Quality and Quantity: Why Both Matter

When I talk to people who are unhappy with their weight or their energy level (or both), they tend to be either sacrificing quantity control or sacrificing quality control.  Once of these will lead to being overweight; one will lead to being low on energy and generally unhealthy. In order to both feel and look good, we must pay attention to both the quality of the foods we eat and the quantity of food we eat. Let me offer you an example of each problem:

Ms. Poor Quality Control:  
Breakfast: Venti skim latte, a chocolate-peanut flavored Slim-fast snack bar eaten in the car
Snack: Another venti skim latte
Lunch: One slice of pizza and a diet coke
Afternoon snack: pretzels or chips from the vending machine at work
Dinner: 2 glasses of wine, a Lean Cuisine pasta entree and a Skinny Cow ice cream bar

Total Calories: About 1500
This calorie count is on the lower end for a woman but would be healthy for a smaller, only moderately active woman so this person is exerting good quantity control. She only had one piece of pizza and one real snack and her portions of everything were reasonable.
Nutrient Value:  ????????????  I hate to say it but the antioxidants in the wine might make alcohol the healthiest thing this person had all day. This woman would probably look very thin and wear a size 2 or 4, but she could still be at high risk for certain health issues like hypoglycemia, insomnia or chronic fatigue, infertility and even cancer because of the poor quality of her diet. She would also likely not feel very good and may appear tired and pale from the lack of nutrition or jittery from all the caffeine.

Ms. Poor Quantity Control:
Breakfast: Large bowl of all-natural granola with organic soy milk and a banana
Snack: half a 12 oz bag of roasted almonds (3/4 cup)
Lunch: Baked brie and roasted veggie sandwich on crusty 9-grain bread from a gourmet vegetarian sandwich shop; Greek Yogurt, honey and blueberry parfait from the same shop
Snack: Lara Bar
Dinner: 1 glass of red wine, 8 oz piece of salmon, 2 heaping helpings of brown rice, spinach salad with a a generous splash of a bottled "all natural" balsamic vinaigrette and 6 squares of dark chocolate

Total Calories: Almost 3000
Although this person ate only healthy foods, she consumed way too many calories for anyone not training for a marathon. Granola is very calorically dense and is better as a garnish on yogurt than eaten as a cereal. A serving size of almonds is 1/4 cup; she had 3 x that. Sandwich shops tend to use thick cuts of bread and overdo the cheese. An appropriate serving size of brown rice is about 1/2 to 3/4 cup and 5-6 oz of salmon should be enough. A Lara Bar is a high calorie snack if it is eaten between large meals and one or two squares of dark chocolate is a great sweet treat, but she overdid it. Bottled salad dressings are very high in calories and she probably used more than the average serving size of 2 Tbsp.
Nutrient Value: Very high.  She has ample servings of fruit, veggies and whole grains as well as excellent protein sources and a good amount of healthy fat. This could in fact be an ideal diet if she trimmed about 1000 calories from it.  This person has excellent quality control but poor quantity control.  This woman would likely be quite healthy by medical testing standards and have very low risk factors for disease yet still be on the heavy side and unhappy with her appearance.

The comparison: If these women were the same height, the woman with the poor quality diet would be significantly thinner because she takes in considerably less calories; however she would likely have much less energy than the woman with the quantity control issue.  She would also be likely to have pale or sallow skin and more cellulite, both of which can be caused by eating a diet high in processed foods and low in nutrients. The thin woman could actually have higher total cholesterol because she eats bad fat but no good fat, and she could also have unstable blood sugar levels because too many of her calories come from nutritionally empty foods that are high in sugar and low in fiber.

The Compromise: So ideally, in order to maintain a healthy weight and healthy energy levels and to have that healthy glow, we need to control the quality and quantity of what goes into our body. The ideal diet would actually be a calorie-controlled version of the second diet.  Something like this:

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt with 1/4 cup granola and a 1/2 cup of blueberries

Snack: 1/4 cup of roasted or raw almonds

Lunch: Open-face veggie sandwich on one piece of whole grain bread with one slice of cheese, an apple

Snack: Lara Bar 

Dinner: 1 glass of red wine, 5 oz piece of salmon, 1 scoop of brown rice, 2 cups steamed spinach with fresh lemon juice and 1-2 squares of dark chocolate

Calories: Approximately 1800-2000
Nutrient Value: Very high

Some people still do better when they allow themselves to eat what they want (within reason) but control the portions and some people do better when they cut out certain poor quality foods but still allow themselves generous portions.  However, if you let either your quantity or quality get out of control, you will sacrifice either your waistline or your health. A good rule of thumb: when eating a poor quality food, eat a very small quantity of it; when eating a high quality food, allow yourself more of it but still don't exceed a reasonable portion size.

To find out more about how to add high quality foods to your diet or what an appropriate portion size of every food is, consider signing up for one of my health and nutrition coaching programs. You can find out more on my website www.inhabithealth.com.