In this context, I’d take “nutrients” to refer loosely to the set of things other than food energy that we need to consider in diet: vitamins, dietary minerals (other than sodium, usually), certain amino acids and types of fat, and so forth. That doesn’t map all that closely to the biochemical definition of a nutrient, but I don’t expect too much from pop science, especially not in a field as contentious and politically charged as nutrition.
Oh, I don’t expect much from it at all, but unfortunately this terminology is pervasive and, IMHO, serves to confuse and confound thinking on this topic.
In this context, I’d take “nutrients” to refer loosely to the set of things other than food energy that we need to consider in diet: vitamins, dietary minerals (other than sodium, usually), certain amino acids and types of fat, and so forth. That doesn’t map all that closely to the biochemical definition of a nutrient, but I don’t expect too much from pop science, especially not in a field as contentious and politically charged as nutrition.
Oh, I don’t expect much from it at all, but unfortunately this terminology is pervasive and, IMHO, serves to confuse and confound thinking on this topic.