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Community Corner

Healthy Food Shopping Made Easy at Big Y

NuVal Nutritional Scoring System assists shoppers.

March was National Nutrition Month. Which got Patch thinking: Wouldn’t be it great if we had our own personal nutritionist to shop WITH us and help us make better choices? Decisions that aren’t based on marketing or misconceptions?  

 offers something very close.

Back in September, Big Y launched the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System, a food labeling program that provides consumers with an easy guide to choosing good foods. NuVal scores food on a scale of 1-100, with the higher the score, the better for you, and ultimately the better choice. NuVal is the brainchild of Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center and a leading expert in nutrition and weight control. 

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Katz believes that even people who are looking to get better nutrition are often confused, and while we have been given some good advice, it isn’t always practical or easy to apply.

“It was abundantly clear to me that people were trying to get better nutrition and getting lost along the way,” Katz told Patch this week. “What we needed was a GPS in the food supply. So we built NuVal. It’s expert, objective guidance on better nutrition, wherever it resides.”

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Partnering with Griffin Hospital in Derby, Katz led a group of independent medical experts and nutritionists to create the complex the algorithm (the Overall Nutritional Quality Index) that looks at more than 30 nutrients in each food – i.e., protein, fiber, fat, sugar and sodium, to name a few. Then turns it into a single number.

While the science behind it may be complicated, the approach is simple. 

“It helps the shopper make nutritious, sound decisions in an instant, instead of having to compare labels,” said Carrie Taylor, RD, LDN, who is on Big Y's Wellness Team and provides community outreach on nutrition and NuVal. “It really is a life-changer. You don’t need to understand the science so it’s easy to use.”

Using NuVal

NuVal scores are located on the shelves next to the price tags and are easily identified with the blue and white double-hexagon. BigY has additional NuVal signs throughout the store to help shoppers.

The best way to use NuVal is to understand that every aisle has a NuVal range. The idea is not to immediately and completely avoid lower scoring foods, but to “trade up” to higher scores where you can.

“What I tell people is to trade up in any given category and improve your diet and health with one well-informed food choice at a time,” said Katz. “If you’re buying chips, if they cost the same and taste as good, why wouldn’t you eat a better chip or healthier alternative? And you can do this in the cereal aisle, the bread aisle or pasta sauce, and on and on.”

For example, the average score in the cereal aisle is 27. The goal would be for someone to find a cereal that is ten points higher. Or, if you’re in the juice aisle, choose a higher value juice. Then, after a while, trade up again. 

“NuVal is not meant to flip a switch because you won’t maintain it. Changes that stick the most are the small ones,” said Taylor. “By trading up to higher scores, you’re adding more and more nutrition to your cart.”

Gravitating toward more nutritious

Once shoppers have traded up within categories and their diet and health start to improve, the hope is that they will also start to shift towards better categories. 

 “With NuVal, you’re not being asked to do anything terribly difficult. If you start trading up across the range of soup to nuts, you have the potential to eliminate a huge number of calories, a lot of sodium, a lot of sugar, a lot of trans fats and saturated fats too, and dramatically increase your intake of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber,” said Katz. “When you have made a lot of these small changes, they can add up to an enormous change in your health.”

The NuVal System is being licensed to grocery chains and food retailers across the country, including Price Chopper and Big Y in Connecticut, as well as other venues like vending machines. The company is exploring the possibility of introducing NuVal in public schools in Connecticut. 

“The idea of getting better nutrition doesn’t mean giving up the food you love, it just means finding stuff you love that loves you back by cultivating your health and wellness. That’s the mission to which this tool is dedicated,” said Katz.

Healthy Tips: NuVal Busts Food Myths

Reduced calorie or reduced fat foods are better for you.

Sometimes they are and in some cases, this may not be true due to higher sugar, trans fats or sodium content, according to Taylor.  “The NuVal score takes all of this into account and more to give you that objective score.”

You must only eat fresh produce to get the nutritional benefits of this food group. 

Taylor said you can also meet the daily fruit/vegetable requirements with canned or frozen, too, and that in most instances, unsalted canned and frozen vegetables without sauce have almost the same value score. An example is fresh broccoli is 100 points and frozen no sauce, unsalted is also 100 points.  “We want you to eat more plant-based foods and not to feel like the only way you have to eat them fresh,” she said. 

Want more healthy tips? Check out Big Y's Facebook page, Living Well Eating Smart.

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