The Science

One number. Built by dietitians, not marketers.

The FoodHealth Score™ (FHS) is a 1–100 rating for every packaged food in the U.S., powered by peer-reviewed nutrition research, calibrated against the Mediterranean dietary pattern, and tuned for people on GLP-1 medications.

Composition

What goes into the score.

Two weighted halves. Zero mystery. Every product is scored on the same axes so you can compare apples to apples — and apples to apple sauce.

78FoodHealth Score™

Ingredient Quality Measure (IQM)

Whole foods, minimal processing, and evidence-graded ingredients get rewarded. Ingredients like artificial flavors, colors, and non-nutritive sweeteners get penalized, weighted by the strength of the research against them.

Nutrient Density Score (NDS)

Protein, fiber, unsaturated fats, and key micronutrients (potassium, calcium, etc.) are weighted against added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat, per calorie — so a 6 oz yogurt and a 2 oz bar get held to the same ruler.

GLP-1 Lens — adjustments

If you've told us you're on a GLP-1, the app adjusts its recommendations to focus on protein quality, fiber per calorie, and hydration-boosting foods — and flags empty-calorie, high-fat, added-sugar, ultra-processed picks that commonly trigger nausea, reflux, and constipation.

Calibration note. Every threshold in the score is calibrated to reward the Mediterranean dietary pattern — whole plants, seafood and lean proteins, unsaturated fats, and minimal ultra-processing. The Mediterranean diet is the gold-standard reference pattern with the most consistent clinical link to reduced cardiovascular, cancer, cognitive, and all-cause mortality risk.

The GLP-1 lens

What matters when you're on one.

GLP-1 medications — semaglutide (Ozempic®/Wegovy®), tirzepatide (Mounjaro®/Zepbound®), liraglutide — slow gastric emptying and suppress both appetite and thirst. Clinical data show caloric intake drops 16–39% on therapy, and up to 40% of the weight lost can come from lean mass when nutrition is not optimized. That changes which nutrients you need more of. Here's how our recommendations shift:

Boosted

Protein Preserves lean muscle when calories drop. Target: 1.2–1.6 g/kg/day (≈80–120 g/day for most adults), distributed across meals. We reward products delivering high-quality protein per calorie.

Boosted

Fiber Slowed digestion is the #1 driver of GLP-1 constipation. We boost foods moving you toward 20–35 g/day, with extra credit for soluble fiber from whole plants.

Minimized

Added sugar When you eat 30–40% fewer calories, every bite counts. Added sugar displaces protein, fiber, and micronutrients — and blunts the medication's metabolic benefits.

Minimized

High fat Delayed gastric emptying makes fatty, fried foods sit longer — a documented trigger for nausea and reflux. We flag total and saturated fat intakes, along with processing methods like frying, to help avoid this.

The lens adapts to where you are. Month 1 on a GLP-1 looks different from month 6. Early on, many users can't tolerate protein-heavy foods — so the app de-emphasizes protein and prioritizes easy-on-the-stomach foods (soft textures, small portions, warm liquids) while you ramp up. As your appetite stabilizes, the recommendations shift toward muscle-preserving protein targets and fiber density. We also recommend more hydration-friendly foods (high water content, electrolyte-rich) because GLP-1s blunt thirst cues, and dehydration is a leading root cause of headaches, fatigue, and worsening GI side effects on therapy. We keep a watchful eye on shortfall micronutrients like iron, B12, vitamin D, calcium, and magnesium, which observational studies have flagged as commonly deficient in GLP-1 users.

Methodology

How a score gets made.

The short version. For the full scientific documentation, contact our team.

01

Ingest the label

Every product's Nutrition Facts panel and ingredient list is pulled from trusted data sources and vetted for accuracy. 1M+ products and growing.

New products added monthly · Proprietary data accuracy model

02

Assign a category

Products are assigned to one of hundreds of food categories, so comparisons and swap recommendations make sense.

Reviewed monthly by our dietitian team

03

Calculate a score

Nutrients are scaled per calorie (or per standard serving for zero-calorie items) against WHO/FAO, EFSA, and U.S. Dietary Guidelines thresholds. 30+ ingredient boosters and detractors are weighted by strength of evidence — the stronger the evidence, the more weight.

Overseen by our nutrition advisory board

04

Color-code for speed

Four colors because nobody has time to remember a 1–100 scale in the cereal aisle. Comparing two items in the same color category? That's when you look to the numbers.

The same 4-tier scale used by Kroger OptUP & Hy-Vee HealthyBites

Real World Example

One category. Two very different scores.

Same aisle. Same cooler. Roughly the same price per ounce. Very different scores. Here's why.

Protein 5g
Fiber 0g
Added sugar 16g
Processing High

Protein 17g
Fiber 0g
Added sugar 0g
Processing Minimal

Why the 55-point gap? Per 6 oz serving, the Greek option delivers roughly 3× the protein with a near-complete amino acid profile, while the fruit-on-the-bottom version's 16 g of added sugar exceeds 30% of the FDA's daily limit before breakfast is finished — plus modified starches, carrageenan, and "artificial flavors" ding its ingredient quality. For a consumer on a GLP-1 eating 30–40% fewer calories, that's the difference between preserving muscle and running on calories driven primarily by added sugars.

Built by

The people behind the score.

Meet the dietitians who built and continue to innovate on the FoodHealth Score™ and our app's nutrition recommendation engine.

  • Stacy Bates, MS, RDN, CDE
  • Mallory Bobzien, MS, RDN
  • Caitlin Updyke, MS, RDN

External oversight is provided by the FoodHealth Score™ Review Board, an independent committee that re-validates the algorithm, thresholds, and taxonomy every year.

Evidence

Validated, measurably.

Three layers of validation — because opinion isn't a methodology.

  • Face validity: Whole, minimally processed foods — fresh produce, meat and seafood, legumes, intact whole grains, plain dairy — reliably score highest. Ultra-processed, sugar- and sodium-heavy items reliably score lowest. Matches expert and consumer intuition.

  • Behavioral validity: In a 2025 controlled online-grocery study (n = 1,000), 27% of shoppers switched to a higher-scoring product after seeing the FoodHealth Score™, even when the higher-scoring option cost more. 85% reported the Score improved their decision-making; 80% said they would use it weekly.

  • External certification: Benchmarked against the Healthy Eating Index, Nutri-Score, NOVA, Food Compass, and Guiding Stars. Reviewed by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM).

Selected references

The science the score is built on.

  1. Mozaffarian D, et al. Nutritional priorities to support GLP-1 therapy for obesity: a joint advisory from ACLM, ASN, OMA, and TOS. Am J Clin Nutr. 2025;122:344–367.
  2. Urbina et al. Micronutrient and nutritional deficiencies associated with GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy: a narrative review. Clin Obes. 2026. (Vitamin D deficiency is 13.6% at 12 months; iron, B12, thiamine, calcium shortfalls are frequent.)
  3. Tinsley GM, et al. Preservation of lean soft tissue during weight loss induced by GLP-1 and GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists: a case series. PMC12536186. 2025.
  4. Sattar N, et al. Optimizing GLP-1 therapies for obesity and diabetes management — 42nd Int'l Symposium on Diabetes and Nutrition commentary, 2025. (Protein >1.2 g/kg/day, evenly distributed; resistance training.)
  5. Dinu M, et al. Mediterranean diet and multiple health outcomes: an umbrella review of meta-analyses. Eur J Public Health. 2018;28(5):955–964.
  6. Estruch R, et al. Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts (PREDIMED). N Engl J Med. 2018;378:e34.
  7. Shan Z, et al. Adherence to healthy dietary patterns and risk of cardiovascular disease. JAMA Intern Med. 2020;180(8):1090–1100.
  8. Hall KD, et al. Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain: an inpatient RCT. Cell Metab. 2019;30(1):67–77.
  9. Reynolds A, et al. Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):434–445. (Fiber 25–29 g/day is associated with 15–30% lower all-cause and CV mortality.)
  10. FDA. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Label. (Added sugars DV = 50 g; sodium DV = 2,300 mg.)
  11. U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025. USDA & HHS.
  12. Haines M, et al. Higher protein intake protects against muscle loss on semaglutide. ENDO 2025 (Endocrine Society annual meeting press release).
  13. FoodHealth Score™ Validation Study (NHANES 2005–2018, n ≈ 26,917). foodhealth.co/the-study.
  14. FoodHealth Score™ Consumer Behavior Study, 2025 (n = 1,000 controlled online-grocery environment).

Put the science in your pocket.

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A fraction of what your GLP-1 medication costs out-of-pocket.