The NuVal™ Nutritional Scoring System is powered by the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI™), a patent-pending algorithm for measuring the nutritional quality of foods and beverages based on the influence they have on overall dietary goals.
Developed by a team of leading nutrition, public health, and medical experts, the ONQI algorithm uses the Institute of Medicine’s Dietary Reference Intakes (quantitative reference values for recommended intakes of nutrients) and the Dietary Guidelines For Americans (advice from the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, and the Department of Agriculture, USDA, about how good dietary habits can promote health and reduce risk for major chronic diseases) to quantify the presence of more than 30 nutrients – including vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants; sugar, salt, trans fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. The system also incorporates measures for the quality of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, as well as calories and omega-3 fats. The NuVal System also takes into account how these nutrients influence health based on broadly accepted, published scientific literature.
How It Works
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. Boiled down to its simplest description, here is how the Nuval System works:
- Nutrients with generally favorable effects on health are placed in the numerator, where higher values increase the NuVal Score. See the numerator nutrients.
- Nutrients with generally unfavorable effects on health are placed in the denominator, where higher values decrease the NuVal Score. See the denominator nutrients.
In addition to the numerator and denominator nutrients, the NuVal System 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 NuVal System 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 is another key factor in the overall equation. Fat quality, protein 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.
Nutrients
Numerator Nutrients: Nutrients considered to have generally favorable effects on health are placed in the numerator, where higher values increase the NuVal Score.
- Fiber
- Folate
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin B6
- Potassium
- Calcium
- Zinc
- Omega-3 fatty acids
- Total bioflavanoids
- Total carotenoids
- Magnesium
- Iron
Denominator Nutrients: Nutrients with generally unfavorable effects on health are placed in the denominator, where higher values decrease NuVal Score.
- Saturated fat
- Trans fat
- Sodium
- Sugar
- Cholesterol