In September 2006, Hannafords grocery stores implemented an independent rating system of the nutritional content of the more than 27,000 food items on their shelves. I’m impressed. With confusing dietary advice flying around everywhere, it’s hard to know what to believe. I recently had a couple tell me that for years they thought that eating tofu was a healthy choice, but have recently been told that too much tofu– which contains phytoestrogens– can lead to hormonal imbalances. It can make you just want to throw your arms up in the air and go have some deep fried steak or something. In reality, it’s not that complicated to eat healthy food, and the Hannaford’s star system seems to have captured that.Hannaford’s Scientific Advisory Panel created a simple, common sense “nutrition navigation system” that gives “credits” to foods that contain vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and whole grains, and it gives “debits” to foods that contain saturated fat, transfat, cholesterol, added salt and added sugars. Just by using those basics parameters, alot of processed food– which almost always contain items on the “debit” list– didn’t make the cut.

This is loud and clear; 77% of the 27,000+ food items they analysed didn’t even get one star. This is an astounding commentary on our food supply by a credible panel of independent nutritional experts.

This is brings me to why I think all this dietary advice can become so confusing. Follow the money. The FDA has a double mandate of protecting the consumer AND promoting the wellbeing of the food industry. They therefore don’t tell you to eat less of anything (including sugar) so their updated food pyramid is based on the nutritional needs of someone who exercises 60 minutes every day. How many people do you know who exercise that much?

That’s why it’s so cool that Hannaford compiled a team of independent scientists. Their findings are pure common sense. They created a simple three-star method to compare food based on this common sense and you can trust these stars more than you can trust the health claims on the packaging that are screaming for your attention. If fact, if there’s no screaming packaging, you’re probably on the right track in the produce department.

We all can benefit from eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods. We can all benefit from a diverse diet that rotates a wide variety of mostly whole foods. It’s not that complicated. If your daily routine is largely what your body needs, then you don’t have to worry much about the phytoestrogens in tofu or even enjoying your fries.

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