“Hey, man! Check out that blueberry. On a scale of 1 to 100, she’s totally a 100.”
Ok, sorry. But, blueberries totally are a 100… on the NuVal System.
NuVal is a relatively new system for rating the overall nutritional value of the food you buy. Rather than providing consumers with a list of numbers for each food item, such as the amount of cholesterol, sodium and vitamin C, the NuVal number summarizes the nutrition facts – good and bad – into one, single number. All foods fall somewhere on the 1-100 scale, healthier foods being higher on the scale, unhealthy foods being at the bottom. Hence the 100 for blueberries and the 8 for sugary cereal.
Not only is this system truly user friendly, it’s reliable. NuVal was developed by an independent team of nutritional and medical experts (including Dr. David Katz), and so is not biased toward any certain food or brand.
As far as I understand, entire stores can participate in the rating scale. On the NuVal site (see link below), there is a tool to help you find participating stores in your area, as well as a form for requesting the system in your favorite stores. Think how much simpler this could make healthy shopping for just about everyone… No more torturous reading of nutrition labels, or blindly choosing the healthier product based on marketing gimmicks.
I will always be an advocate for better health education, and for knowing the science of food and why certain things are better for you. But I also know that for the most part, people want convenience and straightforward information. If one easy to understand number is going to lower the horrifying rates of diabetes and heart disease and cancer in this country (not to mention our health care costs), I’m all for it.