Nutrition Navigation System Helps Students, Faculty, Easily Identify Healthy Foods
Guiding Stars, the world’s first store-wide nutrition guidance program, today announces a partnership with University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks, ND. The good-better-best nutrition navigation system will launch in all of the school’s dining facilities and campus convenience stores beginning this fall.
With the help of Guiding Stars, each prepared meal, salad bar and grab-and-go item served by UND’s dining facilities and sold in campus convenience stores will receive a zero-to-three star rating according to its nutritional value, offering diners a simple, at-a-glance tool that quickly identifies the most nutritious foods. Guiding Stars will be a crucial tool in continuing to spread awareness of healthy eating to all sectors of campus dining.
“We are excited to partner with UND and provide a tool that helps community members make healthier food choices,” said John Eldredge, director of brand and business development at Guiding Stars Licensing Company. “Students and staff are often interested in eating more nutritious foods, but don’t have the time to read and understand complex nutrition facts information. Guiding Stars is a simple program that helps diners to quickly identify more nutritious foods.”
Guiding Stars utilizes a proprietary algorithm that is grounded in evidence-based science and the most current guidelines and recommendations of leading national and international health organizations, such as the FDA and USDA. The system credits all edible foods based on the presence of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and whole grains, and debits for the presence of trans fat, saturated fats, cholesterol, added sugars and added sodium. Food items are then awarded zero, one, two or three stars – one star means good nutritional value; two stars, better nutritional value; and three stars, the best nutritional value.
“Nutritious eating can have a direct effect on learning, so we aim to provide a variety of high quality, healthy food options that make it easier for diners to achieve a healthy lifestyle,” said Orlynn Rosaasen, director of dining services at University of North Dakota. “Our students and faculty are constantly on the go in our busy campus and Guiding Stars will save time by taking the guesswork out of choosing nutritious foods.”
About Guiding Stars Licensing Company
Since 2006, Guiding Stars has been leading the way in helping consumers make nutritious food choices. The Guiding Stars nutrition guidance program is a simple, easy-to-understand tool for making good nutrition choices and is designed to make a positive and lasting impact on public health. Guiding Stars is currently in more than 1,500 supermarkets including Food Lion, Hannaford, Bloom, Sweetbay and coming soon to Kings Super Market. Guiding Stars has also expanded into public schools and colleges, and appears on the Shopper mobile iPhone application.
About the University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota is the state’s most comprehensive intensive research university and the primary centers for professional and educational training. Founded by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, UND has remained a university with a strong liberal arts foundation surrounded by a variety of professional and specialized programs. UND is one of 47 public universities in the nation with both accredited graduate schools of law and medicine. UND enrolls over 13,000 students in 217 fields of study from baccalaureate through doctoral and professional degrees. The university also has a department dedicated to Residence Services that is committed to providing a high quality living and learning environment to on-campus residents.