What if you could supercharge your health with a simple change?
Instead of settling for just enough, aim higher with Optimal Nutrient Intakes (ONIs) that unlock greater satiety, vitality, and long-lasting energy.
This is about not just surviving but thriving in your health journey.
This article will demonstrate how ONIs can empower you to efficiently satisfy your cravings and move beyond mere survival to a state of thriving.
Ready to take a proactive step towards improving your nutrition? Let’s explore the world of Optimal Nutrient Intakes!
- Break Free from the Minimums: Why You Need ONIs
- Master Your Cravings with Nutrient-Dense Choices
- The Science Behind ONIs: Setting the Right Targets
- How To Level Up Nutrient Targets
- How To Know if You’re Getting Nutrients
- Conclusion
- Appendix A: The Best Sources of Each Nutrient
- Appendix B: Bliss Point-Satiety Charts and Nutrient-Rich Foods
Break Free from the Minimums: Why You Need ONIs
In our previous article on nutrient bliss points, we discovered that the minimum recommended nutrient intakes closely resemble the bliss point intakes that align with maximum energy consumption. In contrast, Optimal Nutrient Intakes (ONIs) are achievable stretch targets that align with greater satiety and vitality, which are attainable from food.
The table below shows our Optimal Nutrient Intakes and the Dietary Reference Intake for the minerals, vitamins and amino acids (per 2000 calories).
Minerals
| mineral | ONI | DRI | units |
| calcium | 1650 | 1,000 | mg/2000 cal |
| copper | 2.0 | 0.9 | mg/2000 cal |
| iron | 21 | 18.0 | mg/2000 cal |
| magnesium | 420 | 420 | mg/2000 cal |
| manganese | 5.0 | 2.3 | mg/2000 cal |
| phosphorus | 1250 | 700 | mg/2000 cal |
| potassium | 4500 | 3,400 | mg/2000 cal |
| selenium | 200 | 55 | mcg/2000 cal |
| sodium | 4000 | 1,500 | mg/2000 cal |
| zinc | 20 | 11 | mg/2000 cal |
Vitamins & Omega 3
| vitamin | ONI | DRI | units |
| thiamine (B1) | 2.3 | 1.2 | mg/2000 cal |
| riboflavin (B2) | 2.1 | 1.3 | mg/2000 cal |
| niacin (B3) | 40 | 16.0 | mg/2000 cal |
| vitamin B5 | 9.0 | 5.0 | mg/2000 cal |
| vitamin B6 | 3.1 | 1.3 | mg/2000 cal |
| vitamin B12 | 7.2 | 2.4 | mcg/2000 cal |
| choline | 1000 | 550 | mg/2000 cal |
| folate | 1200 | 400 | mcg/2000 cal |
| vitamin A | 1000 | 900 | mcg/2000 cal |
| vitamin C | 250 | 90 | mg/2000 cal |
| vitamin E | 15 | 15 | mg/2000 cal |
| vitamin K1 | 120 | 120 | mcg/2000 cal |
| omega-3 | 2.5 | 1.2 | mg/2000 cal |
Protein & Amino Acids
| nutrient | ONI | units |
| protein | 40% | % |
| cystine | 2.1 | g |
| histidine | 4.7 | g |
| isoleucine | 7.7 | g |
| leucine | 13.2 | g |
| lysine | 13.2 | g |
| phenylalanine | 6.9 | g |
| methionine | 4.1 | g |
| threonine | 7.0 | g |
| tryptophan | 1.9 | g |
| tyrosine | 5.7 | g |
| valine | 8.5 | g |
Master Your Cravings with Nutrient-Dense Choices
Your subconscious appetite is constantly working like a nutrient-seeking missile to balance nutrient intake with energy from your food.
At one extreme, foods that contain negligible nutrients taste bland, so we eat less of them (e.g. flour, sugar or fat by itself). Meanwhile, nutrient-dense foods that pack in more nutrients per calorie have a much stronger taste.
Your body knows it doesn’t need a lot of these foods to get enough of the nutrients they contain. Hence, we eat less when our food is packed with more nutrients.
Profit-focused food manufacturers design products to hit our Bliss Point for sugar, fat, and salt, adding just enough to ensure we eat and buy more of their foods. However, our data analysis has revealed a bliss point for all the essential nutrients. These Bliss Point nutrient intakes align with maximum calorie intake and are eerily similar to the official minimal nutrient intakes.
To help you move beyond the bliss points, the optimal nutrient intakes provide a stretch target for each essential nutrient you can work towards. The optimal nutrient intakes empower you to satisfy your cravings with less energy.
The Optimal Nutrient Intakes are limits where exceeding them is harmful. Instead, they represent a point of diminishing returns beyond which additional intake may not provide significant benefits.
Setting a stretch target for all the essential nutrients enables you to move on to focus on your remaining priority nutrients and balance your diet at the micronutrient level.
The Science Behind ONIs: Setting the Right Targets
Let’s begin with protein to understand how we established the Optimal Nutrient Intakes.
Protein Bliss Point
The chart below shows the relationship between protein % and energy consumed based on 1,041,736 days of data from free-living people.
Note the bliss point at 14% protein, where we eat the most. Foods with less than 14% protein tend to taste bland, so we will likely eat less, but we’ll also increase our risk of being malnourished and sarcopenic. We’ll also crave food with more protein and hence eat more until we get the protein we need.
Getting the protein you need with less energy is more efficient and aligns with greater satiety. To do this, we dial back energy from fat and carbohydrates.
Protein Optimal Nutrient Intake
Towards the right of the chart above, you can see that we’ve set the Optimal Nutrient Intake for protein at 40%. Optimisers who hit this Intake eat half as many calories as those who consume 14% protein.
There’s nothing wrong with eating more than 40% protein, but as the protein distribution chart below shows, it’s challenging.
Once you get 40% of your energy from protein, you’d be better off focusing on your remaining priority minerals and vitamins rather than dialling your protein % even higher.
Vitamin and Minerals
While protein is the satiety factor, our data analysis shows a similar response for all the essential nutrients.
For some nutrients (like vitamin B5 and K1, shown in the charts below), the satiety response tapers off at higher intakes, suggesting that our body does not crave any more of that nutrient.
Supplements and fortified foods that provide very high levels of these nutrients may also not increase satiety further. In these cases, we have set the optimal nutrient intake at the point where the satiety response dissipates.
For other nutrients, like potassium, where the satiety response keeps going, we have set the optimal nutrient intake at three times the bliss point.
For more details, see:
- Optimal Amino Acid Intakes for Satiety and Weight Loss (According to 313,836 days of Data)
- Unlocking the Secrets of Minerals: The Hidden Power Behind Our Hunger and Cravings
- The Role of Vitamins in Satiety and Weight Management
How To Level Up Nutrient Targets
The Optimal Nutrient Intakes are a crucial component of our Micros Masterclass. Once Optimisers can meet the default minimum intakes for most of the nutrients in Cronometer, they are ready to level up their nutrition game and strive towards optimal.
The screenshots below show how the Optimal Nutrient Intake targets look in Cronometer if you consume 2000 calories per day and target the full-strength Optimal Nutrient Intakes.
Minerals
Vitamins
Personalising the Optimal Nutrient Intakes
It’s important to note that the Optimal Nutrient Intakes shown in the tables above are nutrients per 2000 calories. So, unless you’re eating 2000 calories daily, you’ll need to factor them up or down based on your calorie intake.
The other thing to note is that the Optimal Nutrient Intake targets are stretch targets. In the spirit of incrementally levelling your nutrition, you don’t want to jump from the Cronometer default minimums to the Optimal Nutrient Intakes overnight.
In our Micros Masterclass, we use a spreadsheet to calculate personalised nutrient targets to help them progressively move towards the Optimal Nutrient Intakes.
How To Know if You’re Getting Nutrients
The best way to determine whether you’re getting enough of the essential micronutrients your body requires is to track your food for a few days in Cronometer.
In your daily diary on the web version of Cronometer, scroll down to see your micronutrient dashboard. In the app version, click on Home in the bottom left corner of the screen and then report to see your average nutrient intake for the past week.
Full green bars indicate you’re meeting the minimum (Bliss Point) intake for those nutrients, while shorter grey bars mean you have more work to do on those nutrients.
Remember, the default targets in Cronometer are similar to the Bliss Points, which align with maximum energy intake. So, to increase your satiety and level your nutrition, you must move towards the Optimal Nutrient Intakes.
Conclusion
Embracing Optimal Nutrient Intakes over merely meeting recommended minimums can be transformative for your health and vitality. By setting and striving for these enhanced targets:
- Experience Greater Satiety: Nutrient-dense foods help control cravings and reduce unnecessary calorie intake.
- Improve Nutritional Safety Margins: Exceeding minimum requirements ensures all bodily functions operate optimally.
- Boost Overall Well-being: A nutrient-rich diet tailored to your caloric needs supports weight management and long-term health.
- Adopt a Proactive Approach: Focus on thriving rather than avoiding deficiencies.
Gradually increasing your nutrient intake toward these optimal levels can be a significant step toward a more vibrant and healthier life.
Appendix A: The Best Sources of Each Nutrient
We have created several resources to help Optimisers move towards the Optimal Nutrient Intakes.
How To Get Adequate Protein
If you’re currently getting less than 14% protein, high-protein foods provide more protein per serving, giving you the protein your body craves.
How to Move Towards Optimal Protein Intake
However, if you’re already getting more than 14% protein and want to increase your satiety, check out our protein-rich foods, which provide more protein per calorie to help you increase your protein percentage.
Nutrient Dense Foods List
If you’re starting, check out our nutrient-dense food lists to help you pack more essential nutrients into your calorie budget.
High Nutrient Foods
Once you start zeroing in on specific priority nutrients, you can use our food lists tailored to specific nutrients.
For example, let’s say you want more calcium in your diet because you’re currently not exceeding the bliss point (minimum). In that case, you’ll prioritise foods from the top of the high-calcium food list that provides more calcium per serving.
Nutrient Rich Foods
However, once you’re getting more than the minimum and want to pack in more calcium per calorie, you could use calcium-rich foods that contain more calcium per calorie.
The Healthiest Meal Plan in the World
Rather than trying to follow an off-the-shelf meal plan, most people have the most long-term success when they evolve their diet into a nutrition-packed masterpiece. But if you want to see what a week of nutrient-dense eating could look like, download our free Healthiest Meal Plan in the World here.
Your NutriBooster Recipes: Power Packs for Your Nutritional Game
But most of us don’t just eat individual foods; we combine them to make meals. We created our suite of 35 NutriBooster recipe books to help Optimisers with different goals and preferences get the micronutrients they need from tasty recipes. These are ideal for people who don’t want to track their food and want to know what to eat to get the necessary nutrients. To kickstart your nutrition game, you can download samples of each book here.
Take the First Step: Join Our Free 7-Day Nutrient Clarity Challenge
If you’re curious and want to see how your personalised nutrition stacks up, we’d love you to take our free 7-Day Nutrient Clarity Challenge. After a few days, the Nutrient Optimizer will reveal your nutrient score, identify which foods from your current diet are more and less optimal for you, and provide food and meal suggestions to align closer to your micronutrient goals.
Micros Masterclass
When you’re prepared to elevate your nutrition game, consider joining our Micros Masterclass. Over four weeks, we’ll guide you through plugging the gaps in your diet and gamifying your nutrition to take it to the next level.
Appendix B: Bliss Point-Satiety Charts and Nutrient-Rich Foods
In the Bliss Point article, we included our high-nutrient food infographics to boost your intake of each essential nutrient.
However, for greater satiety and vitality, moving towards the Optimal Nutrient Intake means working to pack more of each nutrient per calorie into your limited energy budget.
Once you reach the minimum nutrient intake, rather than eating more, your focus pivots to increasing the quality of your diet by packing in more of each nutrient per calorie.
The nutrient-rich infographics below will help pack more nutrients your body needs to thrive without exceeding your limited energy budget. You can find more details for each nutrient and printable food lists in the resources section of our Optimising Nutrition Community.
Protein
Minerals
Potassium
Sodium
Calcium
Iron
Selenium
Magnesium
Zinc
Manganese
Vitamins
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B2
Niacin (B3)
Vitamin B5
Vitamin C
Vitamin E
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Vitamin K1
Folate
Vitamin A
Can the recipes be loaded into cronometer automatically or do they have to be loaded manually.
We’ve already loaded in all the recipes in Cronometer for people in our masterclasses or who get the recipe books to save them a ton of time.