Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Extension
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1571
Healthy Heart Beats
April-June 2009
Vol 31, Issue 2
Did You Know?....
Q: When shopping for my family at several local grocery stores, I try to make the healthiest choices by reading labels. Lately, I’ve noticed different logos on the shelves under various food products and labels on other foods in different grocery stores. How can I use these to make healthier choices? It’s confusing to me. Are these symbols comparable from store to store?
A: Currently the food scoring system most of us are familiar with is to read the Nutrient Facts Label. Visit www.nutrientrichfoods.org for helpful tips on navigating the grocery store if your local grocery stores have not yet instigated one of the new systems intended to help shoppers identify healthy foods. In simplistic terms each of the new systems is an attempt to rate foods by assigning an overall score to help educate consumers as to which foods are more nutrient dense or lower in calories. However, each system uses different criteria to determine healthfulness which can be confusing to the consumer. Though none of the systems factor in cost, understanding how to get the most nutrition for dollars spent may be helpful—especially in these current economic times. Below is the breakdown on how each program can help consumers make the healthiest choices. Time will tell if any of these systems proves helpful to nutrition-conscious consumers.
NuVal scores foods on a scale of 1 to 100 with the higher score
reflecting higher nutrient content and appears on shore shelves in
NuVal’s double-hexagon logo. So far, more than 50,000 products have
been tested. Those foods displaying this logo make it easier for you to
compare similar items, e.g. potatoes, white rice and pasta. Supermarkets
pay a licensing fee to participate. Look for NuVal in Price Chopper and
Hy-Vee supermarkets in early 2009; another 15 chains are expected to
roll out the system by year's end. A multidisciplinary group of experts led by David Katz,
M.D., director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Connecticut guides this
program. For more information on the complex mathematical formula based on the dietary
guidelines and the Institute of Medicine’s Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) go to:
www.nuval.com.
Smart Choices awards a single icon as an on-package green check mark of approval to healthy foods. A green checkmark means
Smart Choices has determined that the food item meets the program’s nutritional standards including (1) nutrients to encourage, e.g. fiber, (2) food groups to encourage, e.g. fruits and vegetables, and (3) nutrients to
limit, e.g. trans fat. Additionally, calories per serving and number of
servings are shown on the front of the package. Making conscientious
nutrition-based decisions is quick and easy. Selecting a product with a check mark means it
has met dietary guidelines. A partnership of food manufacturers and retailers, as well as
public health and nutrition-science organizations, including the American Dietetic Association and the American Heart Association backs this program. The Smart Choices Program will be found wherever you shop beginning in mid-2009 but companies must pay to
participate. Therefore, smaller companies may choose not to participate. For a complete list
of food-specific factors, see: www.smartchoicesprogram.com.
Guiding Stars is a shelf-tag program which uses unpublished
formulas to rate foods with star ratings with the intent of helping
consumers navigate the grocery aisles to choose foods with more fiber,
vitamins, minerals and whole grains while limiting both saturated and
trans fat, cholesterol and added sodium and sugar. A 3-star product
scores “best,” 2 stars is “better,” and one star is “good.” Of the more
than 50,000 items that have been rated so far, about 25 percent have
received stars. This program is particularly useful when comparing
items in the same category, e.g. several frozen-entrée choices. The grocery chain, Hannaford,
developed the program with input from researchers at Tufts and Harvard universities,
Dartmouth School of Medicine, and the universities of North Carolina, Southern Maine, and
California-Davis. Supermarkets pay a licensing fee to use the system. Currently 1,500
Hannaford, Food Lion, Bloom, and Sweetbay supermarkets have this system. To learn more
go to: www.guidingstars.com.
Other grocery chains are developing their own ranking system:
Healthy Ideas has been implemented by Giant Food and Stop and Shop
supermarkets. Foods are rated using nutrition threshold criteria rather than
mathematical formulas to qualify foods to display their Healthy Ideas symbol.
Visit their Web site at:
http://i4.peapod.com/wp/media/living_well/hi_criteria_giant-1.0.1.pdf.
Nutrition iQ uses color-coded shelf-tag bars to identify foods that
meet specific nutrient thresholds for key ingredients. Products that meet
baseline criteria for good nutrition are further evaluated to identify their
top one or two benefits among seven categories: fiber, calcium, whole
grains, protein, low sodium, low saturated fat, and low calories. These
are denoted by color-coded bar labels on the shelf. Those who are
watching their intake of particular nutrients, e.g. sodium or calcium, will
find this system particularly useful. The first phase of the program covers only packaged and
processed foods. The Joslin Clinic, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, supports the
program found in Supervalu, Inc. stores including Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, and Shaw's. For
more information visit: www.nutritioniQ.com.
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