The "Food Compass" is here! No more worries about eating?

Chinese people pay great attention to diet therapy. They have a very good idea of ​​what foods are healthy and what foods are good for what diseases.

Recently, a research team from the United States spent three years developing a new nutritional analysis system called "Food Compass".

The "Food Compass" was developed and tested based on the U.S. National Food Database, covering 8,032 foods, beverages, and mixed dishes. It scored 54 attributes in nine health-related areas, including nutrient ratios, vitamins, minerals, food ingredients, additives, processing, specific lipids, fiber and protein, and phytochemicals, which represent different health attributes of foods, beverages, and mixed meals.

All of these were selected based on nutritional properties associated with major chronic diseases (such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems and cancer) and the risk of malnutrition, especially in pregnant women, young children and the elderly.

Let’s take a closer look at which foods are healthy and which are unhealthy under this compass?

Let’s look at the lowest and highest scores first.

Snacks and desserts (average score of 16.4), the lowest score of all categories;

Vegetables (average score of 69.1), fruits (average score of 73.9, with almost all raw fruits scoring 100), and legumes, nuts and seeds (average score of 78.6) scored the highest among all the categories;

The rest of the food is somewhere in the middle.

For example, fruits with higher sugar content, such as bananas, dates and figs, scored lower, but still above 70 points.

Salted mixed nuts 97 points; salt-roasted peanuts 88 points.

Starchy vegetables scored an average of 43.2;

Among beverages, sugary sodas and energy drinks scored an average of 27.6;

100% fruit or vegetable juice averaged 67 points;

Specifically, carrot juice scored 84 points; apple juice scored 55 points; packaged juice drinks scored 19 points; and most energy drinks, sports drinks and colas scored 1-2 points.

Happy Fat House Water—Coke, it can’t be any lower!

Meat, eggs and dairy products:

Beef averaged 24.9 points; poultry averaged 42.67 points; seafood averaged 67.0 points; low-sodium bacon 31 points; smoked or cured pork chops 20 points;

A whole egg is 51 points;

Whole milk is 49 points!

Cooking oil and sugar:

Olive oil scored 85 points; other commonly used cooking oils were all above 70 points; but lard scored 19 points; unsalted butter scored 8 points; and white sugar scored 1 point.

Staple food:

Whole-wheat cereals: 95 points; regular instant oatmeal with water: 79 points; whole-wheat pasta: 70 points; whole-wheat bread: 60 points; cooked noodles: 17 points; white rice: 10 points!

In addition, zero-fat salad dressing and nonfat coffee creamer (which is mainly made of starch, sugar, salt and stabilizers) both scored below 30 points.

However, some foods that were "wrongly killed" had higher scores, even above 70 points, including packaged pasta sauces with added vegetables, certain microwave popcorn, multi-grain high-fiber potato chips and whole-wheat, high-fiber breakfast cereals.

With a comprehensive assessment of food, we can score the healthiness of our diet. I just tested it, and my breakfast of eggs and milk scored a total of 100 points!

How's your breakfast?

Mozaffarian, D., El-Abbadi, NH, O'Hearn, M. et al. Food Compass is a nutrient profiling system using expanded characteristics for assessing healthfulness of foods. Nat Food 2, 809–818 (2021).

doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00381-y