Comments on: NuVal Nutritional Scores At The Grocery Store

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:15:35 +0000

It is too bad there is no way to ensure that the developers of systems like NuVal and the products with the highest ratings are required to absolutely adhere to their own recommendations, preferrably exclusively consuming the products with the highest scores, so they may all reap the appropriate benefits, and leave this world (quickly)… alone.

By: Drew @ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother

Drew @ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:46:40 +0000

What makes them “distinguished”? That they all agree with each other? I can point to just as many people with just as many degrees who would say the whole thing is bunk.

Here’s the main problem: Regardless of whether you agree with any particular health claim, reducing all foods to a single number can’t work. That means that NuVal is designed as some combination of marketing and public policy, with a stated goal of improving health.

Let’s suppose all the medical doctors and researchers involved have the very best of intentions. They are not policy experts. So there’s no reason to trust their policy judgments.

They’re also not doctors of psychology, so there’s no reason to believe they know how to change behavior.

You wouldn’t ask a heart surgeon to do brain surgery. Expertise in one area doesn’t mean expertise in a different area. Just because there are medical doctors associated with the NuVal numbers, there’s no reason to believe they know anything about how to get people to change their eating habits.

By: giantslor

giantslor — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:57:12 +0000

“Vicki, I can’t speak for anyone else, but personally I reserve my contempt for the people who know what they’re talking about — or should — but choose to promote harmful ideas.You can’t make a career of studying nutrition and believe that the NuVal system will actually help people.”

So, what — you believe all these distinguished nutrition scientists involved with NuVal are engaged in a big conspiracy? Give me a break. I’m going with the experts.

By: Drew @ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother

Drew @ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:25:51 +0000

Vicki, I can’t speak for anyone else, but personally I reserve my contempt for the people who know what they’re talking about — or should — but choose to promote harmful ideas.

You can’t make a career of studying nutrition and believe that the NuVal system will actually help people.

By: Vicki

Vicki — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:00:11 +0000

While perusing my local grocery store ads this evening, I was introduced to the NuVal system for the first time. I was intrigued by the idea and decided to google it just to find out more. Of course the first couple of results were the NuVal website itself. It’s a nice looking site, but very shallow content. So, after digging a little further all the way to the third page of results, I ran across this blog. I am one of those that several of you speak of so contemptuously. I know very little about real nutrition, it has never been a subject that I felt particularly strongly about. Now that I am in my late 30′s and beginning to experience some less than comfortable symptoms of “age” – I am starting to see the value in being better educated on the subject.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:00:52 +0000

Ditto LN:
Your closing two paragraphs sound very much like the NuVal “experience” I “shared” after registering with their “community” under a pseudonym. I’m sure it won’t be posted, so to summarize I stated something like:

NuVal’s scoring system is not only nutritionally ignorant because it incorrectly scores Real Food that humans ate for thousands of generations before the innovation of agriculture, but it is dangerous because it promotes Industrial Food as being of greater value than Real Food. As a first step to understanding your ignorance, please read Taubes’ “Good Calories, Bad Calories”.

That was me, shouting against the wind.

By: KristenM

KristenM — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:34:04 +0000

Anisa — Oh wow. Wonder Bread!! LOL. (It would be funny if it weren’t so infuriating!)

Local Nourishment — People are listening to TV for EVERYTHING. What to eat, what to wear, who to vote for. Again, it’d be funny if it weren’t so infuriating.

Blake — Hey, thanks for stopping by AND being brave enough to comment. (That’s why bloggers blog, you know. It’s all about comment love.)

By: Anisa

Anisa — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:54:47 +0000

Wow – Did anyone notice that Wonder Bread (a 23) is ALMOST as good for you as a coconut??? Who knew???

I WISH this new system were a joke. I can’t believe we’ll have one more thing to argue agaist when trying to convince those 70 year old neighbors or other friends and relatives. Sadly, Local Nourishment is right.

Anisa

By: Local Nourishment

Local Nourishment — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:45:32 +0000

Raine, I think it will have an audience because people are so confused. People who get their news from the media really do believe fat is evil. When the lipid hypothesis was debunked the media didn’t even give it a nod. People are listening to TV for what to eat. Commercials and news outlets don’t have a clue. Common sense has been replaced by CNN. Being told what to do is so much easier than trying to figure it all out.

Local Nourishment

By: Herbwifemama

Herbwifemama — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:43:46 +0000

I could have mentioned lots of things, but the first one I had a strong reaction to was coconut. But I see others have covered that, so I won’t go into all the reasons why the poor coconut got such a low score, but I will say, as someone else already has: follow the money trail…

Herbwifemama