Nutripoints Quiz

Fruits:

Papaya scores the highest in this group, at 20.5 Nutripoints, which is 4 times the recommended value of 5 Nutripoints for a fruit serving. Tropical fruits such as papaya, mangoes, kiwi, melon score the highest in the fruit group. The orange scores 13.5 which is also good, and beats out the banana at 7.5 and pear at 4.5.

Vegetables:

Raw carrots score the highest in this example, at 35.5 Nutripoints, which is about 2 times the recommended value of 14 Nutripoints for a vegetable serving. Cooked carrots score 30 Nutripoints. Cooking typically will decrease the scores by about 15%-25%. The tomato scores 30.0, which is also good, and it contains Lycopene, a powerful antioxidant in the blood stream which can help prevent prostate and other cancers. Cooked green beans score 24.5, but other “green” vegetables such as the “green leafy” type score much higher. Lastly, celery, which many people think has no nutritional value, scores 20.0 Nutripoints, which is a reasonable score. It scores high because it is so low in calories, the ratio of nutrients per calorie is high.

Grains:

Whole wheat bread at 6.0 Nutripoints scores the highest of this group, and beats out rye bread at 4.0. Many people think rye bread is better, but most rye breads are made with some white wheat flour mixed in, and the rye used is not whole rye. Since most of the nutrition is in the bran portion of the wheat or rye kernel, the whole wheat bread scores the highest. A whole rye bread or cracker would still score slightly less than whole wheat at 5.0 Nutripoints. This meets the recommended value of 5 Nutripoints for a grain serving. Cooked white rice only scores 3.0 Nutripoints, while brown rice scores 4.0 and wild rice scores 5.5. Cornbread is the lowest-scoring in this group, at 1.0 Nutripoint. Corn is generally higher in calories than the grains, and cornbread contains added fat, salt and sugar.