Reducing Disease Risk with a New Food Scoring System – Heilpraxis

Food Compass aims to reduce the risk of illness and death

From 2021, a new scoring system for Food called food compass present. Now, a recent study shows that people Reduce the risk of illness and death can if they eat according to the recommendations of this system.

The Food Compass rating system was developed by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy to Tufts University (USA) designed to comprehensively evaluate foods for health benefits. Now, a recent study shows that this system can help reduce the risk of disease if included in the daily diet. The research results were published in the renowned journal “Nature Communication” present.

Ancient knowledge yet difficult to implement

That the nutrition a major impact on ours Health is ancient knowledge and was already used by the Greek physician and teacher Hippocrates around the year 400 BC. BC.

However, in modern society in particular, the implementation of this ancient knowledge is not always easy. It’s hard to tell healthy from unhealthy food at a glance in supermarkets and restaurants, unless you buy the basic ingredients and cook it yourself.

What is the Food Compass?

The new “Food Compass” concept aims to help people healthier choices to take when choosing food. The system assesses the overall nutritional value of a food, drink or cooked meal. For this purpose, nine areas of a product are taken into account, including for example

• the level of nutrients,
• Ingredients,
• vitamins
• the minerals,
• the degree of transformation,
• additives used.

Already rated 10,000 products

In the United States have already been 10,000 commonly sold foods rated using the system. Each product gets one Score between 1 and 100, the higher, the healthier. The researchers who developed Food Compass recommend eating mostly foods that have a rating of more than 70 stitches reach.

Food with a rating of 31 to 69 should be reduced and consumed in moderation. On products that 30 points or less should be largely suppressed for the benefit of health.

Does taking it into account really lead to better health?

“A nutrient profiling system should be an objective measure of the health of a food”explains the lead author of the study Meghan O’Hearn of the Friedman School. According to her, people who take into account such a system in their diet should also have better health. The current study examined whether this is actually the case.

The task force used food records and health data representative of approximately 48,000 American adults aged 20 to 85. The data was collected between 1999 and 2018.

Most people in the United States eat poorly

The first surprising finding of the study is that overall mean power value to all attendees only at 35.5 out of 100 points. On average, the subjects had a rather unhealthy diet.

“One of the most alarming findings was the poverty of the average national diet”, confirms O’Hearn. It’s a clear call to actionto power quality to improve.

As part of the study, the researchers compared the individuals’ determined nutritional values ​​with their health records. Common risk factors were taken into account, such as age, gender, education, income, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity and underlying diseases such as diabetes.

Higher average score = better health

Data analysis shows that higher Food Compass nutrition scores correlate with lower scores for arterial pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and Body mass index was connected. In addition, the prevalence of various diseases such as cancer and metabolic syndrome lower. By increasing ten points this sank risk of premature death from all causes seven percent.

“Searching for healthy food and drink can be a bit like the Wild West”comments the nutrition teacher Dariush Mozaffarian. According to him, the results of the study confirm that the Food Compass is a working tool for making healthier food purchasing decisions.

Food Compass: more comprehensive than other systems

The system evaluates the products more thoroughly compared to other nutritional evaluations. For example, instead of measuring fat, sodium or fiber in isolation, a more nuanced and more holistic perspective taken by assessing the ratio of saturated fat to unsaturated fat, sodium to potassium, and carbohydrate to fiber.

For ingredients that proven health benefits such as fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, fish, yogurts and vegetable oils will increase a product’s overall rating.

For proven ingredients negative effect on health such as refined grains, red and processed meats, and highly processed foods and additives, a product’s overall score decreases.

Compared to usual in Germany Nutri Score the Food Compass is much more complex in assessment and takes into account more subtleties.

Continuous updates

The evaluation of the individual products is continuously updated according to the current study situation. “We know the Food Compass is not perfect”, emphasizes Mozaffarian. But it offers a better and more holistic assessment of nutritional value than existing systems. (vb)