Some things are not worth the effort of eating
Maybe about 5% of digestion and metabolism is understood.
There are more nutrients in foods than just their commonly measured constituents like oils, carbohydrates, proteins or their residual ash. There are countless enzymes and other molecules.
charts
Nutrient charts can be misleading when they don't specify their measures. Some measure percentages of protein, fats and oils, carbohydrates and fiber by volume and others by weight. Some by dry weight and some resh weight. Sometimes in the same chart. The standard scientific measure is calories.
Nutrient contents are often oversimplified. Meat and beans are often classed as protein while ignoring their other components and ignoring the protein content of other foods.
And their quality depends on freshness, growing conditions, temperature, soil quality, processing and handling. Many degrade with age and processing.
food diary
You can learn the real nutritional value of a food by paying attention to its effects on feelings, health and vitality. The taste and smell of some foods can have immediate and noticeable effects even before digestion begins. Others take weeks to take effect. A food diary of each meal and how you feel every day can track immediate and long term effects and pinpoint problems.
All animals have in built calculators operating mostly below the level of conscious awareness that monitor nutrient levels. Smell alone reminds them of previous experience and lets them know what to expect of a food.
protein
Protein deficiency is pretty rare. Getting enough is almost inevitable in the course of eating enough to get the energy to survive (unless we try to live on lollies). All unprocessed food contains proteins. Grains, fruit and vegetables contain high quality proteins and many have nearly as much or more than animal products. Our body tells us when we need more proteins if we are aware of it.
Amino acids from the digestion of proteins are essential for DNA to generate new proteins to replace old as cells come and go. Proteins are in every cell of fresh food.
Some dietary guidelines recommend 50 grams (5 twenty cent pieces) of protein daily to replace protein turnover. More refined estimates are as low as 15 grams.
If we eat more protein than we need for replacement then the surplus burdens the metabolic and elimination systems as it is metabolized for energy. Protein is much less efficient than sugars and fats as a source of energy and its degradation products are more toxic and destructive.
Proteins require heroic digestive and metabolic effort. They are acid forming due to the acidic minerals left after digestion. Then when pH falls too low the body mines calcium from bone and teeth as a buffer to raise pH raising the risk for many diseases including cancer.
A high protein plant based diet with for example a lot of grains, pulses or soy or gluten fake meats causes some of these same problems as a high protein, animal based diet. Better, but not optimal.
Eating the minimum amount to maintain the body is the most efficient, comfortable, and healthy.
oils and fats
Oils and fats are essential for hormone and cell wall production. A zero fat diet causes problems quickly.
Metabolism of fats for energy by humans is slower, less efficient and more destructive than carbohydrates from grains, fruit and vegetables. Industrialized agriculture provides staggering quantities of refined food oils. Their overuse contributes to a multitude of avoidable diseases including diabetes and heart disease.
Fats and oils makes the blood thicker slowing circulation and reducing oxygen uptake and distribution. The more saturated the fat the greater the impact and the longer it circulates in the body. A half-hour after a double meat or cheeseburger a quarter or third of a blood sample will be a fat emulsion floating on the top.
Fats are often eaten as a tranquilizer. Relaxing through suffocation. Getting to sleep is easier.
Animal fats and hydrogenated plant oils have more carbon links in their molecular chain taken up by hydrogen bonds and so are stiffer and less flexible. They have a higher melting point, a longer shelf life and are thicker at body temperature. After eating they stay longer in circulation than unsaturated fats before being absorbed (if they break down) and so have a greater opportunity to thicken the blood and attach to blood vessel walls and fat cells. Long tubes of hardened fat are withdrawn from blood vessels during vascular surgery.
Fats in meat and dairy products produce a full feeling often mistaken as satisfying a need for protein.
Eggs are more than 50% fat. Lean meat can be 70% fat.
Plant oils although less damaging still take their toll after being saturated by processing or cooking. They form polymers at high temperatures in frying pans. The plastic glaze can be seen on food and utensils.
Nuts, avocados and seeds can be 75% fat. Plants from cold climates contain oils that are liquid at lower temperatures and less viscous so they circulate more easily in the blood stream and are absorbed quicker.
The oils in fresh fruit, vegetables, grains and nuts can be enough. Test to see how the body feels with little or no refined oil in the diet.
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no hard fats. No saturated fats
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no overheated fats or oils
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Little of no deep-fried food
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no margarine. Perhaps try a little olive oil on toast or a little tahini or spreads like humus or baba ganoush
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use unsaturated or mono saturated oils preferably cold pressed
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cook with heat stable low smoke oils
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lightly baste with oil and grill
fibre
Insoluble fiber is mostly not digested but the microorganisms that feed on it in the gut produce gases that puff up faeces (so they float like foam). which helps their passage and maintains the health of the digestive system. Like a few other plant foods too much produces wind.
Some brans like wheat bran fibre are sharp and lacerate the gut. Bread is traditionally eaten with butter or oil as a lubricant.
minerals and vitamins
If there is a deficiency, nutritional minerals and vitamin supplements can bring dramatic and immediate improvements in mood and thinking. Some are useless or toxic if they exceed requirements so its worth researching their effects. A better diet might work slower but is more sustainable.
sugar
Refined carbohydrates including sugar and alcohol stimulate pleasure centres in the body and relieve stress. Quitting and withdrawal is as difficult and uncomfortable as addictive drugs.
High levels of sugar in the blood from refined carbohydrates coats proteins with a fur of short chain sugar molecules. This alters the shape of hormones and disrupts their biochemical activity which relies on conformity of shape to receptors molecules. Short sugar molecules also attach to muscle fibers and are sheered when muscle fibers slide over each other. The friction causes heating and stiffness during movement.
Sugar overstimulates the adrenals and disrupts the hormonal system compounding depression and anxiety.
High sugar levels in packaged and fast foods is the leading cause of the devastating epidemic of hypoglycemia and diabetes in western countries.
There are lots of web-links to sites extolling the virtues of sugar or limply advising moderation. I haven't found one one of these with well researched references to side effects.
salt
Most refined salt has minerals extracted for sale to manufacturing industries to leave mostly sodium chloride. Eating this raises the proportion of sodium to other ions in the body so we eat more to try to restore balance. Natural salt is more satisfying. It contains minerals in more similar proportions to those we have evolved to need and doesn't lead to the insatiable salt cravings that make fast food so more-ish.
supplements
Most of the recommendations for supplements come from people making money from them. Research on most supplements suggests more modest or uncertain benefits which are tiny compared with the benefits of exercise, raw food and a plant based diet. I suggest reading the research before relying too much on commercial interpretations, commentaries or promotions.
Over the years I have tried supplements like vitamins, proteins, high omega3 oil and spirulina and each time there was no noticeable effect or I was significantly fitter and healthier without them. Some were an obvious drag and some felt toxic, all of which I could have expected if I had read the research first.
There is some promising research into some uses of supplements. Blood tests may show if a supplement might be beneficial. A deficient diet or a metabolic problem might be relieved by measured doses. However not all supplements are equivalent to natural sources and some have been found to increase disease. Generally at best they alleviate a problem without addressing the causes or cost money without doing much harm.
There is evidence that placebos work slightly better in most cases. Placebos give the same confidence and hope but without the side effects. They are fairly cheap online and are said to be almost harmless.