Paleo nutrient analysis – full day

Follow up on yesterday’s partial nutrient analysis of a Paleo-type diet. Here’s how I rounded out the day.

Calories are a little low because I ate at a restaurant (raw vegan, even! I overshot my protein target even without protein at one meal) and I don’t think I quite accounted properly for the meal, but it’s close enough. I got the kale in there, anyway…

1525 calories, 22% carbs, 46% fat, 32% protein

Protein – 121 g (I’m currently around 118 lb with body fat % around 17%, so that’s about 1 g/lb of bodyweight – right on the money for a leaner athletic woman)

Still around 5 g of omega-3 fatty acids; 10 g of omega-6. I could do better with the ratio there.

Now the fun part! Here are the vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin A – 701% of RDA (again, largely in the more biologically active form of animal-derived retinols)
Vitamin C – 583%
Vitamin D – 2%
Vitamin E – 51%
Vitamin K – 856%!!!!
Thiamin – 60%
Riboflavin – 128%
Niacin – 155%
Vitamin B6 – 126%
Folate – 175% (again, this is food folate, not an additive)
Vitamin B12 – 176%
Pantothenic Acid – 72%

Calcium – 75%
Magnesium – 113%Iron – 144%
Potassium – 91%
Sodium – 21% (remember we want sodium to be relatively lower compared to potassium)
Phosphorus – 108%
Zinc – 52%
Copper – 79%
Manganese – 198%
Selenium – 171%

Again, if you’re curious to see how your eats stack up, try tracking your intake using NutritionData.com, which has a very robust data analysis including, probably, nutrients you’ve never heard of (campesterol? WTF?). Before you proclaim the superiority or inferiority of any given diet, throw it up on the wall, nail some numbers into it, and see if it sticks.

Ask yourself: How is this eating method working for you?

  • What is the quality of your intake?
  • How do you feel when you consume your diet?
  • How do you perform athletically?
  • How does your body run? How’s your bloodwork?
  • Is your body fat in a healthy range? Are you muscular and strong? (Or working on it?)
  • Where did this food come from? How many steps did it take to get to you?

This goes way beyond calories and macronutrients — it’s an issue of nutrient quality and availability. As Mat Lalonde has been heard to quip, you can make a “macronutrient balanced” and “calorically appropriate” meal of soy meat, fructose, and corn oil… but would you want to?