Trading Up for Health

Trading up for health is a common theme you hear a lot about in the world of NuVal™. But what exactly does this mean? Quite simply, it means you have choices in various categories of foods store-wide based on scoring between 1 and 100. Remember that NuVal™ has currently scored almost 38,000 products in 16 categories! The higher the score, the better the nutrition. By moving from product A to product B, you can reduce a certain amount of fat, sodium or calories. In addition, you can add fiber, whole grains or other important nutrients to your eating habits. This has the potential to significantly move you towards better health over the coming month or year!

How are NuVal Scores Calculated

The NuVal™ Nutritional Scoring System takes more than 30 different nutrients and nutrition factors into account when developing a Score, making it a very robust food rating system. The nutrient content for a food is processed through a complex algorithm developed through a rigorous process by a team of twelve experts. Boiled down to its simplest description, here is how the NuVal™ Nutritional Scoring System works:

• Nutrients with generally favorable effects on health are placed in the numerator, where higher values increase the NuVal™ Score.
• Nutrients with generally unfavorable effects on health are placed in the denominator, where higher values decrease the NuVal™ score.

In addition to the numerator and denominator nutrients, the algorithm takes into account other key factors that measure the quality and density of nutrients, as well as the strength of their association with specific health conditions.

For example, trans fat has a very strong association with heart disease, a highly prevalent and serious condition. Therefore, the algorithm assigns a "weighting coefficient" to trans fat which substantially lowers the Score of foods containing it. Those weighting coefficients are determined by the prevalence, severity, and strength of association with health conditions.

The quality of macronutrients (fats, proteins, carbohydrates) is another key factor in the overall equation. Fat quality, protein quality, carbohydrate quality, and glycemic load (a measure of carbohydrate quality) are among the "universal adjustors" that can move a NuVal™ Score higher or lower. The higher the quality, the higher the Score.

Foods with higher nutrient density -- a significant amount of vitamins and mineral, but relatively few calories -- also receive extra credit and higher Scores. The greater a food's "trajectory" toward numerator nutrients (generally favorable) and away from denominator nutrients (generally unfavorable), the greater the Score.

Categories:

Categories of scores continue to be released and updated. Here are some basic facts to consider:

• Categories of foods have unique nuances depending on whether they are plant-based or animal-based.
• Numerator (beneficial) nutrients are not capped for natural plant food and meats, but are capped for processed foods.
• Numerator (beneficial) nutrients are capped for all processed foods to prevent artificial inflation by fortification (nutrients added to food).
• Natural sodium and sugar content of foods such as dairy, fruits and vegetables is not counted in the denominator (detrimental nutrients).

Each category has its own range and median, so to earn an A+ score, 100 is not required or even possible in certain categories.

Let’s Practice!

To get you started thinking in the NuVal™ way, here are some products for you to evaluate to determine which would receive the highest score and thus be most nutritious. After you decide which food has the highest NuVal score, click on food in each section to get the answer.

We encourage you to go to www.nuval.com to learn more and play the Nutrition by the Numbers Game for more practice using the NuVal™ scoring system.