New study profiles food characteristics that positively or negatively impact our health

Read Time:2 Minute, 36 Second

Kompas Food is a new profiling nutrition system, developed for three years, which combines the latest knowledge of how the food characteristics are positively different or negative impact.

New tools have been developed by scientists at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and policies in Tufts to help consumers, food companies, restaurants and cafeteria choose and produce healthier foods and officials to make healthy public nutritional policies.

The findings of this study were published in the journal ‘Nature Food’.

Kompas Food is a new profiling nutrition system, developed for three years, which combines the latest knowledge of how the food characteristics are positively different or negative impact. The important novel feature of the system includes:

1. Alike remembering the healthy factors vs. dangerous in food (many existing systems focus on dangerous factors);

2. Combining cutting-edge knowledge in nutrition, food ingredients, processing characteristics, phytochemical, and additives (existing systems focus most on some nutrients); and

3. Objectively print all food, beverage, and even mixed dishes and food using one consistent score (the existing system is subjective and prints food differently).

“Once you go beyond ‘eat your vegetables, avoid soda,’ The public is quite confused about how to identify healthier choices at the grocery store, cafeterias, and restaurants,” said the author’s writer and the appropriate writer, the writer Mozaffarian, Dean of school Friedman.

“Consumers, policy makers, and even industries are looking for simple tools to guide everyone to healthier choices,” Mozaffarian added.

The new food compass system was developed and then tested using a detailed national database of 8,032 food and drinks consumed by Americans. It scored 54 different characteristics in nine domains representing relevant food, beverage and food aspects, providing one of the most comprehensive profiling nutritional systems in the world.

Characteristics and domains are chosen based on nutritional attributes related to chronic main diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and cancer, and the risk of malnutrition, especially for mothers, young people, and elderly people.

Kompas food is designed so that additional attributes and assessments can develop based on evidence in the future in fields such as gastrointestinal health, immune function, brain health, bone health, and physical and mental performance; and consideration of sustainability.

Potential use of compass food includes:

1. Encourage the food industry to develop healthier food and reformulate materials in food and popular processed snacks;

2. Providing food purchase incentives for employees through Wellness Worksite, health assistance programs, and nutrition;

3. Providing knowledge for local and national policies such as package labeling, taxation, warning labels, and marketing restrictions for children;

4. Enables restaurants and school cafeterias, businesses and hospitals to present healthier food choices;

5. Inform agricultural trade policies; and

6. Guiding institutional and individual investors on environmental, social and corporate investment decisions (ESG).

Every food, drink, or mixture receives the final food compass score ranging from 1 (most unhealthy) to 100 (the healthiest). The researchers identified 70 or more as a reasonable score for food or drinks to be encouraged. Food and drinks print 31-69 must be consumed in medium quantities. Whatever scored 30 or lower must be consumed at a minimum.