Thanks to our obsession with calories, we appear to have lost sight of what else is really in food: nearly six in 10 people don’t think about the vitamin and mineral content of what we eat, despite over a quarter actively logging their calorie intake in an app.

This is problematic. Research from Frontiers in Nutrition in 2018 found that many people are deficient in nutrients, potentially due to our obsession with calories. Researcher Emma Derbyshire found that 50% of mid-life women had low selenium levels, 25% had inadequate iron levels, 34% were having less potassium than recommended and 17% had iodine intakes below the lower recommended nutrient intake. Magnesium and vitamin D intake were particularly low among women in their 20s – all nutrients needed to be energised, sleep well, support your immune system, improve your workout performance and improve your mood (aka, be truly healthy).

“Where the public are being encouraged to reduce their energy intakes, it is important to ensure that the micronutrient profile of diets is sustained,” Derbyshire wrote.

Calorie counting: is energy or nutritional value more important when it comes to food?