What is the nutrition gap?
In an ideal world, we’d all live our lives perfectly in balance. We’d consume sufficient quantities of each and every nutrient, and get enough sunshine, exercise and sleep. We’d live low-stress lifestyles, with plenty of time for movement, socialising and play. We’d also grow our own vegetables, bake our own bread, and avoid harsh chemicals on our skin.
But we do not live in such a world. Instead, we are often underslept, overstressed and nutrient-depleted. Here we’ll explore the concept of the nutrient gap – and what you can do to bridge it.
The nutrient gap is essentially the difference between what you actually eat, and what you need for optimum health and well-being. Remember, that just avoiding nutrient deficiencies doesn’t mean we have optimal intakes as the parameters between these two measures are different. Often, we are told to consume a certain amount of a nutrient to avoid a severe and dangerous deficiency. But in reality, we may need to consume much more of that nutrient to be in ideal health and to meet our own individual needs.
Even with the best intentions, many of us fall short of the ideal nutrient intake. And this is often due to reasons outside of our control.
What causes the nutrition gap?
Sometimes, the causes for sub-optimal nutrition are obvious – busyness, overreliance on
convenience foods, frequent travel, or gut issues.
But other times, it can be hard to notice the subtle ways we might be falling short.
For example, did you know that soil mineral levels have depleted over the years, meaning that even if you consume lots of fruit and veg, you might be getting lower levels of say magnesium or selenium than in the past. And speaking of selenium, unless you are consuming three Brazil nuts each and every day – the chances are you’re not getting optimal intakes of this key, immune-supportive nutrient.
Then we have the ever-present obesogenic environment – which means we are constantly
surrounded by high-calorie but low-nutrient foods, making it hard to get enough unless we cook
everything from scratch and bring our own snacks everywhere we go. Whilst this might be
something we want to achieve, the reality is, that even if we often do prepare meals from at home, we are still likely to be including a wide range of ultra-processed foods. This is because mass-produced bread, condiments and sauces often fall into the ultra-processed category. So unless we are making everything ourselves, we can be choosing nutritionally inferior products without realising it.
Many of us also struggle to get sufficient sleep – which automatically primes us for overconsumption of nutrient-depleted foods – this is shown by studies indicating when we don’t sleep well, we are much more likely to reach for highly palatable foods (think biscuits, crisps and so on). It also makes us more stressed, which can increase our need for a range of nutrients, as well as impair our gut environment – making nutrient absorption an added challenge.
Unfortunately, even if we do eat well, our gut health troubles can lead to insufficient absorption of key nutrients. This can be due to our overuse of stomach acid-reducing medications such as proton pump inhibitors, or it may result from an unbalanced gut microbiota after repeated antibiotic use.
When we have a less-than-optimal gut microbiome, we can struggle to fully digest our nutrients,
leading to malabsorption issues over the longer term. And then we come to specific factors that can put us at the individual risk of sub-optimal nutrient status. For example, if you have heavy periods, you can be at risk of iron depletion, if you exercise excessively your requirements for protein can increase, and if you are under lots of stress you may need more magnesium and B vitamins.
Similarly, if you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, you’ll need to pay extra attention to your intake of choline, omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, amino acids and more. Then there are the seasonal factors such as Vitamin D depletion, which is why we absolutely must be supplementing from October – March. You can get Vitamin D from foods such as oily fish and egg yolks but this is not enough for people during the winter months when sunshine is in short supply.
Many people’s vitamin D stores are insufficient and this can put you at an increased risk of
depression, weak bones, immune dysfunction and chronic disease.
So far we’ve focused mainly on micro and macronutrient intake, but we can also have a nutrition gap for elements such as fibre, hydration and phytonutrient intake. Many of us fall short of the required 30g of daily fibre – which can put us at increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, colon cancer and microbiome disturbances.
Our risk of GI issues is definitely worsened with inadequate hydration, as it’s the combination of fibre and water that keeps everything moving as it should. And, then we come to phytonutrients – these are special components found within foods such as green tea, berries, dark chocolate and olive oil. They can offer protection against a range of chronic diseases and oxidative stress – therefore also helping with the increased inflammation and cellular damage occurring as we age. Following a Mediterranean or Japanese style diet tends to encourage more consumption of phytonutrients, as the standardised Western diet is often lacking in these protective super nutrients.
So, how can we bridge the nutrition gap?
Whilst it might sound a bit doom and gloom to realise how many of us fall short of the ideal nutrient intake. But the good news is, there’s so much we can control when it comes to bridging the nutrition gap. Below are some easy ways to optimise your health today.
1) Start with the basics
It’s important to focus on what we can do consistently on a sustainable basis. So, keeping
things simple is a good place to start. Try to aim for 5-7 portions of vegetables and fruit per
day with an emphasis on two-thirds veg. Within this, aim for variety – so stop doing the
same old lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad on repeat, and instead aim for purple cabbage,
radishes, and more.
Another easy win is to vary your grains – if you usually eat wheat-based products for all your
meals, why not try experimenting with buckwheat noodles or pancakes, spelt bread or rye
crackers? This will introduce your gut to different forms of fibres, and some of these ancient
grains are particularly rich in B vitamins too.
Focusing on the macronutrient balance of your meals is also key where blood sugar
maintenance and nutrient density are concerned. Try to follow the ‘balanced meal’ concept.
The balanced meal is designed to prevent diabetes and support weight loss, but it also helps
you meet your nutritional goals. To achieve this, aim to fill half your plate with non-starchy vegetables, a quarter with quality proteins such as salmon fillets or tempeh, and the
final quarter comprised of complex carbs such as sweet potatoes or brown rice.
2) Optimise the gut environment
We’ve talked about how important your gut health is for nutrient absorption – as well as many
other health metrics and general well-being scores. So, try to focus on prebiotic fibres,
naturally fermented foods and plenty of diversity within your diet.
And, remember the gut health sabotages such as ultra-processed foods, excessive PPI/
antibiotic use, and stress. Addressing these where possible, as well as ensuring you get
adequate fibre and hydration will definitely go a long way to enabling you to get the most
from your foods.
Of course, if you have issues such as IBS, lactose intolerance or SIBO, then finding specific
treatment solutions for these is key – as you ideally don’t want to be restricting particular
food groups such as dairy, grains and other high-fibre foods unless you really need to.
3) Strategic supplementation
There’s absolutely no point in taking mega doses of a particular nutrient unless you know
you need more of it. Remember that nutrients work synergistically, therefore they rely
on each other to perform their roles optimally, so it’s usually more important to get the right
balance of nutrients rather than taking excessive amounts of just one or two. That being
said, you can consider a well-rounded multivitamin and mineral as a form of insurance policy
against potential gaps in your nutritional intake.
Then, once you have the foundations in place, you can start to layer on specific nutrients for your needs. This can include extra iron if you have heavy periods, B vitamins if you follow a vegan diet, or magnesium if you are under lots of stress.
Whilst a food-first approach is always the starting point, with the issues discussed above, the chances are you can benefit from a tailored supplement regime to help you overcome the nutrient gap and achieve optimal health.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8756738/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4644575/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8821000/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4110863/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988549/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8349637/
