranking system, we have listed some typical ranges for different food categories below:
| Food Group |
FNR Range |
| Vegetables |
200-400 |
| Fruits |
100-200 |
| Meat & Poultry |
20-50 |
| Seafood |
50-150 |
| Dairy |
20-50 |
| Packaged Foods (non-fortified) |
0-30 |
| Packaged Foods (fortified) |
10-50 |
| Cereals |
0-250 |
Using the FNR number is easy. Simply search for foods and then sort the results by the FNR number. The
higher the score, the more nutrient dense the food is. For example, if you visit the Browse by Category page and
then narrow down your selection to Cold Cereals you can then sort all the cereals by the FNR. You'll quickly
see that the healthiest (most nutritious) cereals include Total (234 FNR), All-Bran Complete (233), and Cheerios
(153). You'll also discover that Basic 4 (22) and Kashi GoLean (16) aren't all they're cracked up to be!
Why are a lot of the foods FNR number blank?
One of the key components of the FNR calculation is grams per serving. Unfortunately, a lot of the references
for the foods in the database do not provide their serving size in grams so we cannot calculate the FNR number. We are
updating the foods on a daily basis and will strive to get these missing FNR numbers filled in as soon as the information
becomes available!
