Over the past decade, the most common New Year’s resolutions have included losing weight, increasing exercise and eating healthier. These health-focused resolutions seem straightforward, but few individuals succeed in keeping them for longer than a month or two.

Focusing resolutions on how a person should look or what is trending is shortsighted and potentially dangerous for long-term health. One significant concern is how they can sabotage a person’s ability to consume adequate calories and essential nutrients.

Question: How can these resolutions compromise getting an adequate supply of essential nutrients?

Answer: Foods contain various essential nutrients, but not all foods contain all essential nutrients. Therefore, consuming a variety of foods has become a standard nutrition recommendation. When calories are limited, or food groups are restricted, the ability to consume adequate nutrients can become challenging.

Q: How can limiting food groups cause nutrient inadequacies?

A: Weight-loss diets often limit foods that contain fat. Because four essential vitamins (A, D, E and K) require fat for normal absorption, a low-fat diet can result in these nutrient inadequacies.

In addition, individuals consuming primarily plant-based diets risk consuming insufficient protein, causing dietary protein to be used for calories instead of vital protein functions. Plant-based diets are also likely low in essential minerals such as iron, copper and zinc.

Too frequently, diets promoted as healthy promote single foods or food groups with “superfood qualities.” The result too often is a diet lacking the nutrients needed for long-term health. For example, consuming only high-fiber whole grains can inhibit the absorption of the essential minerals these foods contain.

Q: What type of resolutions could have better long-term benefits?

A: Many public health recommendations focus on expanding life span by preventing disease. We think these recommendations are too limited and often miss the importance of ensuring that we can live an active and mentally stimulating life as long as our life span. This concept is summed up by the term Playspan, coined by Neal Spruce, CEO of the nutritional program DotFit. Playspan is inclusive.

Combining an adequate diet with some activity/exercise is essential for health and a life span that meets our genetic potential. It is critical to recognize that as dietary calories decrease, nutrient inadequacies increase. Because blatant nutrient deficiency symptoms can take months to years to become apparent, the importance of the 40 essential nutrients is generally underrecognized by the medical field.

When making your New Year’s resolutions, consider improving your Playspan by staying active throughout your life. Also, because so few diets contain all the nutrients you need for health, adding a low-dose daily multivitamin/mineral supplement is a habit worth keeping.

Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S., and Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S., are retired nutrition faculty from the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa.