Quality vs. quantity: what’s actually better?
Sydney Greene, MS, RD advises on what you should really focus on when it comes to nutrition in this exclusive Q&A.
What matters more—how much food you’re eating, or what kinds of food you're eating?
It seems to be an age-old debate among nutrition experts and, unfortunately, among toxic diet culture fads. Some experts say it’s important for you to be counting calories and tell you to limit certain foods (even beans, are you kidding?), in an effort to get you to start portioning foods properly. Other experts encourage you to think differently—to delete your calorie counter app and instead, focus on including a diverse set of nutrients into your diet.
So which one truly is the best when it comes to overall health? Let’s dive into it with Sydney Greene, MS, RD.
KH: When it comes to healthy eating, the age-old debate is whether we should be focusing on the quality of foods versus the quantity. Which do you think is more important, and why?
SG: Quality is absolutely more important than quantity—with a little asterisks always, of course. That being said, to think about what you could eat, like, let’s just take 150 calories as our control number. You could do 150 calories worth of rice cakes or those tiny rice cracker things, and there would probably be large handfuls—or even popcorn. You can get three cups of popcorn, so a large quantity. Very little nutrients, maybe some fiber, and 150 calories.
And then you could eat 150 calories worth of wild salmon. Smaller amounts, for sure, but what you’re getting is that 150 calories is omega-3 fatty acids, you’re getting where anywhere from 20 to 25 grams of protein, you’re getting maybe some vitamin D depending on the type of salmon, and you’re getting a whole other host of vitamins and minerals. So you’re just getting more nutrition compared to handfuls of air, basically.
Yeah so that’s the way I think about it is that if you’re going to make a choice around food, how can you get as many nutrients in as possible and really focus on quality that way. The asterisks being that, like, some people are volume eaters. What I mean by that is it might take someone way more—like a higher quantity of food to actually feel satisfied and be done. Whereas someone could get away with eating a really energy nutrient-dense protein bar, which is very small, and they can move on. But for another person, they need maybe a little piece of salmon, and then they need tons and tons of veggies, and they need some rice on the side in order to feel satiated. So, there’s always an and, not an or.
I love that you compare the difference between popcorn and salmon because obviously popcorn can still be such a great snack, but you would want to focus also on like the quality of your snack and getting all of those nutrients as you say. How could somebody say who eats some popcorn also get some nutrients, why does the quality at that moment matter?
So let’s say you’re eating lunch at 12, and you’re having dinner at 8, eight hours is a really long time to go without food. You’re going to feel really irritable by the time you get to dinner. I mean, if you’re like me, you will. If you just have a 150-calorie bag of popcorn, it might fill you up—like what I mean is by the volume of food, the quantity that’s going to fill up space in your stomach—so you might feel full in the moment or for 30 minutes. But what’s going to happen 60 or 120 minutes later is, because there’s no protein and not a lot of fat and a little bit of fiber (but not much), you’re not going to stay full. That’s what’s called satiety—it’s how long we feel full and satisfied, it’s more related to the hormones and blood sugar that are released after we eat.
So the way that you can kind of up the quality of your snack, per se, is that if you want to have popcorn maybe throw in a string cheese to get some protein and fat in there. Or have carrots with hummus on the side, or maybe make yourself a snack place with some popcorn and olives and then a slice or two of turkey. So you’re having a nice, balance of a little fat, some carbs, and some protein.
So sometimes when people hear “quantity” they also think calories and trying to eat fewer calories. They see a piece of salmon and they’ll say “oh, that’s such a densely caloric thing compared to a bowl of popcorn.” When you work with your clients, do you recommend calorie counting at all?
Again, going off that same kind of example, but let’s change it. Let’s do 150 calories of broccoli versus 150 calories of Cheetos. What is a calorie? calories are a unit of energy. So just like you can choose at the fuel pump—regular, premium—that’s what you’re doing when you choose calories. Sure, you can eat 150 calories of Cheetos, and you’re not going to get any nutrients from that. If you love Cheetos, you’ll get some dollars in the “soul bucket,” and you’ll fill up on your soul food. But you’re not really giving your body any sort of good fuel. But if you’re eating broccoli, you’re getting a bunch of minerals, you’re getting vitamins, you’re getting antioxidants and polyphenols, and you’re also getting a lot of fiber. Your body is going to use that fuel way differently.
The only time I will talk about calories, actually, is when people need to kind of reframe how they think about energy. It’s pretty classic—people will say “I’m eating 1,200 calories a day, shouldn’t I be...blah blah blah.” I mean, 1,200 calories is actually how much a toddler eats, not an adult. So I will course correct and go re-educate what a calorie is and why we should be thinking about we’re having enough calories, enough energy, and not so much how we can cut our energy down and game-ify it, if that makes sense.
Yeah, it absolutely makes sense. And it kind of brings me to my next point. One of the things that I talk about in this newsletter is trying to free ourselves from classic yo-yo dieting and food restriction. I want to know more about how people can find food freedom. Obviously, we’re talking about the quality of food, but I’m afraid people can hear that and think “I can only eat certain foods because they are quality,” but can Cheetos ever be a part of a diet?
If you don’t ever include “fun” foods—and granted broccoli can be a fun food, I’ve just never met anyone that’s like “when I’m feeling really sad and nostalgic, I want broccoli”—so there’s a caveat there. But if you’re only choosing like, nutrient-rich, high-vitamin and mineral foods, and high-protein foods and you’re never, ever buying chips, or maybe the foods that are lacking nutrients, you’re setting yourself up for a pretty epic binge. Or a mental roller coaster of guilt if you do have those foods. It depends on the person, but I think one way you can seek balance is to have a beautiful salad with salmon and high-quality olive oil and all of that, and then throw your favorite chips in a bowl on the side. Don’t just make these less nutrient-dense foods a special occasion food. Enjoy them more throughout the day—neutralize them, and have them be part of your plate with other nutrient-rich foods.
This brings me to my last point. I talk a lot about understanding nutrition from a holistic perspective, like focusing more on longevity versus weight loss, and I would love to hear some of the tips you would give someone who wants to focus more on nutrition from a perspective of taking care of their body versus trying to change their body.
I think there needs to be a total reframing of what health and wellness is. Some people equate long-term health and well-being to staying a small size, and we know now that’s not necessarily the case. So, I think, innately when someone is pursuing a smaller size or a different shape of their body and that’s taking up a lot of their headspace, that in and of itself is extremely stressful. We’re already taking away from overall health and well-being. Dieting in and of itself is a very stressful event. Not just for us psychologically, but for our bodies philosophically. It’s extremely stressful and taxing on our metabolism. It’s so hard trying to come from a place of acceptance of your body and where it’s at today. And yeah, reframing calories, so making sure we are eating enough. Thinking of calories as information and fuel for our body.
Another huge thing is variety. I think it’s the most underrated form of a healthy diet or a marker of a healthy diet is making sure that someone is eating. varied diet. If someone is only eating the same one or two breakfasts, the same boring salad, and the same one or two proteins and one or two veggies for dinner, you’re missing out on so many different nutrient profiles. So I would rather someone eat like, an omelet for breakfast one morning, yogurt and granola for another, maybe it’s like chia pudding the next day. That’s such a marker of health aside from the actual nutrients in the food if that makes sense.
Yeah, it absolutely does. It also makes me think of an awesome article I wrote recently. It was about this study on the gut microbiome and how healthier guts typically consume like, 30 different kinds of plants in a week and have really, nice, diverse bacteria in their gut versus those who don’t. And now I think about that, like today I was thinking about how I ate 10 different kinds of plants today.
Yes, totally! And if someone needs something to count, I mean I try to get people weaned off any sort of tracker or counting thing, but to your point, yeah. Let’s see how many different plants you can eat in a day. Let’s see how many different colors you can eat in a day. How many cups of water are you having. How much time outside are you getting. So thinking about it that way where more is better, versus really prioritizing less is better.
Is there anything else you want to add that you think our readers would enjoy knowing before we close?
There was this article from the New York Times published back in 2017 and 2018, they talked about this study that really debunked the whole quality versus quantity thing. It was such a great study.
(Here’s the article link if you want to dive in!)
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You can check out more of Syndey’s work on Instagram and connect with her over on her website where she focuses on holistic nutrition coaching through her courses, client meetings, group support, and more.
Speaking of nutrients, one of my favorite ways to get in some omega-3 fatty acids—and easily have lunch on hand—is to make a big batch of tuna salad. It’s tasty, filling, and delicious either on toast with lots of veggies, or even spread on crackers with a big side salad.
There are actually two different ways I like to prepare my tuna salad. The first is with mayonnaise—classic. The second is actually with avocado! If you’re not feeling like having mayonnaise, you could actually smash together an avocado with a small can (or two) of tuna, then add in all of your seasonings and serve. I typically keep it simple with garlic salt and pepper.
Here’s a recipe:
2 small cans of albacore tuna, packed in water
1/3 cup of mayonnaise (or one avocado), depending on how much you want
1/4 cup red onion, diced small
1/4 cup of celery, diced small
Garlic salt & pepper, to taste
How to make it:
Mix together in a container and place it in the fridge, lasts about a week or so.
For a sandwich, spread the tuna on a slice of whole-grain or sourdough toast with slices of tomato and some fresh leafy greens.
I flew jetBlue this Thursday down to Sarasota, and they offered passengers a choice of snack. I decided to go for the Popcorners, and I now officially have a new snack obsession.
The Kettle Corn Popcorners was the perfect salty, sweet snack with an afternoon cup of coffee. Mind you, as we talk about quality versus quantity, I know that this snack wasn’t exactly filling, and I did end up having some peanuts to round up my snack. But this is a great example of enjoying something delicious as well as something nutritious to feel full and satisfied.
So if you need a new chip to grab for a little afternoon snack, highly recommend it.
Here are all of the random things that were on my plate this week.
Where I went: Kimika, to try the spring menu with A-Sha Noodle
What I ate: Millionaire Gnocchi by Pinch of Yum
What I listened to: Jackrabbit by San Fermin
What I watched: Bridgerton, Season 2 on Netflix