Welcome! I am a mom of a busy 8 year old and an adventurous 6 year old. I also happen to work for a great company called NuVal. NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that rates foods on a scale of 1-100, based on how nutritious they are. We are implementing NuVal in grocery stores around the country.
NuVal may not be in your area yet. But I see the scores while they are "hot off the press" and because of that I am able to make better decisions about what to feed my family.
I am not a registered dietitian. I am just a mom who happens to work for NuVal. I am also an AFAA-certified Group Exercise Instructor. NuVal is a system designed to lead customers to the most nutritious food choices. It is not a diet or weight-loss plan. Before starting a diet, you should always consult your personal physician. The opinions expressed in this blog are the opinions of the writer and not the opinions of NuVal LLC.
Today, I have a great guest post by Lydia Dullinger, a senior at Sartell High School in Sartell, Minnesota. On January 18th, 2012, BLEND (Better Living Exercise and Nutrition Daily) launched the NuVal® Nutritional Scoring System in the a la carte lines and vending machines at Sartell-St. Stephen Schools. This groundbreaking project will assist students and faculty to make healthier food choices on a daily basis. Lydia is blogging about her experiences with NuVal® in schools. Lydia is a great blogger – and wait until you see these amazing youtube videos that the AV Club is putting together. It’s so amazing to see these high school students all excited about NuVal and healthy foods. So, without further ado, here’s Lydia!
NuVal is here!!! At 8:30 Wednesday morning, members of Student Council gathered in front of the doors in the school armed with balloons, apples, and stickers.
Our mission? To greet our peers NuVal-style! Incoming students were surprised and pretty jacked about getting free things, if not a little overwhelmed! Everyone was so into NuVal, the enthusiasm was infectious! Watch my YouTube video NuVal Kickoff Day!! Ryan (a freshmen) particularly impressed me by dressing up in the Coborns Moo Bell costume and dancing around.
By mid-morning the stickers had evolved into a trading-card/black market currency with the strawberry stickers representing something close to the 100 dollar bill. I also saw a sticker ninja (watch for it on the video)!
I think the biggest stir NuVal has made is with the Doritos poster. Did you know Doritos are a 23? That’s 16 more than Cheetos and 10 more than Chex Mix!! Everybody is stunned and amazed by that one! Also, a lot of people picked oranges today because they were 100. Poor applesauce.
Somebody pointed out today that I have to alter a comment I made in my first post about a value of 0 not being food! I realized today water must have a value of 0! But water isn’t actually a food so I’m still a little foggy on that one. I digress.
The Audio and Video production class made some pretty classic commercials for the occasion, and I will be posting one with every blog until I run out of them. Every commercial features a different “high school stereotype” and I think they’re hilarious. To start it off, enjoy this NuVal commercial “The Jock” brought to you by Mr. Schulte’s Audio and Video Production class!
Enjoy and keep reading!!
It’s Melissa again. You can read more of Lydia’s blog (she posts every Wednesday) on the Blend website here. She has more great posts. The Sartell story is worth following!
BREAKING NEWS
NuVal was featured on Ameria Now, ,” the news magazine show with Bill Rancic (the first winner of “The Apprentice”) and Leeza Gibbons (from Entertainment Tonight/Extra). So cool to see Bill and Leeza talking about NuVal! (I was a huge Bill fan when he won that first Apprentice!) You can see this great video here!
Hello Blog Friends! I am about to get on a plane. Yup – another NuVal business trip. So today, I have Cindy Silver, Corporate Nutritionist from Lowes Foods stepping in for me.
Cindy Silver is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in Food Science & Nutrition from the University of Rhode Island and a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Allegheny College. Cindy’s career has included a variety of challenges such as university teaching, hospital food service, food sales, outpatient nutrition counseling and educational leadership in the retail food industry. In her spare time, Cindy enjoys international cooking, walking, gardening, traveling and writing for kids. Cindy lives with her husband and teenage son in Winston-Salem. Without further ado, I bring you Cindy!
There’s a handy, new resource on the shelf at Lowes Foods. Have you noticed the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System yet? Have you wondered how it can help you shop for healthier choices? Me, too, so I put NuVal to the test of helping me make a tasty and healthy lunch.
Since tuna salad is my favorite sandwich, I started by finding a high NuVal Score for tuna in a can or pouch. Looking for the highest NuVal Score that I could, I found an 81 on the Star Kist Low Sodium Chunk Light can. Great choice! Then, I looked for bread and settled on Pepperidge Farm 15-Grain Small Slice with a NuVal Score of 46. Another great choice! Finally, I noticed that all the lettuce-like greens and fruits had NuVal Scores of 90-100 and so I picked up some Romaine lettuce and an apple. There you go, tuna and Romaine sandwich on whole grain bread with an apple. The higher the NuVal Score at the store, the better the overall nutrition. Let NuVal help you make a healthy lunch soon!
My friend Rob, who is NuVal’s Manager of Communications, PR and all things media, has guest-posted here before, and today a slimmer Rob is back to post again! That’s right, Rob has made some great strides these past few months in his quest for better health. I’m so happy for him and it’s fun to cheer my co-worker on every day - especially as he is starting to see some results. I thought Rob could share his story with you today. And it would be great if you could cheer him on as well. Without further ado, I bring you Rob!
Thanks, Melissa.
It’s funny–when I was in high school, I had problems gaining weight, not losing it. I was just under six feet and weighed under 150 pounds. Now, that changed as the years went by, but my metabolism was fast enough that I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted without any ill effects on my midsection.
That changed around when I hit my mid-30s. The 10 pounds I would lose every summer without even trying began to stick around, and as my family grew, I became more of a couch potato. To make matters worse, I got into the habit of eating out for lunch at work, and even things I thought were “OK” for me to eat (such as a large tuna sub) were anything but. And I gained more weight.
So what happened? Many people who lose weight talk about a point in time where they are pushed just far enough out of their comfort zone that getting healthier is actually less “painful” than being overweight. For me, it was two events. The first was when I tried on some shirts at a local department store, and didn’t recognize the fat guy staring back at me in the mirror. The second is when I ate a small plate of jalapeno poppers. After finishing off about 16 of them, I read the nutrition fact panel and realized that they measured in at 100 calories. Each. I began to realize that as the spokesperson for a company with the goal of helping people eat better, I needed to set a better example. I knew that some kind of change was in order.
I’ll be honest; I was leery about writing here for one reason: I’ve got a long way to go–I’ve lost about 13 pounds in a month’s time, and I have a good 30 more to go before I’m at my goal weight. The good news is that I think I’ve found some habits that work for me, at least so far.
Anyway, here are some things that I have found helpful:
1. I eat (most of) what I want, but less of it. For me, I know whenever I tried to give something up completely, my brain would automatically think about nothing but that food until I caved in and gorged on it. This is especially true of potato chips and other snack foods. I found that portion control was the answer. I still have pizza (once in a while), I just have two pieces instead of four. If I’m making burgers on the grill, I can have one, but I can’t eat my son’s if he didn’t eat his. If I’m eating out at Panera, I have an apple instead of a baguette or the chips as a side.
2. I gave up fast food. Like I said in the above point, I can eat most of what i like, but eating out at fast food restaurants had to go. Strange, but I thought this would be the hardest part of losing weight, but it’s turned out to be one of the easiest. To be honest, substituting almonds for chips and a half-sandwich and salad for a burger and fries for lunch wasn’t that difficult. I think I had actually gotten sick of fast food.
To put this in NuVal terms, it involved a lot of trading-up. Many chips score in the low double-digits, but the upgrade to almonds (NuVal Score 81) as a snack made a big difference. I’ve also cut out soda (NuVal Score 1) entirely.
I’m not saying I’ll never eat at a fast food restaurant again (actually, I’ll still check out Chipotle and have them hold the sour cream), but my reliance on these places as an automatic “go to” for lunch is over.
3. I Joined a gym that’s right for me. I joined a nearby gym and have tried to go five times a week. My gym isn’t the nicest one around, but it has one quality that made it my choice: it’s open late. My wife and I both work, and we have two kids, so going to the gym early is virtually impossible, so I needed someplace to go after the kids were in bed, and an 11:00 closing time helps tremendously (other gyms near me close at 9:00). I’m not going to lie–it’s not fun working out at 10:30 at night. But it helps to have the option if you have other things to attend to.
4. I don’t eat after dinner. Ever. In my opinion, this has made all the difference in my weight loss so far. For the first two weeks, I was going to the gym five times a week, I was drinking a lot more water, and I was working more fruits and vegetables into what I was eating. But I lost less than two pounds in that time period. Why? Simple–I was still snacking at 9, 10, even 11 o’clock at night with things like peanut butter sandwiches, hummus, and tortilla chips. It wasn’t just the extra calories that were the problem; eating late would often result in heartburn, making it harder to sleep, and therefore making me tired the next day, meaning I couldn’t have the workout I wanted. But once I cut myself off after dinner, the weight started coming off. Rapidly.
How well has this worked? Last week, I went on vacation, and I wasn’t able to get to the gym, and while I mostly kept what I ate under control, I also had my share of reuben sandwiches, ice cream and eggs Benedict (though, fortunately, not in the same meal). But I never ate late, and never after dinner. When I came home, I was positive that I gained at least a couple of pounds back. But it turns out I lost another 2.5 pounds in that week.
Again, I’m no expert, and I’m sure there are things I may be doing “wrong,” but these four practices have worked for me so far. Not only am I the lightest I’ve been in years, but I no longer have to take an antacid before going to bed (before, I had to take at least one a day). I feel good, and I’m prepared to keep going.
One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to meet a lot of really smart dietitians from all around the country. Stephanie Walker is a young, rising star who just wows me.
Stephanie and Dr. Katz
Stephanie works for Festival Foods, a 14-store supermarket chain in Wisconsin – small in the grocery biz. So that means that Stephanie does everything: PR, training, community relations, the works. If you ask Stephanie, one of her favorite things about her job is that she gets to go out into the community and teach kids all about NuVal. Stephanie was so kind to share her experience with all of you A Better Bag of Groceries readers. So without further ado, I turn the keyboard over to Stephanie!
Last year about this time, Ms. De Villers offered me an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. She invited me to be a part of each rotation of her Family and Consumer Science classes for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at West De Pere Middle School. Each and every trip to school throughout the year left me more knowledgeable (even though I was doing the teaching). As part of the class, each student is required to complete a “Health Bank: Health is a habit!” project, which is meant to demonstrate nutrition or wellness practices that can enhance individual or family well-being.
While I was impressed with all of the projects I caught glimpses of throughout the year, there was one in particular that caught my attention in my last trip to West DePere for the 2010-2011 school year. McKayla Dietzen did her project using NuVal™ Scores, which are available at Festival Foods stores, to make nutritious food choices. And she did not stop there – she then took the foods she purchased and turned them into a fantastic meal for her family!
I was impressed and couldn’t wait to meet McKayla! When she arrived to class that afternoon, I immediately asked if she would mind if I shared her project on my blog. I am grateful that both she and her parents agreed, because this is exactly how NuVal is meant to be used! Here is what she did:
McKayla went to Festival Foods and used NuVal scores as a guide in purchasing the following items:
Beverage:
Skim Milk: 91
Fruit Salad Ingredients:
Strawberries: 100
Apples: 96
Canteloupe: 93
Grapes: 91
Soup Ingredients:
Evaporated Milk: 100
Carrots: 99
Celery: 96
Onions: 93
Garlic: 91
Basil: 91
Rice: 82
Flour: 77
Skinless Chicken: 39
Chicken Broth: 16
Once she had a cart full of nutritious options, McKayla then had to figure out how to use them. She decided to make a soup and a fruit salad. Pictured in her poster below are photos of the items she bought, and the delicious meal she made out of them.
McKayla and Stephanie
McKayla's Project
So there you have it! NuVal makes it easy to find the most nutritious choices within a food category (or for each recipe ingredient) – you simply have to look for the highest NuVal score on the price tag. While purchasing the foods with high NuVal scores does not miraculously put a meal on the table, it is a tool that can help to fill your cart with nutritious items, giving you a healthy base of ingredients to work with once you get home!
Thank you, McKayla, for your hard work on this excellent project. I appreciate you allowing me to share it with all of our blog readers!
Finally, I also want to thank Ms. De Villers for inviting me into her classroom to talk about my job, nutrition, and how marketing can influence our purchasing decisions. It was a pleasure meeting all of the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in her classes throughout the year, and I found that I too learned in the process!
Sylvia Geiger, MS, RD, CD is a Community Nutritionist who works for Price Chopper Supermarkets in the beautiful state of Vermont. As part of her job educating Price Chopper’s customers about healthy living, she writes for Price Chopper’s blog, Chopper Shopper Chatter. Price Chopper was the first supermarket company in the nation to implement NuVal chain-wide, so they have had NuVal scores on their store shelves for over 2 1/2 years now! Sylvia’s posts (like mine) often involve great tips for using NuVal to make nutritious decisions while shopping and cooking. Sylvia has this great advice for Celebrating Mother’s Day. So, without further ado, I turn the keyboard over to Sylvia!
Flowers, breakfast in bed, or dinner at her favorite restaurant are ways we celebrate our mothers and show them our love.
But this year let’s show our appreciation for mom by supporting her in her efforts to care for her own health. In their role as caregivers, moms are likely to put their own health on the back burner or even at risk in order to care and provide for their loved ones. This can have serious consequences—especially for their heart. We’ve long known that women are just as likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease (heart attack & stroke) as men but somehow the myth prevails that women don’t need to actively work towards preventing heart disease. Nothing could be further from the truth. Women of any age will benefit from exercise, diet and lifestyle choices that promote heart health.
Let’s show mom how much we love her by helping take some positive steps towards eating for a healthy heart.
Heart-healthy eating means selecting plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes & beans, lean meats & fish and low-fat dairy foods everyday.
Use the NuVal shelf tags scores to find foods with the highest NuVal numbers—these foods will be more heart healthy. The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars, sodium, cholesterol, and saturated & trans fat—and all of these undesirables lower the NuVal scores for a food.
Look for whole grain breads, crackers, rice, and cereals. Again, the higher NuVal score, the better for your heart. These foods will have more fiber, a lower Glycemic Index and less sodium and added sugars.
Aim for eating fish twice a week and choose lean meats & poultry.
The NuVal Nutritional Scoring System gives nutritional guidance to consumers frustrated with complicated nutrition labels and misleading packaging promises. Under NuVal, all foods and beverages are rated on a scale between 1 to 100. The higher the score, the higher the overall nutrition.
Awards
A Better Bag of Groceries was recently named by Medical Assistant Colleges as a Top 50 Blog for Understanding and Preventing Childhood Obesity. Hooray!
