In today’s health conscious society, many people are using food rating and scanning apps to help them evaluate the health value, ingredients, and quality of packaged grocery items using their smartphone. One of the most popular apps is Yuka. The Yuka app claims to help consumers make healthier choices by providing a breakdown of what ingredients are in each food, and scores them as excellent, good, poor or bad. Unfortunately, the Yuka app isn’t fully reliable because it flags ingredients as hazardous in isolation without considering the actual tiny amount present in a product. Highly nutritious foods can receive low scores due to a tiny trace of an additive, while heavily processed items without additives can get high ratings. Take, for example, Frigo String Cheese and Chef Boyardee Cheese Ravioli. The string cheese gets a 34/100 “poor" rating, while Chef Boyardee Cheese Ravioli gets a 63/100 “good” rating. The ravioli has 7g protein, 2g saturated fat, and 750mg of sodium. The string cheese has 6g protein, 3.5g saturated fat, and 200mg of sodium. It doesn’t add up. How can you say the ravioli is healthy because it has 1 gram less saturated fat? What about the 500mg more of sodium? Put simply, the food rating system is flawed. Labeling food as good or bad can also create fear and anxiety around food, and lead people to develop obsessive habits. If you’re eating a diet full of whole and minimally processed foods, you shouldn’t have to care about the “score” of your crackers or peanut butter. Most of us know what foods are nutritious and that make us feel good. The most nutritious foods don’t typically come with a barcode that can be scanned, but not everything we eat has to be physically nourishing. A healthy diet has a variety of foods….and no guilt attached. Eating more whole foods and fewer ultra-processed ones is always ideal, but we don’t need the app to tell us that.
