King Soopers, one of the major grocery stores in Colorado, recently announced that they will begin using the NuVal™ Nutritional Scoring System in their stores to help their consumers make better decisions about the foods they eat. I recently saw this system advertised on TV and I was curious about the system, how it was developed and by whom so I did some additional research that I wanted to share.
The NuVal™ System scores foods on a scale of 1 to 100. The higher the NuVal™ Score, the better the nutrition1. The idea behind this system is that consumers can make decisions about foods and can compare two different foods without having to read the fact panels, package labels and nutrition facts1.
Most of the information available about NuVal™ comes from the creators of the system themselves so it has a bias. NuVal™ is also a for profit company2. The website states that a team of medical and nutrition experts including endocrinologist, dietitians, weight management experts and biochemists led by Dr. David Katz were instrumental in the creation of this system1. NuVal™ scores are calculated using an algorithm. The Griffin Hospital, which is an affiliate of the Yale University School of Medicine, funded the creation of the algorithm which took two years to develop1. NuVal™ scores are displayed on shelf tags near the price. The scores are now used in 25 different super markets and drug stores. King Soopers and City Markets are the only stores in Colorado currently using the system.
Each food item in a store, including processed foods and fresh produce, is given a score based on over thirty nutrients and nutrition factors1. The developers of this scoring system developed an “Overall Nutritional Quality Index” algorithm that divides the “good” nutrients (things like fiber, vitamins and minerals) over the “not so good” food ingredients like sugar, trans fats, saturated fats, sodium and cholesterol1. Other factors like the quality and density of nutrients as well as the macronutrients are figured into the overall equation1. The idea is that a higher quality=a higher score.
I was curious about the scoring so I accessed some of the lists from the database. Some of the highest scoring items that I found, as expected, were fresh produce. Blueberries, Broccoli florets, and Green Giant Cut steamable frozen green beans all received a score of 1001. Hodgson Mill Unprocessed Wheat Bran also topped the list with a score of 1001. The lowest scores, as expected, went to processed foods like Crunchy Cheetos which received a score of 4, Lays Stax Original Potato Crisps (3) and Del Monte canned Sauerkraut (2)1. The NuVal™ website does also acknowledge some limitations of the system. It does not account for anything beyond the “nutritiousness” of the item. Food safety is not measured nor is any favor given to organic products1.
Denver’s Channel 7 took a registered dietitian, Kim Gorman, who is the weight management program director at the University of Colorado Denver shopping with them to get her take on the NuVal™ scores. Gorman liked the scoring idea in some ways but disliked the fact that some things like Coco Puffs and Regular Life Cereal had the same score. She says that for the average person “I think it's a great way to gauge how well you're doing, for the person who's using food labels and they're following certain parts of their diet, not so much because they'll get into, 'Why is this one better than that one,' and it may aggravate a little bit of confusion." She also cautioned "If you're going to snack, go to the highest number you possibly can.2" In the same news story, the Denver Channel also reported that a King Soopers spokesman mentioned that King Soopers has plans to staff eight nutritionists in metro area stores before the end of the year to help shoppers with dietary advice2.
In conclusion, I feel more comfortable with the NuVal™ scores after doing some additional research. I do agree with Kim Gorman that the scores are more suited for beginners that are just starting to make healthier choices rather than the savvy consumer that is already reading food labels and monitoring their diet. Given the obesity crisis, this is an important step in the right direction and I hope that we continue to incorporate things like this as well as the presence of dietitians into our grocery stores.
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Sarah
