My local grocery store, Hy-Vee, has a tagline: “Where there’s a helpful smile in every aisle.” This is true. But, what’s also true is there’s now a helpful number in every aisle.

Hy-Vee recently rolled out a nutrition scoring system called NuVal, a program that scores food from 1 to 100; the higher the number the more nutritious the food.

I’ll be honest, at first I was skeptical. I rolled my eyes and thought, “Just what we need, another scoring system to confuse the already confused.” Plus, I assumed I was already making very sound and healthy food choices. Little did I know I could be doing better.

Now that Hy-Vee has the NuVal system, it has completely changed the way I do my grocery shopping.

Old School: How I used to shop

For years I have been eating a diet high in protein, loaded with vegetables, and with as little processing as possible. I still do.  When I would shop, I trained myself to pick up food, quickly scan the nutrition facts for calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein, then make my buying decision based on this information.

School: The Lesson

A few months ago we had a lesson in my Precision Nutrition class titled, Nutrition Labels: The Big 4.  The Big 4?! Easy. I had this lesson aced! Cals, fat, carbs, protein, right? WRONG! The lesson was all about sodium, saturated fat, fiber, and added sugar.

In this lesson Precision Nutrition suggested using these guidelines when looking at the nutrition facts on a label:

• Sodium should be no more than calories
• No more than 15 grams of saturated fats per day; 0 trans fat
• At least 2 grams of fiber per 100 calories of food
• No sugar in the first four ingredients

Great. Now I have 4 more things to think about when making food choices. It was like learning a foreign language with a little math tossed into the mix.

New School: NuVal

After my lesson, it was time to rethink the food I normally put into my body and my grocery basket. When I learned the NuVal system considers more than 30 nutrients into their scoring criteria and assigns one easy to understand number to each food, I took notice.

After doing a little more homework about NuVal, I discovered:

• It’s credible. The scoring formula was created by an independent team of nutrition and medical experts from leading universities and health organizations
• It’s trustworthy. NuVal has no vested interest in the production, manufacturing, or selling of food so their scores are unbiased
• It’s well designed. The NuVal score is positioned right next to the price tag on the shelf so it’s easy to spot and compare scores of foods in the same category
• It’s simple. The system is easy to follow and helps me make faster more well-informed nutritional choices

NuVal is now my GPS nutrition navigational system when traveling aisle by aisle through the grocery store. NuVal scores help me make better decisions and help me explore foods I normally would not try in some cases. Not including this one…

Home School

If your grocery store does not have the NuVal system yet, you could:

• Move to my neighborhood and shop at Hy-Vee
• Tell your grocery store manager about NuVal
• Check out some of the NuVal scores posted here before you hit the grocery store

Now that I am done with NuVal 101, I’m off to pick up a few smiles in the aisles of Hy-Vee and maybe some more pumpkin, just for the halibut.