The Food Compass: ice cream can be healthier than a multigrain bagel

[Heisman2]

Just stumbled upon this article on Yahoo: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ice-...044215739.html

The Food Compass was published in 2021 apparently: https://www.nature.com/articles/s430...f7rKzgFOzDs%3D

Website is here: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/

I haven't looked through it yet but thought it may be of interest.

[air2fakie]

I've been eating ice cream almost every day this summer. I've eaten one multigrain bagel all summer.

Me >healthier> Heisman.

[Strawng]

While I'm all for ice cream & I eat it almost every day, this is utter nonsense. They rate all these foods based on an "algorithm of nutrition" that weighs "god and bad" qualities of food. Soda, for example, is "healthier" than a multigrain bagel. I presume this is because soda is only "unhealthy" due to sugar, whereas the bagel's unhealthy due to carbs and sodium. Say what you will about the satiety of bagels, but if I had a bagel when I was hungry, I think I'd be far better-off than I would if I reached for a soda. Soda also beats out things like cookies because they're "sugar and fat". Again, if you'e craving something sweet, a single cookie's more likely to satisfy you than a can of soda.

[paulinkansas]

The best bagels I've had were from street vendors at 2am in my college town in the entertainment district. They had portable charcoal grills on a cart and would load the toasted bagels with cream cheese, raisins, sunflower seeds, onions and other stuff. They probably grossed $500 an hour for 2 hours each night. Pretty good money considering the minimum wage was $3.35 back then.

[AdamWW]

While I'm all for ice cream & I eat it almost every day, this is utter nonsense. They rate all these foods based on an "algorithm of nutrition" that weighs "god and bad" qualities of food. Soda, for example, is "healthier" than a multigrain bagel. I presume this is because soda is only "unhealthy" due to sugar, whereas the bagel's unhealthy due to carbs and sodium. Say what you will about the satiety of bagels, but if I had a bagel when I was hungry, I think I'd be far better-off than I would if I reached for a soda. Soda also beats out things like cookies because they're "sugar and fat". Again, if you'e craving something sweet, a single cookie's more likely to satisfy you than a can of soda.

It's like an even worse system than the WW stuff... brb you can eat as much avocado as you want but you can only eat like 1 tbsp of table sugar.

[Strawng]

It's like an even worse system than the WW stuff... brb you can eat as much avocado as you want but you can only eat like 1 tbsp of table sugar.

Exactly! My gf's mom did WW and was throwing avocados on everything because it was a "0-point food" & "had tons of healthy fats". She put it on every sandwich, her morning eggs, every salad, and even snacked them throughout the day. She was then wondering why she was gaining so much weight. I told her it was the avocados and they were extremely high in calories. She didn't believe me.

There's a similar issue with saying ice cream is "healthier"(whatever the fuk that even means) than a multigrain bagel. I've never known anyone to ever eat more than even one multigrain bagel in a sitting, but I've personally known multiple people who have eaten over a pint or even a carton of ice cream in one sitting. It doesn't even make sense nutrition-wise, either. Multigrain bagels have different nutrients and fiber that ice cream lacks. To think that what either WW or Tufts University arbitrarily deems healthy has anything but the most minute relevance for your personal diet is extremely misguided. The media is of course unfortunately pushing this as a fact-based system, and people will likely eat it up like avocados on Weight Watchers.

[paulinkansas]

I've never known anyone to ever eat more than even one multigrain bagel in a sitting.

I ate a loaf of bread in one sitting. It was with a pound of browned ground beef mixed with bbq sauce. The sitting was from 6pm to 2am and a case of beer was involved.

[Strawng]

I ate a loaf of bread in one sitting. It was with a pound of browned ground beef mixed with bbq sauce. The sitting was from 6pm to 2am and a case of beer was involved.

Good Lord, man! Even for you, I can't imagine that felt good afterwards. Just reading that wrenches my gut

[intermedlift]

Huh interesting

[DougyF7]

I think this could be cool if it were a feature in Cronometer or something like that when its done. It seems they are aware it's not complete yet but they are just giving an idea of how it would work - as the tool itself is not accessible on their website. It's still missing information on certain artificial colorings/flavorings, for example.

When comparing foods, the study gave an ice cream cone with nuts and chocolate ice cream a 37, while a multigrain bagel with raisins received a 19 and saltine crackers a 7.

While chocolate-covered almonds and sweet-potato chips might not be surprising healthy choices, other options that ranked high are plain Fritos chips, which were given a 55, and whole grain frozen french toast, which was scored at 35. Nonfat cappuccino was ranked at 69.

Across major food categories, the average Food Compass score was 43.2.

The lowest scoring category was snacks and sweet desserts (average score 16.4).
The highest scoring categories were vegetables (average score 69.1), fruits (average score 73.9, with nearly all raw fruits receiving a score of 100), and legumes, nuts, and seeds (average score 78.6).
Among beverages, the average score ranged from 27.6 for sugar-sweetened sodas and energy drinks to 67 for 100% fruit or vegetable juices.
Starchy vegetables scored an average of 43.2.
The average score for beef was 24.9; for poultry, 42.67; and for seafood, 67.0.