CC Food Grade mini rant

Sometimes my eyebrows raise a little at the grades CC gives food. How is it that processed food often has an equal - or higher - Grade than fresh???

Running late this morning, it's the first I haven't had a white omelet and banana for breakfast in awhile. I bought a NutriGrain Apple Cinnamon bar with misgivings, but I needed SOMETHING. So I enter the thing into my Food Log and omigod I get an A grade for this sugar filled, highly processed "cereal" (candy) bar! WooHoo!

And my lovely egg white omelet with a tiny sprinkle of cheddar and banana? A-. Geez. Didja know that fresh lemon juice actually gets an A-, while RealLemon and other bottled juices get an A?????????? Arrggghhh!

This mornings Breakfast, with a grade of A:

This is a normal breakfast for me, at a grade of A-:

Total Calories Consumed

176

Even though I am a long way from school, I guess I am just hard wired to respond to grades, and it also makes me a little crazy how CC grades some foods that I feel are a really healthy part of my diet.  But, the overall score for the day never drops below a B+, so I don't worry about how CC scores my 1/2 ounce of real parmesan cheese (of worse yet, my teaspoon of real butter which rates an F).  I think that individual foods are scored on an absolute basis, but in the daily analysis, the portion matters.

I was amused yesterday that I got one of my few pure A scores (the best I usually do on average for a day is A-).   I had a splurge and went out for a hamburger with a good friend.  Now, we went to a good restaurant, and I had a plain burger with salad not fries, and I stayed in my daily calorie target.  But it was still a splurge compared to days when I get a B+ and ate nothing but home prepared whole foods.

So, I try to eat real food, not too much, mostly plants and not worry about the CC scores!

I wouldn't take the grades too seriously. They can be a bit off sometimes.

Original Post by boston93:

I wouldn't take the grades too seriously. They can be a bit off sometimes.

 Ditto! For instance, raw walnuts, some of the BEST nuts for you, have grade ranges anywhere from a B+ to a D+?!?

It really makes little sense. If you KNOW the food you're eating is good for you, don't feel bad. But also, if you feel uneasy eating a processed bar like you (the OP) said, don't necessarily let CC make you feel that it's "OK" just because it gives it an A. I am guilty of this often too, but you know what I mean? It's up to your judgement in the end, and you know what's best for your body and health. I love CC but it definitely can mislead.

I think the food is graded based on some simple formula depending on how much fat or carbs etc something has. I don't think anyone is actually assigning a grade to the foods based on its benefits and drawbacks.  I think that's why you see some great foods, such as nuts, with such a low grade and vice versa.

I pretty much ignore the grading system. I don't think it adds anything useful to this site. But I do think it's a good idea to look at your overall cumulative info of the food you've consumed. Such as how much sugar, vitamin C, or fiber you've had that day.

I think tiffy is right about the simple formula. I don't take the grading system that seriously, we all pretty much know what's good and what isn't without getting graded on our choices, but sometimes I get annoyed when it's so very obvious like the breakfast bar (A) vs avocados (B+) or something. I still unconditionally love CC and appreciate the wonderful forums and tools.

(the site's tools, other ones I just ignore ;-)

I think the processed foods get higher grades because they're fortified with vitamins- that would be why a processed lemon juice has more Vit C than the real thing and gets a higher grade. That would be why the NutriGrain bar did so well. And, as others have said, they're just rating the vitamin/mineral/fat/caloric concentration in a scientific way- not random but not necessarily logical either. So, yeah, take it with a grain of salt (but just one- don't want too much of that either).

or how about how cooking the same egg in different ways changes its grade? madness!!! :)

When you look up a food and see the big letter grade, right above that is a small ? That's the help key.  Click on that to get a complete explanation of how the food grade system works.  Here, I've done it for you...

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/help.php?id= 66

The food grade is based on the nutritional information on the little nutrition chart.  If information is missing, such as the % of vitamins, the computer program will calculate a lower grade. The program can't think.  It can just calculate the values. It doesn't consider the number of calories.  It's not judge and jury.  Please read the explantion.  It will clear up a lot of your questions.

Also, if you feel a grade must be wrong, you can report it by clicking on the "Bad Grade" link - scroll down the nutrition page to see it.

Cooking an egg in different ways changes the grade because it assumes certain additives.  e.g. a scrambled egg is assumed to have milk and butter (or oil?) added; a fried egg is assumed to have oil added; a boiled egg is not assumed to have anything added; I just enter my eggs as raw and add the other stuff myself (on the odd occasion that I bother to use it; nonstick pans are great for cooking oil-free eggs)

I think it goes by the WAY its processed. Like what susiecue said. i completely agree. its better to enter everything in manually [if you know it]. like i tried to input my generic soda into cc as "diet coke" [from coca-cola] & it came up that it has <b>2</b> calories for a 12fl oz can of diet. umm, my can says its 0cals for 12 oz. so i just input information off the can [or box].

i also agree with clairelaine. :]

Yeah, I think the grade calculator calculates the grades based on the nutritional balance of the food item.  I think the nutrients that are most important to the calculations are sat. fat and sodium...maybe cholesterol too.  And it's also about the ratio between those nutrients and the serving size probably.

If I eat fruit on an empty stomach, I get nausea and acidic and the idea of fruit sitting on top of the stomach if eaten post-meal made not a lot of sense, so I looked it up and here's what I found. Most folks agree with the ideas in the link. Eat fruit!

Original Post by clairelaine:

When you look up a food and see the big letter grade, right above that is a small ? That's the help key.  Click on that to get a complete explanation of how the food grade system works.  Here, I've done it for you...

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/help.php?id= 66

The food grade is based on the nutritional information on the little nutrition chart.  If information is missing, such as the % of vitamins, the computer program will calculate a lower grade. The program can't think.  It can just calculate the values. It doesn't consider the number of calories.  It's not judge and jury.  Please read the explantion.  It will clear up a lot of your questions.

Also, if you feel a grade must be wrong, you can report it by clicking on the "Bad Grade" link - scroll down the nutrition page to see it.

What would be really helpful is if the daily analysis food grade could give an indication of what is bringing the grade down, i.e. by highlighting a particular figure in red, such as sodium, or cholesterol or whatever. That way, we can figure a way of correcting our food plan for the day so as to improve the grade if we so wish. A computer programme should be able to do this, don't you think?

There may just be an app for that somewhere, nat. I'm sure there is, but I'm lazy, I want it all right here in CC :-)

(However I am getting an iphone shortly and that will be the first thing I'll look for in the apps!)

Ignore the grades, they are based on how much overall energy & fat. It's all just to target weight loss, not actually be healthy or nourished.

I mean look at all the Splenda ads all over this site, and then note that Splenda soy shakes are all rated A! Higher than some fruits and vegetables! Ridiculous. Splenda is terrible for you.

This site is out to make money just like anyone else and they are sponsored. They shouldn't be allowed to grade foods like that but oh well, what can ya do? Just ignore it, it's bogus.

That's not true at all.  The grades are based on how much nutrition you're getting per calorie.  That's why almost every fresh fruit/vegetable gets an A.  (Some specific brands don't because the nutrition profile for those brands is incomplete, so use the generic entries.  A Dole fresh pineapple is no different from any other fresh pineapple, after all.)  Points are deducted for foods that have too much sugar, salt, saturated fat or cholesterol.  Yet, even with the amount of sugar they contain, fruit still get As because they have so much fibre, vitamins and minerals.  Olive oil gets a B not because of the fat in it (which is good fat) but because it doesn't have as many vitamins/minerals as fresh fruit/veg.  Lean meats also tend to get Bs for the same reason.  A B is a GOOD grade.  You shouldn't apply the horribly grade-inflated standards of North American schools to the CC grades.

Yes, it's possible for processed foods to 'trick' the system if they're enriched with lots of vitamins and minerals.  Some common sense needs to be applied.  But a diet including lots of fruit/veg, some whole grains, some lean meats and some healthy fats will get an A every day.

Original Post by surfkitty:

There may just be an app for that somewhere, nat.

Sorry, you've lost me... What's an app? And where is it?

Sorry! "App" is shorthand for "application". Wish it was something more insidious and cool, maybe like an "app"le crepe!

(I'm on a low calorie crepe recipe hunt today ;-)