Decoding nutrition labels can be confusing. Guiding Stars takes the guesswork out of choosing foods that are nutritious for you and your family.
Guiding Stars is an impartial, patented food rating system that rates food based on nutrient density using a scientific algorithm. Foods are rated based on a balance of credits and debits. Foods are credited for vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, whole grains, and Omega-3 fatty acids, and debited for saturated fats, trans fats, added sodium and added sugar. Rated foods are marked with easy-to-follow tags indicating 1, 2, or 3 stars.
As you go through each aisle of the store, look for the easy-to-follow Guiding Stars shelf tags indicating 1, 2, or 3 stars.
If the shelf tag has no stars, it simply means either:
a.) The food doesn’t meet the nutritional criteria for a Guiding Star. Of course, you can still enjoy these foods. Nobody is expected to eat star worthy foods all the time. Just consider balancing eating the foods you love with a healthy, active lifestyle. And, as always, you can read the Nutrition Facts panel and ingredient list to help you make informed choices that work best for you and your family.
b.) The food is not rated. Products like bottled water, dried spices, coffee and tea are not rated by Guiding Stars because they contain fewer than 5 calories per serving.
c.) The food hasn’t yet been rated. There is a chance that a new item has hit the shelf and has not yet gone through the full rating process. Check back during your next visit!
Guiding Stars is not intended to tell you what to buy, but rather point you toward nutritious choices. Guiding Stars is also not a substitute for a physician’s advice, diagnosis or treatment of a pre-existing condition.
Guiding Stars is objective, based on consumer research, and not influenced by price, brand or manufacturer trade groups. And with over 30,000 rated foods in the Guiding Stars database, making nutritious choices for you and your family is now simple…and even fun.