Today, we introduced a significant upgrade to our Meal Score in the Veri app!
Our goal has always been to help our members make better food and habit decisions for their metabolic health every day.
Our Meal Score feature is a fundamental part of that equation. It allows people to get a simple 1-10 score for their meals based on their glucose response, rather than going through the raw data themselves.
We’ve never been a company that believes in keeping your glucose flat. Glucose rising and falling is a part of normal physiology. What we coach is avoiding the aggressive spikes that lead to brain fog and fatigue in the moment and compound over time into poor metabolic health outcomes – and our model reflected that.
But there was something missing.
Glucose is a powerful signal that lets you see your individual response to food, but that signal can get distorted in some cases because it doesn't fully capture food quality. You could eat a “Big Mac” and have steady glucose levels - it wouldn’t mean it was supporting your health.
We know from a wide variety of research and observational studies that food quality matters immensely. Attributes like the level of processing and nutritional quality have just as much of a role in your health as a food’s glucose impact.
We began solving this problem by introducing “Food Quality” a few months ago. A new feature that labels logged foods as “Enjoy,” “Moderate,” or “Avoid” depending on how processed a food is, its nutritional quality, and its glycemic index.
After testing this feature with our users we then updated the Meal Scoring algorithm to take into account both glucose response and Food Quality.
The result? A Meal Score that paints a holistic picture and guides you to make the right choice for your metabolic health.
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Glucose alone does not paint the full picture of metabolic health or of a balanced diet. By considering factors such as the level of food processing, alongside glycemic response, we’ve been able to improve upon our most popular feature, the Meal Score. Customers still get the 0 to 10 score they’ve loved seeing, but can now rest assured they are getting even better feedback on meal choices for improving metabolic health.
How it works
We started by classifying foods into preliminary groups using a machine-learning model we developed. This model is built to detect a wide range of processing and nutritional aspects in foods using qualitative and nutrient data from internationally recognized scientific food databases. These labels are then checked and verified by our health team of doctors and dietitians before being released to our users. The model is then continually applied to our ever-evolving food database.
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A strong body of research demonstrates that ultra-processed foods are associated with adverse health outcomes, like risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, and death. Food Quality is one tool that can help people navigate what foods to focus on as they work toward a healthier lifestyle.
To calculate your Meal Score, Veri now weighs your glucose response against the Food Quality of its ingredients. The Meal Score screen will show you how each factor contributes to your score.
Here is an example of how two meals can be scored differently, even with the same glucose response, because of the quality of the foods.
The first meal scores higher because the food quality is higher. This is better in line with the current evidence on the impact of food quality on metabolic health while still considering glucose response.
This works in the other direction as well. For instance, if you eat a meal with high-quality ingredients, but your blood glucose levels increase, the score will be higher than before the upgrade.
While this case may be an obvious one, the new combination of objective data from your body with the latest research means you get more nuance than ever before in assessing your diet, especially when it comes to foods that may be marketed as healthy.
How to get started
The Meal Score upgrade is now live for all members. You’ll be able to see details on each meal including individual ingredients and what affected your score.
Not a member yet? Join Veri to learn the best foods for you and improve your health today.
