So, I was pretty much a straight A student in school. Now, I'm noticing that Calorie Count has food "grades". Generally, I get the idea, but does anyone know exactly how foods are graded? What makes food vary from A to B?
I guess the reason I'm asking is because I like to check my food analysis for each day, and usually my eating falls between an A- and a B grade. So I was curious to know what that is based on. Like, earlier, my eating was at an A, then dropped to an A- with the addition of a slice of multi-grain flax-seed bread.
I'd love some input! Thanks!
From the ? on the food grade page:
Foods : What is the Nutrition Grade? (FAQs)
The Nutrition Grade was developed with the goal of helping people improve the nutritional quality of their diets. This tool is fully automated and does not feature any manual corrections - hence all items are evaluated objectively and following the same set of rules.
As you may know, not all nutrients are equally good for you. Some of them, like cholesterol, sodium, and saturated fats should be avoided as much as possible. Some other ones, however, such as minerals and vitamins, are essential for your health. Thankfully, the USDA devised the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) figures for each one of these nutrients, which were used as the foundation of the Nutrition Grade's algorithm.
Obviously, foods rich in minerals and vitamins are graded highly, and their good points are all listed right next to their grade. Undesirable nutrients contribute to the bad points. Even though the USDA does provide RDA values for these nutrients, these values must be understood differently from those for the desirable nutrients; the undesirable RDAs should be viewed as the very last limit, whereas the desirable RDAs mark a target to shoot for.
The Good and the Bad Points provide a summary of what the Nutrition Grade identifies as the food items' special strengths and weaknesses. Those points are then converted to a numerical format, and then finally turned into the well-known letter format (A-best; F-worst).
No automated tool is perfect, and the same is true for this one. Please understand that Nutrition Grade only checks how close or far away a certain food is in respect to your RDAs. There are many more aspects that need to be considered for Health, and this is only one of them.
Finally, Nutrition Grade will not necessarily help you lose weight. It will, hopefully, help you get it done as healthy as possible, but you could, for example, eat only perfectly graded food items and still end up gaining weight. Weight loss is all about counting calories and it is not necessarily related to health - but health and weight loss are also not mutually exclusive. In other words, you should keep an eye on your calories, and at the same time, also try to get as good a grade as you can.
Original Post by starsineyes96:
Thanks! That helps a lot!
I've also noticed that the grades are not always accurate: there are certain proportions that the counter adheres to rather blindly. For example, I often have a more than sufficient protien count and low fats, but having a lot of fruits and veggies makes it seem like you have too many carbs. I find the total protein/sugar/fat counts more useful.
the percentage of fats, proteins and carbs has nothing to do with your nutrition grade overall
The overall nutrition grade is base upon the individual grades and very easily manipulated.
If you have a high weight of A foods and throw in a small weight (in grams) of a D or F foods, you can still end up with a pretty good grade
Please use the nutrition grades as a guide -- don't live your life based on them
What type of food should not be eaten?
Calorie Count does not prescribe a particular diet or tell people to avoid particular foods. We only ask that you eat a balanced diet... Read more
