Have you ever wondered 'which nuts should I add to my diet to improve my bone health'?
I recently got a full body checkup including bone density test. I was shocked to find out that it was very low. I consume a lot of dairy products and get some amount of exercise. My mother, who also has tooth enamel problems besides bone density problems, really needed to supplement her diet with foods rich in Calcium, Iron, Phosphorous and other Vitamins like B2, B3 to really aid bone and teeth health. We are both heavy snackers - I usually snack on chips or biscuits knowing fully well that they are not good for me. However, I love munching on nuts and seeds but I have never known which ones are the best for you. I know that nuts can be very high in calories and saturated fats. When she came to me for advice, I was honestly clueless. I did a couple of Google searches but there were too many variables. So I decided to put my BI hat on and solve this with data.
Nuts/Seeds nutritional values vary and there are many myths surrounding what is good for you and what is not. I decided to look at datasets that gave me a comprehensive picture of the nutritional value of different foods, specifically, nuts. I found this page and this section "USDA Nutrition Dataset for the Apps for Healthy Kids Competition" had an Excel dataset that looked pretty comprehensive. I imported this into Tableau, filtered out Food Group 12 - Nuts/Seeds and started messing with it.
My aim was a build a dashboard that gave you information about which nuts/seeds to consume in order to maximize the intake of a particular nutrient while minimizing the number of carbs, fat, and calories in that type of nut/seed.
So here it is.
Understanding Nutritional Value of Nuts/Seeds (Data from USDA)
Use this dashboard to find out which nuts/seeds to include in your diet to maximize the intake of a certain nutrient while reducing the number of calories and saturated fat.
Here's how to use it:
1. Select the nutrient of which you want to maximize the intake.
2. Set an upper limit to the number of calories that you are willing to consume. (If you are like me you can skip this step)
3. Hover over the circles to see which nuts/seeds have the highest nutritional value in terms of the selected n nutrient. The nuts/seeds in the lower right quadrant and the ones with the smallest circles are the best for you.
4. If you want to look at a group of nuts/seeds, select that from the group.
Make an informed choice to improve your bone health. Or not. But check out the dashboard anyway - it is quite fun.
