PrintNutrition Sells: One Small Step for Mankind
In results that surprised most diet experts, the grocery store chain Hannaford Brothers yesterday released the results of a study that supports a surprising notion, namely that nutrition sells. The chain had conducted a yearlong experiment steering consumers to healthier foods using a store-created rating system called Guiding Stars, which rated the nutritional value of foods on a one- to three-star scale, three representing the healthiest foods.
I have a feeling that even the leaner, center-cut bacon got a measly one-star. If a labeling system like this went nationwide, I wonder if it would have a profound effect on people's food-buying and eating habits.
Pass the broccoli, please.
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7 Comments:
Also interesting to consider the effects of something like this if implemented (gracefully, one would hope) on printed menus in restaurants.
Karen Resta at 10:22PM on 09/06/07
The problem is that it supposes that "healthiness" is one-size fits all. How is healthiness defined and for whom?
This quote is telling:
So now, she won't read the back of the box and will instead some person's arbitrary sense of what is nutritious.
Plus, the method they use has no real method for a general context. It's more a matter of comparing apples and apples. So a juice may have no added sugar, be all natural, blah, blah, blah, but still be no more nutritious than soda pop, yet get stars. I wonder if Coke Plus gets stars since it has added vitamins.
extramsg at 3:37AM on 09/07/07
I'd heard somewhere (can't recall where, but it was more than once) that serving sizes are an issue ... that people will eat as much as they want until feeling satisfied, regardless of the serving sizes on the labels. I don't see this star program addressing this issue at all. But I can hear some folks saying, "Three stars ... hmmm ... maybe I can have a bit more ..."
LunaPierCook at 5:01AM on 09/07/07
I shop at Hannaford and have noticed the star ratings pop up within the past year. If I remember correctly, I read that even the one star rating has a certain level of nutrition it has to meet, so something like bacon, even a leaner cut, would not get a star at all.
I think the system is probably helpful for people who don't have a lot of knowledge of what's healthy, or they don't do a lot of cooking. For someone like me, and probably a lot of us here, we're not going to grab a box of Healthy Choice cookies with a 2-star rating because we still know it is a lot of unnatural/processed crap. But for a person who normally goes for the package of double-stuff Oreos (and damn they are tasty), the star rating guide at least steers them in a "better" direction.
Kerri at 8:59AM on 09/07/07
Seriously, are they going to slap three stars on all the tomatoes and squash and bulk quinoa? Because those are the kinds of things people should be experimenting with if they really want to eat healthy . . . not, as Kerri points out, the 2 star Healthy Choice cookies. My first reaction was, "bravo!" But on further thought (and after reading everyone's comments), it's kind of turned to "ugh."
swirlingnotions at 3:41PM on 09/07/07
One of the problems here is the confusion over the term "healthy". Look at Kerri's comment that something processed is unhealthy crap. The truth is, the real health issue for most people is calories, not whether something has sodium benzoate.
extramsg at 4:50PM on 09/08/07
I shop at Hannafords and I'd like to point out just a few things. Look at this quote from the article:
"Kim Marcotte of Falmouth was surprised to discover that a can of Nature’s Place Organic green beans she purchased had 380 milligrams of salt. But Del Monte Fresh Cut’s “Cut green beans” had only 10 milligrams of salt, earning it stars."
Nature's Place is Hannaford's own organic brand. Hannford was willing to give it's own brand fewer stars than somebody elses.
Hannford's also got a lot of flack from the major brands when the "healthy" labels were not awarded any stars or maybe just one star. I may be totally wrong, but I believe it was the "Healthy Choice" label products that received no stars and the parent company (Unilever, Kraft, General Mills, whoever) had a hissy fit. Knit-pick and get pissy, but Hannaford has done a good thing and it's helping.
mikenmolly at 8:04PM on 09/11/07