The Eternal Battle - Satiety Vs Nutrition.

We all know what the word nutrition implies both conceptually and how it's measured numerically. 

When it comes to eating, there is another term that's equally important - satiety. We are sure you know the literal translation of it but its also possible to numerically define it for every food that you eat. There are certain dishes that are high on satiety and theoretically you need to eat less of these before you feel full and then there are dishes that are low on satiety and theoretically you need to eat more of these before you feel full. 

So, an ideal dish would be that's high on satiety and high on nutrition.

The chart below is a plot of common Indian veg & non-veg dishes followed by veg only dishes along these two parameters - satiety and nutrition, with each dish ranked relatively to everything else. 

Satiety Vs Nutrition Chart (Veg & Non-veg)

Satiety Vs Nutrition Chart (Veg)

How Did We Arrive At Nutrition Rank?

We have considered the following parameters to define the nutritive value of each of these dishes, 

total saturated fats, total unsaturated fats, total trans fats, % fiber, % protein, % sugar and micronutrients including Vitamins A/C/B, Calcium and Iron.  

Each of these above parameters was then given a positive or negative weight to arrive at a composite score for nutrition e.g. fiber, protein, total unsaturated fats and micronutrients have a positive weightage while total saturated fats, trans fats and sugar have a negative weightage. 

How Did We Arrive At Satiety Rank?

We have considered the following parameters to define the nutritive value of each of these dishes, 

total sugar, total protein, calories/gm, total fiber & total fats.

Like in the case of Nutrition Rank, each of these above parameters was then given a positive or negative weight to arrive at a composite score for nutrition e.g. fiber, protein have a positive weightage while total fats, calories/gm and sugar have a negative weightage.

Optimising Nutrition, from where this exercise is inspired, uses another factor called hedonic quotient in defining satiety. In our case, we believe a negative score on total fat content and sugar content should be a good alternative to hedonic quotient - after all we tend to overeat food items that have more sugar and are fried. 

This is an organic/evolving exercise and we would love to hear your feedback/comments on it. More importantly, if you spot an error, please do feel free to point it out and send us a mail at contact@mtjbrands.com.

Blog post written in collaboration with Shruti Marjara. You can find more about her and her work at her super information blog NutriMantra. 

P.S. Did you notice that two of The HealthSpan Co’s products are nearly at the top on satiety and nutrition? If you are keen to know how we got there, we would be happy to share the data and workings.

Disclaimers:

1. For most dishes, we have assumed that they are cooked in minimal oil and butter unless that's impossible to do e.g. butter chicken, french fries.

2. For some dishes, we have taken a different approach and assumed that the most consumed version of it is used on the chart e.g. while dosa can be cooked in a healthy way, it's mostly consumed with dollops of butter. Aloo parantha also falls in the same category.

3. The serving size is limited to a standard serve size as defined by most sites. 

4. The whey protein and protein bar used in the calculations are the no 1 selling products of the category on amazon India as on 23rd April.