Nutrient rich foods

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Vitamins, minerals, nine amino acids, and a few fatty acids are essential nutrients that are necessary in the diet for good health.

Lists of nutrient-rich foods

In this section of the website, you can easily find the foods that are richest in each nutrient.

Since you would probably be interested in foods, that do not contain many calories, the results have been ranked according to the amount of the nutrient per kcal. This measure is a good indicator of how concentrated the nutrient is in the food.

Those foods that have the highest amount of nutrients per kcal are at the top of each list.

The lists have been made using ECstep’s Personal Nutrition Data Program and each list includes more than 100 of the nutrient richest foods.

Vitamins

Vitamins are vital organic nutrients required in tiny amounts in the diet because they cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by the body.

Vitamins have diverse biochemical functions. Some have hormone-like functions as regulators of calcium metabolism, others support cell and tissue growth and differentiation or work as antioxidants.

Many vitamins are precursors of cofactors, that assist enzyme functions in the metabolism. You can find more on all vitamins here.

Foods rich in Vitamins:

Minerals

Some minerals need to be present in the diet in relatively large amounts. They are usually called macrominerals or “bulk minerals”. Some are structural, and some play a role as electrolytes.

Many minerals are termed trace minerals. They are only needed in trace amounts, usually because they play a catalytic role in various enzymatic processes.

Some minerals are present in extremely small amounts (less than 0.0001% by weight) in biological tissues. Nevertheless, they may still have a role to play. They are called ultra-trace elements.

You can find more on all minerals here.

Foods rich in Minerals:

Calcium rich foods
Copper rich foods
Iron rich foods
Magnesium rich foods
Manganese rich foods
Phosphorus rich foods
Potassium rich foods
Selenium rich foods
Sodium rich foods
Zinc rich foods

Essential Amino Acids

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, which is the most important nutrient. Proteins comprise a major component in human muscles, cells, and other tissues.

Outside structural proteins, amino acids also perform critical biological roles including neurotransmission, transport, and synthesis of special compounds.

Nine of the 20 standard amino acids are called “essential” amino acids for humans because they cannot be created from other compounds by the human body.

These essential amino acids, which must be present in the food, are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.

You can find more on all amino acids here.

Foods rich in Essential Amino Acids:

Histidine rich foods
Isoleucine rich foods
Leucine rich foods
Lysine rich foods
Methionine rich foods
Phenylalanine rich foods
Threonine rich foods
Tryptophan rich foods
Valine rich foods

Essential Fatty Acids

The essential fatty acids are the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid (LA). Generally, we get too much omega-6 fatty acid and too little omega-3 fatty acid in our diet.

Even if alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) can be transformed in the body into the other 2 important omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), this transformation is very slow.

For this reason, it is important that these latter omega-3 fatty acids are present in sufficient amounts in the food we eat. More on all essential fatty acids here.

Foods rich in Essential Fatty Acids:

Alpha-linolenic Acid (ALA) rich foods
Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) rich foods
Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA) rich foods
Linoleic Acid (LA) rich foods

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