A recent post about 'going to the Whole Foods store' mentioned that the chain lists the nutritional values of foods as a total score out of 1000. Hy Vee stores lis the NuVal score of 1-100 of many of their foods (http://www.hy-vee.com/health/nuval/default.aspx).
So- why not create our own scoring system of tortoise foods so we can assign a number so when we are out shopping, we can carry a wallet card and quickly figure out what is good to serve and what we should avoid?
Josh suggested (in the Whole Foods thread) that we could rate nutrients on a -5 to +5 scale and then basically just add them up, which makes perfect sense. So...
1. What nutrients do we care about? I would say that we would start with things like:
- total calcium
- calcium/phosphorous ratio
- fiber
- protein
- net carbs (total carbs minus fiber)
- vitamins a, d, and E
- oxalates (and which database do we trust the most for this?)
- salt
- preservatives and chemicals
- added sugars and sweeteners
(the last few would lower the total score)
But what about things like iron, magnesium, vitamins B and C, etc. Do we make a 'catch all' category for the more minor nutrients?
2. Should everything count equally? The scores used by the chains supposedly use special logarithms and such. I can see counting some things more than others, and using some things, like added salt, as a way to reduce a score's subtotal.
3. Would there be a need or benefit in having different numbers for different species? I am thinking here of whether protein counts the same way for protein-tolerant species like Red-foots and for grassland species like Sulcatas.
I would bet that if we put our minds to it we could create a relatively easy system- maybe like a simple tax form- figure the baseline score, figure in bonus points that raise the score, then figure in 'hits' that reduce the score.
Once we get a simple working formula, then we could just all take a chunk of a nutrition database and crank out some numbers! The Official Tortoise Forums .Org "Tortoise Diet Nutrition Score"- ToNut for short (rhymes with 'donut')
So- why not create our own scoring system of tortoise foods so we can assign a number so when we are out shopping, we can carry a wallet card and quickly figure out what is good to serve and what we should avoid?
Josh suggested (in the Whole Foods thread) that we could rate nutrients on a -5 to +5 scale and then basically just add them up, which makes perfect sense. So...
1. What nutrients do we care about? I would say that we would start with things like:
- total calcium
- calcium/phosphorous ratio
- fiber
- protein
- net carbs (total carbs minus fiber)
- vitamins a, d, and E
- oxalates (and which database do we trust the most for this?)
- salt
- preservatives and chemicals
- added sugars and sweeteners
(the last few would lower the total score)
But what about things like iron, magnesium, vitamins B and C, etc. Do we make a 'catch all' category for the more minor nutrients?
2. Should everything count equally? The scores used by the chains supposedly use special logarithms and such. I can see counting some things more than others, and using some things, like added salt, as a way to reduce a score's subtotal.
3. Would there be a need or benefit in having different numbers for different species? I am thinking here of whether protein counts the same way for protein-tolerant species like Red-foots and for grassland species like Sulcatas.
I would bet that if we put our minds to it we could create a relatively easy system- maybe like a simple tax form- figure the baseline score, figure in bonus points that raise the score, then figure in 'hits' that reduce the score.
Once we get a simple working formula, then we could just all take a chunk of a nutrition database and crank out some numbers! The Official Tortoise Forums .Org "Tortoise Diet Nutrition Score"- ToNut for short (rhymes with 'donut')
