This past week my nephew asked me what I knew about the ANDI, or Aggregate Nutrient Density Index. See the chart here. The ANDI assesses a food’s vitamin, mineral, antioxidant and phytochemical content PER CALORIE to come up with a number that reflects its nutrient density. Note that 1) not all major vitamins are included, and 2) this is the amount of nutrition per calorie, and not the total amount in the food. It’s critical to understanding the ANDI.
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ANDI scores foods not by the quantity of nutrients in a particular volume (e.g., ½ cup), or in some standard weight (e.g., 4 oz.), but in each CALORIE. Because of this, low-fat items like kale end up with a high score, but high-fat items like nuts get an unexpectedly low score. So the ANDI score turns out, inadvertently, to be an effective way to cut calories without counting calories. Just don’t rely on it to identify highly nutritious foods that are also high in calories. Why? Because their high-calorie state spreads out all the nutrients over many more calories. Not just high-fat foods either. Even fruits get a lower rating.
Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who made up the ANDI, recommends that 90 percent of an individual’s diet be composed of plant-based foods with high ANDI scores. Wow, that seems high. Why not 100%?, you might ask. Diets restricted to foods with high ANDI scores are deficient in fat. Nor do they contain sufficient fat-soluble vitamins, like A, D, and K. That fat-soluble vitamins are not part of the ANDI equation, I consider a major shortcoming. I see no reason to strictly limit olives, walnuts, chickpeas, navy beans, apples, swiss cheese, grapes, bananas, and peanut butter. Though adding foods with a high ANDI is a good way to increase the nutritional content of our diets, 90% is an awfully strict standard. A more realistic goal might be to increase your current intake by 10-15%. You can take it up another notch if and when you’re ready.
Nutrients incorporated into the ANDI score include minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, and selenium; vitamins such as B1, B2, B6, B12, C, and E; phytochemicals and antioxidants such as alpha carotene, beta carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, glucosinolates, and lycopene; and fiber, both soluble and insoluble. ANDI also incorporates the ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) score, which is a fancy way of conveying antioxidant strength. We don’t have a good system for measuring the phytochemical and antioxidant content of foods, despite their major benefits. ANDI seems to me a decent proxy.
One last interesting observation: It’s hard to believe that we have identified every last nutrient there is to know about. I think it’s a safe guess that the foods with the highest concentration of nutrients may also be likely to harbor other as yet unidentified nutrients.
To summarize, ANDI is simply a reflection of your grandmother’s sage advice: Eat your vegetables. I don’t really need an index for that.
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