What is the NOVA Food Classification System?
Did you know that 60% of the average American diet consists of ultra-processed foods? That’s not good news for our overall health. The science is pretty clear – eating ultra-processed foods increases your risk for cancer, obesity, and depression. There’s even evidence to suggest that eating ultra-processed foods accelerates cognitive decline.
The NOVA Food Classification System is the basis for the 40FRESH Rules. It was developed in Brazil by nutrition scientist and doctor Carlos Monteiro. He initially sought to understand why rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes were rising in Brazil despite the fact that people were buying less sugar at the grocery store. What he found was that people were actually consuming more fats and sugars in the form of processed foods.
He developed the NOVA Food Classification System as a way to classify foods by their degree of processing. It looks a little like this:
Group 1 - Unprocessed & Minimally Processed
Basically this is the category for everything you can get directly from a plant or an animal. Minimal processing, in this case, refers to things like washing veggies or trimming unwanted parts. The processing doesn’t change the substance of the food.
Group 2 - Oils, Fats, Salt & Sugars
Group 3 - Processed
Think of this category as prepared foods you find in the grocery store that follow Michael Pollan rules. In other words, short ingredients lists and only ingredients from groups 1 and three
Group 4 - Ultra-Processed
Can’t pronounce an ingredient? “Natural” flavors added? Yeah, more on that later… Pretty much all foods that are heavily marketed fall in this category. It is designed to be over-consumed.
We’ll have time to dig into all of the nitty-gritty details later. For now, go ahead and print the NOVA Quick Reference. You’ll be using this heavily over the next 40 days.
NOVA is not without its critics. However, the science has pretty clearly shown that it drives healthier outcomes across the board. In fairness, it can be complicated and hard to follow, which is why we created a simplified version with the 40FRESH Rules. We’ll explore those more on day 7 and day 8. To start, however, we’ll spend some time looking at NOVA directly.
Today’s Checklist
If you’re following along with the 40FRESH Challenge, here’s your homework for today:
Read this post
Print out the NOVA Quick Reference guide
Prepare for your first food journal entry
Download the OpenFoodFacts app
Remember that Health Mantra?
Remember that mantra you came up with yesterday? It’s time to break out that food journal. Make a note of today’s date and write out your mantra. The simple act of writing it down will help you to reinforce your new identity.
Again, in case you’re not feeling particularly creative, you can borrow mine:
I care about my health and I make healthy choices.
Every time you make a new entry into your journal, I want you to start it by writing down your mantra. I know it might seem silly, but trust me, it works.
Tomorrow, you’re going to be writing down everything you eat in your journal, so keep it close by. For today, however, you’re just going to write your mantra.
Download the OpenFoodFacts App
As part of the tracking you’ll be doing tomorrow, you’ll be asked to figure out the NOVA classification for everything you’re eating.
For canned and boxed goods, this will be pretty easy since all you have to do is look at the ingredients list. However, for prepared foods, you’ll have to dig a little deeper to understand the classifications of the ingredients. This is where having the OpenFoodFacts app can be helpful.
Go ahead and download the right app for you:
Now, admittedly, this app is far from perfect. However, at the time of writing, it’s still one of the best options available for figuring out the NOVA classification for any foods you’re unsure about.
Up Next...
Great job getting this far! Go ahead and put another X on your calendar. Tomorrow you’ll be adding everything you eat in your food journal and identifying its food classification. When you’re ready, head over to 40FRESH Day 3.
Have not been able to open the NOVA information. 404 errors
Sorry about that! Link has been fixed