The Study
Validation of Food Compass with a healthy diet, cardiometabolic health, and mortality among U.S. adults, 1999–2018
This study looked at what people ate and how healthy they were over time, and found that people who ate foods with higher Food Compass scores tended to be healthier. But it didn’t make people change their diets — it just watched what they already did, so we can’t say eating better foods definitely caused the health improvements.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Scientists created a score (Food Compass) that rates how healthy each food is, then added up all the foods a person eats to get their personal health score.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1A 10-point score increase is like swapping a sugary snack for an apple — small daily choices add up to big health benefits over time.
- 2People with higher scores ate healthier and had: 7% lower risk of dying over 20 years, 15% less metabolic syndrome, 8% less heart disease, better blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Nature Communications
Year
2022
Authors
Meghan O’Hearn, Josh Erndt-Marino, Suzannah Gerber, B. Lauren, C. Economos, J. Wong, J. Blumberg, D. Mozaffarian
Related Content
Claims (6)
The Food Compass system rates foods with a single score from 1 to 100 using 54 measurable characteristics grouped into nine categories related to health.
In U.S. adults, higher Food Compass Scores are linked to lower rates of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, and higher rates of optimal cardiometabolic health.
The Food Compass Score closely matches the Healthy Eating Index 2015 in a large group of 47,999 adults, showing that it accurately measures how well people follow U.S. dietary guidelines.
In U.S. adults, a 10.9-point higher Food Compass Score is linked to measurably lower body mass index, lower systolic blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, higher HDL cholesterol, and lower HbA1c levels.
People who eat a diet with a higher Food Compass Score have a 7% lower risk of dying from any cause over 20.8 years, compared to those with lower scores, after accounting for age, sex, income, education, smoking, and physical activity.
People with higher Food Compass Scores have a slightly lower rate of death from cancer, but the difference is not large enough to be certain it is not due to chance.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.