The NuVal Nutritional Scoring System has updated its website to include sample score of hundreds of everyday items. We posted about NuVal and its competitors a few months ago.  These nutrition scoring systems aim to simplify the task of choosing healthier foods at the supermarket.

The NuVal approach is especially easy to understand – each product gets a score from 1 (lowest) to 100 (highest) based on the presence of “good” and “bad” nutrients. The system, originally known as ONQI (Overall Nutritional Qulaity Index), was developed by a respectable team of scientists led by Dr David Katz.

Here are some interesting facts:

The top scoring category, unsurprisingly, is fruits and vegetables, with all products scoring 78 to 100, except for coconut, with a mere 24. Could this be a mistake?

The cereal section has products with scores as low as 4, and as high as 100. Hodgson Mill Unprocessed Wheat Bran scores a perfect hundred, but do you know any kids who’ll eat it? Sadly for this blog’s editor, a childhood favorite, Cap’n Crunch, gets a lowly score of 10.

The worst scoring categories are cookies (1-40) and salty snacks(1-52). Cheetos get a measly 5, Doritos a 10. The top scorer is Garden Of Eatin No Salt Blue Tortilla Chips Made With Organic Blue Corn with a score of 52.

Vegetables, either frozen or canned, score anywhere between 2-100, based on their original “fresh score” plus consideration of the nutrition reduction caused by freezing or canning. Canned vegetables usually get plenty of added salt as a preservative and flavor enhancer, but unfortunately this lowers their score.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you are pondering which cereal to choose from, perhaps NuVal can help you. Right now, the shelf display scoring system is being tested at Price-Chopper and Hy-Vee. Rollout in other groceries has been expected in fall 2008, and early 2009, but it perhaps the logistical challenges are causing some delays. If you have come across an NuVal score that helped you make a halthier shopping decision, please share with us.

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