I remember how grocery shopping used to be. I would take my time. I would linger in the each aisle long enough to read nutrition labels and compare products before proceeding to the check-out.

That’s how it was before I had children. Now, I tend to have little time. I can’t linger. I barely have time to glance at nutrition labels, and I can’t compare products as carefully as I once did. I have to choose quickly, buy my groceries, and go.

It makes little sense to me, but there it is: Now—when it’s not just my health or my husband’s health, but that of our children at stake—I have less time than ever to spend on comparison shopping.

So, I am thrilled to hear about a tool that should help: the Overall Nutrition Quality Index (ONQI). Its cumbersome abbreviation aside, the Index promises to be an easy way for busy consumers to quickly assess the “overall nutritional quality” of a given food. Using this system, a food or a recipe can be given a single score on a scale of 1 to 100. About 30 nutrients, both favorable (e.g., fiber) and unfavorable (e.g., added sugar) are included in the ONQI formula. The formula is also structured to weigh the importance of various nutrients to health, and their associations with specific health outcomes.

The ONQI was developed by a team of 12 leading American and Canadian nutrition experts, under the direction of Dr. David L. Katz, co-founder and director of the Yale University – Griffin Hospital Prevention Research Center. The project was completely supported by the hospital, with no external or commercial funding.

The primary role of the Index is to enable consumers to easily compare products within a given category (e.g., breads, pasta sauces, breakfast cereal, vegetables) and select the healthiest choice. However, it also allows consumers to easily compare products in different categories, which may encourage them to selecting more foods from healthier categories. As explained by Dr. Katz, “You can, in fact, compare apples to oranges (oranges win), or apples to marshmallows…But of more practical value, you can compare one box of kid’s breakfast cereal to another, cut right past all the marketing hype, and get to the truth at a glance.”

Unfortunately, it’s not available yet. Plans are in place for an ONQI-based online system that will enable users to:

• allow users to check virtually any food,
• create shopping lists,
• access and alter recipes, and
• develop best-health meal plans.

ONQI developers intend for their Index to be used by food manufacturers, restaurants, and health websites. This year, the ONQI will be rolled out in thousands of Topco Associates grocery stores nationwide. This advance is slated for the second half of this year, so keep an eye on the products you see where you shop—and, please, post a comment below the first time you see an ONQI rating in your local grocery story!

I know I’ll be watching for it. It sounds like a great tool for any busy shopper. My only question about the ONQI is whether it is designed to change over time, in accord with the latest studies in nutrition science. As anyone who watches the news can tell you, what seems good at one time may be found to be bad after later investigation—and vice versa (e.g., eggs, butter, margarine, aspartame).