A New Nutritional Ratings System

The new nutritional ratings system is called the Nuvall Overall Nutritional Quality Index, or ONQI (on - key) for short. It is a scoring system that gives an easy to understand nutritional score for every food item in our stores.

By using an algorithm, or formula that calculates the beneficial ingredients in a food item, as well as the ingredients that can put you at risk; such as cholesterol, saturated fats, salt etc., and then dividing the beneficial with the risky, that food item will be given a score between 1 - 100. The healthier the food is, the higher the score.

Initially, I didn't particularly care what they put on the food item, as long as the price didn't go up, and the Nutritional Facts was left on. But the more I thought about it, the more it irritated me. Because of the Nutritional Facts on all food items now, not only can I read for myself which item is healthier; I can also tell why it is healthier. I am not a sheep, that I will choose a food item just because it has a higher number. I want to know why.

I realize that obesity is rising at an alarming rate in our country, and it is cause for concern. One cause for this is poor eating habits. I can't help but feel though, that if parents are not choosing healthy foods now, when they have the Nutritional Facts to guide them, then numbers on a food package are not going to make much difference.

I really hope that having a number on the food package will not jack prices up, and I hope that the Nutritional Facts are left in place on the food items. Other than that, I will not be looking for any numbers on the packages.