participants—who included prestigious contributors in the field of
nutrition science including Artemis Simopoulos, MD, Alexander
Leaf, MD, and Norman Salem, Jr., Ph.D—concluded that at least
1.2% of daily calories should come from omega-3 fatty acids, including
1% from alpha-linolenic acid and 0.1% each from EPA (eicosapen-
taenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). When translated
into the context of an 1800-calorie diet, this workshop standard
represented a recommendation of 2.4 grams of omega-3 fatty acids
per day, which we adopted as our food and recipe rating system
standard, given that we use 1,800 calories as the reference diet for the
Rating System. (The 1,800 calories chosen as the referencediet is
based upon the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation for sedentary
women, age 31-50.)
Total Nutrient Richness Chart
Once the density ratings for each food were calculated, I wanted to
create a quantitative way that each food’s density could be compared.
This was the number that was to become the Total Nutrient Richness,
featured on page 41. The number is a reflection of how many “excel-
lent,”“very good” and “good” ratings a food had. Each “excellent”
was assigned a value of 4, each “very good” a value of “2” and each
“good” a value of 1. These were added together to arriveat the Total
Nutrient Richness score.
The World’s Healthiest Foods’ Quality Rating System Methodology