How to Use the Nutrivore Score

The Nutrivore Score is a practical tool that measures the total nutrients per calorie in a food, offering a straightforward way to assess nutrient density without assigning moral judgments to food choices. Unlike many scoring systems that emphasize “good” or “bad” foods, the Nutrivore Score is rooted in the idea that all foods lie on a spectrum of nutrient density. This approach recognizes that different foods bring different nutritional strengths to the table, making them valuable in varied ways within a balanced diet.

Rather than setting a rigid threshold, the Nutrivore Score encourages flexibility and appreciation for nutrient diversity in the diet. Foods with a score over 150 are nutrient-positive, meaning they contribute more nutrients than calories. However, this doesn’t mean that lower-scoring foods are less valuable—many of these foods still offer essential nutrients. For example, cheese, with an average Nutrivore Score of 140, is rich in calcium, making it a valuable inclusion in a well-rounded diet despite its moderate score.

To make the Nutrivore Score easier to use, foods are classified by nutrient density. Super nutrient-dense foods are those with a score above 800, high nutrient-density foods score between 400 and 800, and medium nutrient-density foods fall between 150 and 400. These categories help identify nutrient-rich foods but aren’t intended as ranking tiers to moralize food choice. The Nutrivore Score is not about prescribing or restricting food choices; instead, it highlights the nutritional value of foods across a wide spectrum.

Ultimately, the Nutrivore Score serves as one of many tools to guide food choices within the context of a varied and balanced diet. It reinforces the value of whole, minimally processed foods without discouraging flexibility or inducing guilt. Rather than focusing on every individual food’s score, the Nutrivore Score encourages us to view diet quality holistically—if some foods are lower in nutrients, others can balance them out, creating a nourishing, enjoyable diet.

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Look up the Nutrivore Score of any food in the database of 8,000 foods.

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How to Use the Nutrivore Score

With its flexible approach, the Nutrivore Score empowers us to make nutrient-rich choices without overthinking or sacrificing enjoyment. Rather than focusing on perfection, the goal is to build a pattern of nutrient-dense choices over time, helping us meet our nutritional needs and fostering a positive relationship with food.

The easiest way to use the Nutrivore Score is to choose the most nutrient-dense options among the foods you already enjoy, have access to, and can afford. Below are some practical ways to incorporate nutrient-dense choices in everyday meals.

Simple Swaps

Whenever possible, swap a lower Nutrivore Score food for a higher one to increase your overall nutrient intake. Here are a few ideas:

• Dinner Sides: If you’re roasting chicken for dinner and want to add a starch and vegetable, try swapping a dinner roll (Nutrivore Score: 130) with a baked sweet potato (Nutrivore Score: 497) or butternut squash (Nutrivore Score: 718). For the veggie, consider switching green beans (Nutrivore Score: 605) to asparagus (Nutrivore Score: 1385) or broccoli (Nutrivore Score: 2833) for an easy nutrient boost.
• Pasta Dishes: Making spaghetti? Instead of regular pasta noodles (Nutrivore Score: 145), try whole wheat pasta (Nutrivore Score: 202), options made from edamame, chickpeas, or lentils (Nutrivore Scores up to 509), zoodles (zucchini noodles; Nutrivore Score: 1477), or baked spaghetti squash (Nutrivore Score: 297).
• Everyday Additions: Add nutrient-dense options wherever you can—berries in your breakfast, a side salad with dinner, or veggies with hummus at lunch all offer easy boosts in nutrition.

Anytime you can trade up to a higher Nutrivore Score option, you’re enhancing your nutrient intake. You can apply this method across all your meals, from breakfast cereals to pizza toppings and sandwich fillings. You can explore thousands of food scores here.

Easy Additions

Another way to use the Nutrivore Score is by adding nutrient-dense ingredients to your meals. Even small additions can make a big difference:

• Taco Toppings: On Taco Tuesday, try adding fresh cilantro (Nutrivore Score: 2609), shredded Romaine lettuce (Nutrivore Score: 2128), diced tomatoes (Nutrivore Score: 983), cucumbers (Nutrivore Score: 472), or avocado slices (Nutrivore Score: 251) as toppings.
• Spaghetti Sauce: Add a tablespoon of chopped garlic (Nutrivore Score: 5622) and a half cup of chopped fresh basil (Nutrivore Score: 3381) to a 40-ounce jar of store-bought marinara sauce. This can boost the sauce’s Nutrivore Score from 575 to 707.
• Herbs, Spices, and Condiments: Seasoning with herbs and spices is another great way to add nutrients while enhancing flavor. Many condiments are nutrient-dense as well—try hot sauce (Nutrivore Score: 1193), mustard (Nutrivore Score: 718), fish sauce (Nutrivore Score: 593), or soy sauce (Nutrivore Score: 433).

Incorporating nutrient-dense additions into your meals is a simple, effective way to enhance the quality of your diet without overhauling your usual recipes. The Nutrivore Score helps you make these choices easily, encouraging a nutrient-rich diet that is both flexible and satisfying.

Example: Building the Perfect Sandwich

And of course, you can also combine a swap and addition approach to up the ante on nutrient density even more! Let’s take a basic ham and cheese sandwich (3 ounces deli ham, 1.5 ounces cheddar cheese, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise on white bread) as an example. Let’s maximize the nutrient density of this sandwich by utilizing both simple swaps and easy additions:

• Swap the Bread: Simply opting for whole wheat bread (Nutrivore Score: 215) or multigrain bread (Nutrivore Score: 194 ) instead of white bread (Nutrivore Score: 128) adds a ton of nutrients to this sandwich.
• Swap the Cheese: You’ll enjoy more nutrients per calorie by swapping cheddar cheese (Nutrivore Score: 126) for gouda (Nutrivore Score: 136), Swiss cheese (Nutrivore Score: 157) or reduced fat cheddar cheese (Nutrivore Score: 155).
• Use Fresh Ham Instead: Roasted cured ham (rump, lean only) has a Nutrivore Score of 427 whereas deli ham (96% fat free) has a Nutrivore Score of 294.
• Add Mustard: Yellow mustard has a Nutrivore Score of 718! Plus, this is a yummy addition to a ham and cheese sandwich!
• Add Veggies: Let’s keep it simple with some red onion slices (Nutrivore Score: 380), sliced tomato (Nutrivore Score: 983), and green leaf lettuce (Nutrivore Score: 2245). Of course, feel free to add whatever veggies you like!

Certainly, you don’t need to do all of the changes above (it’s hard to beat the convenience of deli ham, for example); but if you did, you’d increase the Nutrivore Score of your entire sandwich from a perfectly fine 184 to an impressive 308!!! That’s a whopping 67% (two-thirds!) increase in nutrient density!!! (And for reference, the calories are nearly identical here, 603 for your basic ham and cheese sandwich and 584 for your suped-up sandwich.)

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How Not to Use the Nutrivore Score

The Nutrivore Score is an incredible tool for identifying nutrient-dense foods, often revealing surprising results. Without it, we might never guess that strawberries are twice as nutrient-dense as blueberries, or that cantaloupe contains twice the nutrients per calorie as honeydew. It might surprise you that iceberg lettuce is slightly more nutrient-dense than artichokes, celery, and even sockeye salmon, or that dark meat turkey scores higher than light meat turkey. The Nutrivore Score even shows us that canned clam liquid ranks as the most nutrient-dense food!

However, some of these surprising results come from comparing foods with very different energy densities or nutrient profiles, which makes it essential to use the Nutrivore Score only to compare highly related foods. When used this way, the Nutrivore Score can help you find the most nutrient-dense option among similar choices.

The Nutrivore Score is particularly useful for identifying nutrient-dense options within food groups. For example, comparing cantaloupe (Score: 457) to honeydew (Score: 228) reveals that cantaloupe is significantly more nutrient-dense due to its higher levels of vitamins A and C, carotenoids, and polyphenols. Similarly, enoki mushrooms top the mushroom category with a score of 4434, while watercress is one of the most nutrient-dense leafy greens at 6929 (or 11,265 for garden cress if you’re growing your own). For seafood, Eastern oysters lead the way with a Nutrivore Score of 3049, while Granny Smith apples are the most nutrient-dense variety of apple, with a Nutrivore Score of 204.

Very low-energy-density foods can have high Nutrivore Scores if they offer a substantial amount of a single nutrient. For example, coffee and tea have high scores (6832 and 3721, respectively) due to their polyphenol content and very low calorie count, even though they aren’t intended as primary sources of essential nutrients. On the other hand, foods with high energy density, like walnuts, must contain substantial quantities of multiple nutrients to achieve a high score. Walnuts are rich in healthy fats, biotin, vitamin E, copper, and manganese, yet because they also contain 183 calories per ounce, their Nutrivore Score sits at 303. Both low- and high-energy-density foods can play a valuable role in a balanced diet, but comparing them based on the Nutrivore Score alone may not give you the full picture.

Let’s look at kale and beef liver as an example of why it’s essential to compare similar foods. Kale has a Nutrivore Score of 4233, and beef liver is close behind at 4021, making both among the most nutrient-dense foods. However, these two foods deliver very different nutrients. Kale provides significant amounts of fiber, vitamins K and C, biotin, and various antioxidants for only 19 calories per 2-cup serving. Beef liver, by contrast, offers extremely high levels of vitamin B12, copper, vitamin A, and several B vitamins in a 3.5-ounce serving, providing 11 essential nutrients at more than 50% of daily value (DV). While both are highly nutrient-dense, they fulfill different roles in a diet, so it’s not a matter of one being “better” than the other.

The Nutrivore Score is best used as a comparative tool within highly related foods—helping you identify the most nutrient-dense option among specific fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and more. This approach ensures you’re using the score to guide nutrient-dense choices in a way that complements your dietary needs without limiting variety. Remember that dietary diversity is an important hallmark of a healthy diet, and the Nutrivore Score should be used to expand the diet, not limit it. Ultimately, the Nutrivore Score helps you discover foods that add valuable nutrients to your diet while embracing the full diversity that food has to offer.

There is another caveat when it comes to the Nutrivore Score. If you find yourself obsessing over nutrient density gamification, or finagling high-Nutrivore Score swaps or additions in a way that detracts from your enjoyment of the foods you’re eating, then please disregard the Nutrivore Score completely. The Nutrivore Score is a super-useful tool, but not every tool works for every person, and thankfully for us, it isn’t the only one in our nutrient density toolbox.

If the Nutrivore Score is not the right tool for you, no worries, we have created other resources to help you implement Nutrivore principles without sweating the Nutrivore Score. So if you would prefer, you can also instead just use the Nutrivore Meal Map (one of 5 awesome free downloads you get when you sign up for the Nutrivore Newsletter) and Nutrivore Weekly Serving Matrix (available in the in-print book or here). The Nutrivore Score was instrumental for the development of these resources, but you don’t need to compare scores to use them. Instead, you can use the healthy eating patterns identified through the Nutrivore philosophy to guide food choices, all while embracing flexibility and flavor without guilt or seeking perfection.

Ready to Getting Started?

The Nutrivore Score provides an accessible and balanced approach to enhancing diet quality through nutrient-dense choices. By focusing on nutrients per calorie, it empowers consumers to make informed decisions within each food category, whether through simple swaps, strategic additions, or thoughtful comparisons of related foods. The Nutrivore Score’s flexible framework encourages a diverse, nutrient-rich diet that supports long-term health without imposing rigid restrictions. For those seeking a broader guide, additional Nutrivore resources offer alternative ways to incorporate nutrient density principles. Ultimately, the Nutrivore Score serves as a powerful tool to support dietary choices that prioritize health, enjoyment, and sustainability.

If you’re ready to get started, you can look up the Nutrivore Score of about 8,000 foods for free! If you’d rather a full-perusable format of the Nutrivore Score database, that’s available in Patreon.

Nutrivore Score Search

Look up the Nutrivore Score of any food in the database of 8,000 foods.

Read moreNutrivore Score Search

Learn More About the Nutrivore Score

What Is Nutrient Density?

Challenges in Nutrient Profiling

How the Nutrivore Score Is Calculated

How to Use the Nutrivore Score

Nutrivore Score Search

Look up the Nutrivore Score of any food in the database of 8,000 foods.

Read moreNutrivore Score Search

Want to know the top 500 most nutrient-dense foods?

Top 500 Nutrivore Foods

The Top 500 Nutrivore Foods e-book is an amazing reference deck of the top 500 most nutrient-dense foods according to their Nutrivore Score. Think of it as the go-to resource for a super-nerd, to learn more and better understand which foods stand out, and why!

If you are looking for a quick-reference guide to help enhance your diet with nutrients, and dive into the details of your favorite foods, this book is your one-stop-shop!

Buy now for instant digital access.

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