Looking to Score

You've heard of Weight Watchers, right? Every food has a points value and based on a height/weight/desired weight loss ratio you are given a daily points allocation. Ok, so a company named NuVal is giving all foods another type of point value.

They are taking the guess work out of shopping for healthy food. This mathematical ranking was developed by a panel of nutrition and medical experts and the results make it easy to determine what are the best items for you.

How? According to nuval.com "the NuVal System scores food on a scale of 1-100. The higher the NuVal Score, the better the nutrition. It’s that simple. It considers 30-plus nutrients and nutrition factors – the good (protein, calcium, vitamins) and the not-so-good (sugar, sodium, cholesterol). And then it boils it down into a simple, easy-to-use number; a number you can trust to make better decisions about nutrition in just a few seconds. And it’s coming to every aisle of your favorite grocery stores – right there on the shelf tag. Now you can compare overall nutrition the same way you compare price."

I think it's quite an idea. So I've listed some seemingly healthy items that have surprising low scores and some of the top ranking foods. Here's the good, the bad and the ugly:

Shocked it's not as healthy...
Pretzels (1 point)!
Cinnamon Raisin Bread (8 points)
Kashi Strawberry Fields Cereal (11 points)
Sauerkraut (13 points)
Baked Lays (24 points)
Chicken Breast boneless (39 points)
Healthy Choice Hearty 7 - Grain Bread (35 points)

Some foods with 100 point ranking...
Blueberries
Broccoli
Fresh Cut Whole Green Beans
Unprocessed Wheat Bran

You have to check out their site, too. They have great tips for choosing good foods and they list all the current point values. Nuval.com

This is not in the DFW area just yet, but I'm sure it will make it's way here soon enough. I am going to dig into this a little more and see if I can put together some recipes with high-scoring foods. Stay tuned...