Nutrient density per calorie is the magic formula. High nutrient density, high ANDI scores.
A good video on the topic of plant-based nutrition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ8dkLYWrw0
The "magic formula" is the problem. There are many approaches to nutrient density scoring and ANDI is among those horribly flawed. Why? I'll defer to someone credible:
> According to the explanation of this ranking system posted on Fuhrman’s web site, he also excludes a number of other important nutrients. The B vitamins biotin and pantothenic acid, preformed vitamin A, and vitamins K1 and K2 are among those absent. Major minerals such as sodium, chloride, potassium, sulfur, and phosphorus are excluded. Essential trace minerals such as copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum, and chromium are nowhere to be found in Fuhrman’s list. Essential fatty acids like EPA, DHA and arachidonic acid are likewise absent. Finally, none of the eight essential amino acids is included in his ranking system. - Chris Masterjohn, PhD Nutritional Sciences [1]
A bit suspect to exclude essential nutrients from a nutrient score. He also doubles the ORAC (antioxidant) importance, when including ORAC at all is very controversial. Please read [1] for the rest.
A more objective formula [2] will always include organ meats, like liver, at the top. A serving of liver is practically a multi-vitamin and if consumed daily will cause an overdose of vitamin A very quickly.
[1] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WLAXWpG... [2] http://ketopia.com/nutrient-density-sticking-to-the-essentia...
It got to the point that I hated the food so much that I simply skipped meals when I prepared food and threw away anything my wife made. I remember crying-- and Im not kidding-- at work over some soggy lettuce wrapped bullshit that, I just couldn't stand anymore. I didn't cry when I snapped my ankle in half or when my grandparents passed. I didn't cry when my wife left me or my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer... but Furhman's diet-- wore me down to nothing.
It's a one size fits all solution, with no allowances for individual tastes or nutritional needs. Ultimately the advice is driven by an ideology rather than science. Small changes to the diet would make the food vastly more palatable (namely more oils) and not comprise its integrity... but ideology is inflexible.
Basically chicken liver was IT, just a few hundred gramms per day and nearly all requirements are fulfilled. When I've disabled liver, then came some diets much harder to realize: with elements such as 4 kg of oranges a day :)
When wild animals kill prey they eat the organs first, then move on to the less nutritious muscle meat.
Especially when killing bigger prey, some organs were consumed by the hunters on the spot to compensate for calories lost hunting(liver/brains/heart?) and the rest of the meat was brought back to the tribe.
I find it a useful guide for plants since it ranks leafy greens and vegetables above fruits (most people who go plant-based are prone to over-eat fruits, under-eat veges, because sweet is preferred to bitter).
You point out there are many other options -- like organ meats -- which have robust nutrient profiles but do not score high on ANDI.
A lot of that list/document seem good, a lot of it is pseudo-science, which makes me think that I should take the rest with a pinch of salt (pun intended).
Juicing is typically the easiest way to remove all the good stuff from fruits and vegetable (fibers) and only keep 1. the stuff you need in very small amount (minerals, vitamin, ...) 2. the sugar.
"Acid forming": see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_diet
The whole thing reads more like some new-age "cleansing" diet and has no place here imho.
I think there may be some substance to this, but in general, it's save just to eat a variety of wholesome foods. It's tougher for most Americans to realise this since they're crunched for time, looking for shortcuts, and advertisers are always pushing a new diet or wonderfood every year.
http://emj.bmj.com/content/20/4/306.full
>Chloride load leads to hyperchloraemic acidosis
I'm experimenting seasoning my food with a mixture of sea-salt and potassium gluconate powder for that reason.