NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chronic illness and obesity are currently the most common, costly, and preventable health issues Americans face today. Among the top contributing factors to chronic disease is poor diet, which has encouraged a national movement towards better nutrition. To help consumers make healthier decisions at the grocery store, the NutriSavings wellness program has joined forces with the NuVal® scoring system to educate shoppers on better-for-you foods, so they can improve their overall wellbeing.
The science behind NuVal was developed by Dr. David Katz, nationally recognized authority on nutrition, chronic illness prevention, and weight management. Katz was the visionary and principal inventor of ONQI® (Overall Nutritional Quality Index), the algorithm that powers the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System. Dr. Katz is the current President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and founding director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.
The partnership between NutriSavings and NuVal allows consumers who regularly see NuVal scores on the shelves to conveniently access these scores 24/7 through NutriSavings’ online platform and mobile app. Consumers can scan products on their phone to see how they score, review nutritional breakdowns, and seek healthier alternatives if needed.
“NutriSavings is one of the first measurable nutrition benefit solutions designed to change shopping behavior through education and incentives, and NuVal is the most robustly validated nutritional scoring system available,” said Dr. Katz. “The use of NuVal Scores within the NutriSavings platform offers a powerful synergy. By providing nutrition transparency and encouraging people to ‘choose a higher number,’ NuVal has traditionally empowered shoppers to make healthier decisions at the grocery store. With the NutriSavings platform, those shoppers will now be able to see the NuVal Scores on-line, choose the higher scoring products, and get monetary rewards for doing so. By rewarding healthier food choices, this partnership can make a meaningful contribution to public health.”
Not only does this benefit shoppers – supermarkets currently using the NuVal scoring system on the shelves can seamlessly integrate with NutriSavings to offer their shoppers more ways to obtain nutrition education, both in-store, and at home.
“We are seeing more and more companies searching for a way to get their employees and their consumer audience healthy,” said Gerard Bridi, CEO of NutriSavings. “Because NutriSavings and NuVal offer a tangible way to evaluate the nutritional value of food products and keep track of purchases to encourage healthy behavior change, we feel that we can help to create a foundation for a healthier population.”
As consumers seek more transparency on food labels, they are paving the way for a new health outlook focused on product quality and understanding how to eat right. This partnership shows how wellness programs, grocery stores, and leaders in the health industry can work together to help consumers make those informed choices, and encourage a healthy shift in behavior towards food.
About NutriSavings: NutriSavings is an online ecosystem where employers, health plans, food and beverage companies, and produce growers join forces to educate the American workforce and their families on proper nutrition, while helping to reduce the enormous costs associated with obesity and chronic illnesses. The NutriSavings program is the first measurable nutrition benefit solution that is designed to change shopping behavior and incentivize healthy food purchases by rewarding members for their healthy purchases. For more information, please contact info@nutrisavings.com, or visit www.nutrisavings.com.
About NuVal: NuVal LLC is a joint venture formed in 2008 by Topco Associates, LLC, and Griffin Hospital of Derby, Connecticut, a non-profit community hospital and home to the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center. Located in Quincy, MA, NuVal licenses its proprietary food scoring system, which is based on ONQI® (Overall Nutrition Quality Index) science, to food retailers across the country. For more information, please contact info@nuval.com or visit www.nuval.com.