Food Search: Satiety vs Nutrient Density vs Protein

Are you tired of guessing which foods will help you meet YOUR health goals?

Dive into our interactive food chart—a revolutionary tool that transforms how you think about nutrition and empowers you to make smarter, more effective dietary choices.

Uncover the secrets of protein, satiety, and nutrient density that are just a click away and perfectly tailored to your unique dietary needs.  Let’s explore how easy and exciting optimizing your diet can be!

To get started, click this link to explore the interactive Tableau chart

QuickStart Guide

  • Protein Percentage: Adjusting the protein slider to filter foods based on their protein %.  
  • Satiety:  Prioritise foods that will keep you satisfied for longer with less energy (towards the right), and find foods you may want to reduce to increase your satiety per calorie (towards the left). 
  • Nutrient Density: The vertical axis helps you identify foods that offer more vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients per calorie.  
  • Carbs: For those monitoring blood glucose levels or preferring a low-carb diet, the carbs slider is useful to find foods with lower carbohydrate content per serving or with a lower carbohydrate %.
  • Food Detail and Popularity: Additional information about each food can be accessed by hovering over items in the chart.  Plus, you can filter the view to show only the most popular foods.

Keep reading for more details on how Optimisers use this chart in our Macros Masterclass.

Protein (%)

The Macros Masterclass guides Optimisers to find the balance of protein vs energy (from fat and carbs) that aligns with your weight loss goals.  

If you’re not yet losing between 0.5 and 1.0% per week, the simplest place to start is to increase your protein %.  This is achieved by reducing the foods that provide the most fat and carbs while prioritising protein.  

After the first week of baselining, we’ll run Your Perfect Day report, which sets your target protein % for the remaining three weeks of the class.  

The colouring on the chart is based on the proportion of energy in the food from protein.  Foods shown in red have a low protein %, while foods shown in green have a high protein %.

Use the protein (%) slider to show only foods with a higher protein percentage than your current goal. 

You can also dial down the upper limit to show foods with a lower protein percentage that you may want to reduce.  

You can also check out the infographics and printable food lists of protein-rich foods in our recourses section here.

Use the search box on the right to learn more about your favourite foods or search for details on new foods you want to try. 

While the interactive search tool works best on the computer, you can also use it when you’re on the go to search for details of foods on your phone.  It could even help you be more discerning about what goes in your trolley next time you’re at the grocery store. 

Satiety (Per Calorie)

The horizontal axis is our Satiety Index Score, calculated using a cumulative two-way linear regression using:

  • protein,
  • fat,
  • monounsaturated fat,
  • sugar,
  • calcium,        
  • iron,
  • potassium,    
  • sodium,         
  • vitamin C,     
  • riboflavin (B1),
  • riboflavin (B2), and
  • energy density 

Our satiety algorithm has been calibrated using 620k days of food intake data to identify the quantifiable factors that align with eating more vs. eating less. 

You don’t have to understand exactly how it works.  But it ranks the McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell menus on the left-hand side, egg whites, bok choy, and asparagus on the far right and grades everything between them.  

Foods towards the left are engineered to hit your bliss points for these critical nutrients.  In contrast, foods towards the right will provide more of these nutrients per calorie and trigger satiety with less energy. 

Use the satiety slider to find foods that will keep you fuller with fewer calories. 

While prioritising higher-satiety foods is helpful, you can’t live alone on egg whites and watercress.  So feel free to dial back the upper limit on the satiety slider to find foods you’ll enjoy. 

Nutrient Density

The vertical axis is our nutrient density score

Foods with a higher nutrient density provide more essential minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids per calorie.  Again, you can use the nutrient density slider to show the most (or least) nutritious foods.

In our Micros Masterclass, Optimisers play the game of nutritional optimisation to combine foods they love to get the nutrients they need without excess energy.  Believe it or not, gamified personalised nutrition can be fun, especially when the prize is your long-term health and vitality. 

You might be surprised to see many nutrient-poor, higher-satiety foods toward the bottom of the chart.  But the reality is that we don’t binge on nutrient-poor foods like sugar, flour or oil.  If that’s all you have to eat, you probably won’t overeat them, but you’ll be left craving foods designed to hit all your bliss points when they’re available.

Ensuring your diet has more than the minimum amount of nutrients reduces your cravings and quits the food noise

Protein (Grams/Serve)

If you want to increase your protein per meal, you can use the protein (g/serve) slider to show only foods that provide more protein in the typical sizes we consume them in. 

You can also use the printable high-protein food list and infographics in our resources section.  

Popularity

By default, the chart shows the most popular foods with our Optimisers. But if you’re looking for more options, you can also show the popular and less common foods. 

To expand your repertoire, select the ‘popular’ foods or ‘ALL’ to see everything, including many processed foods.

Carbohydrates

If you’re concerned about your blood glucose or prefer a low-carb diet, you can dial down the carbs slider to identify foods that contain fewer carbohydrates per serving or dial down the carbohydrate % slider.  In the Macros Masterclass, we guide Optimisers to reduce their carbs until the rise in glucose after eating is less than 30 mg/dL or 1.6 mmol/L after meals.   

Most people find managing their carbohydrates per serving is more than adequate.  This approach doesn’t eliminate non-starchy vegetables, which can be highly satiating and nutritious and have a minimal impact on your blood glucose. 

Categories and Food Groups

Finally, you can dive deeper using the category and food group filters. 

  • Maybe you’re a carnivore and want to find more satiating and nutritious food options—check out the meat and offal category. 
  • Similarly, if you’re interested in a plant-based diet, you can see how vegetables and fruits compare in terms of nutrient density and satiety.

Simply select or unselect the categories that you want to show or hide. 

Food Detail

Mouse over any food, and a pop-up with additional details will appear to learn more about each food.   You’ll see the amount of protein, carbs and energy contained in the typical serving sizes consumed by Optimisers.     

In addition, the detail pop-up also shows:

  • Omega 6:3 ratio: If you’re concerned about your intake of omega 6 from seed oils, look for foods with a lower omega 6:3 ratio.
  • Glycemic index: GI ranks foods from 0 to 100% based on their impact on blood sugar levels.  Choose lower GI foods to reduce the rise in glucose after you eat.
  • Glucose score: The area under the curve glucose responds to foods over two hours after eating them.
  • Insulin index: A ranking based on the insulin response to food in the two hours after eating it for equal calorie portions of food.  If you’re using exogenous insulin, foods with a lower food insulin index can help to lower your short-term insulin requirement.
  • Insulin load:  The food insulin index is multiplied by the number of calories in a typical portion of that food.  For example, bok choy has an insulin index of 63% but an insulin load of 10 calories per serving.  Meanwhile, McDonald’s’ Big Breakfast with Pancakes has a lower insulin index of 54% but an insulin load of 377 calories.  Because we eat a lot more of it than the bok choy, we’ll need more insulin to cover it. 

Enjoy!

If you’ve made it this far, it’s time to click this link to explore the interactive Tableau chart.  I hope this helps you find foods you love eating and align with your unique goals!  

A little data goes a long way to cutting through the confusion when it comes to finding foods that suit your unique goals.  I believe viewing how the foods we eat sit on the landscape of satiety vs nutrient density could be revolutionary!  I hope this empowers you to skip the named diets and find foods you love that nourish and satisfy you. 

More

Home » Tools » Food Search: Satiety vs Nutrient Density vs Protein