Food ratings at the supermarket?

What if all the food at the supermarket had a score on it based on how nutritious it was for you? Say a big red sticker or “0” for non nutritional food, and a green sticker or “10” for nutrient dense food? Would it change how you shopped for your family? Maybe not because really, we can already kind of guess what rating foods we eat would get. But then, going a step further, what if after we ate a meal, we would then get a rating to wear around until our next meal? No, I don’t think this should ever necessarily happen, but a lot comes to mind when I imagine. 

First I do think people would make healthier choices, for ourselves and especially for those we feed. We would want to see our kids in all green and 10s right?? And we wouldn’t really want to be walking around in a red 0!  I think it would make us eat more balanced meals, adding nutritious food to balance out the lower rating foods. 

Second, I think it would really open our eyes to how much the food choices we make affect our entire lives. We would start to associate those days we’re in red 0s and lower numbers as sicker, less happy and peppy day. And we might notice we’re in more pain, less productive and sleep worse. And in our kids, they may have more behavior problems, skin and gut sensitivities, and sleep problems, we may even see a difference in test and school grades. 

Again, I don’t think we should ever do this because it would be embarrassing, cause way too much focus on food and it’s just a deep breach of privacy. But wow, when you think about it, it could make us value and appreciate healthy food more and see it as something so beneficial and positive. And further, we wouldn’t think of giving up junk food as such a sacrifice once we see the direct correlation between how crummy it makes us feel.

There are some countries who do grade their foods at supermarkets now and I wish we did that here in the US. Not to shame people, but really just to make it easier to make healthier choices faster. It would make people have an easier time choosing between two similar choices if one is a little healthier, and it then maybe would make companies start making healthier choices themselves!

For the time being, fill your cart with the tried and true nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables, and as much unprocessed, real food as possible.