08/19/2022
Say waaa?
Tufts University came out with a food scale to rank “health” of foods, based off of a number of factors including nutrient content, method of food preparation, type of fat in the food, and added ingredients (corn syrup, MSG, artificial sweeteners or colors, etc.
The main headline coming out of this is “ice cream is better for you than a bagel.” 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
I have a number of issues with ranking foods according to “healthiness”
➡️Health may be impacted by an overall DIET PATTERN, not individual foods
➡️Nutrition is just one small aspect of health
➡️Determining good food choices is dependent on the individual—one person may need a lot of carbs as an athlete, while another may need more fat if underweight. One person may need to reduce whole grains and fruits/veggies if they are experiencing bowel issues or are under-fed, while another may see health improvements from these foods.
➡️This particular way of ranking food shuns ingredients that are safe, such as artificial sweeteners. (For excellent info on this, go follow )
➡️Choosing foods based off of a ranking scale isn’t really helpful for anyone. It doesn’t take into account their own nutrition status, food preferences, access to food, or really anything that’s meaningful to contribute to a healthful diet pattern for that individual.
Have you heard of this study? What do you think?
💡This post inspired by a conversation with a friend and (go follow her! Amazing stuff!)
