The research
Where the score comes from
Every lever in the score traces to a published standard or paper. Some of the thresholds between them are our own calibration, and we say which. Here is what is behind each piece, and how Bazu uses it.
A wellness tool, not a medical device. Findings are associations, not medical advice.
What this research does not show
The dip two to three hours after a meal predicts hunger well. Its link to how alert people felt was not significant. So the battery reads staying power, never how you will feel.
One meal's effect is small. The energy read ranks foods against each other. It is not a forecast of your afternoon.
Findings here are associations. Bazu itself has not been studied.
The energy read
The model behind the battery: how Bazu estimates a food's blood-sugar response, its shape, height and timing, and turns that into one of three reads.
The shape of the curve across more than 1,000 foods in healthy people. Sugary foods dip below baseline, starchy foods stay above it, which is how each curve gets its rise, peak, and tail.
Post-meal glucose peak timing by glycemic index. Sets how fast each curve rises and decays.
24-hour glucose profiles in non-diabetic adults. Sets the fasting baseline the curve returns to.
Continuous glucose monitoring in people without diabetes. Confirms typical peak height and return-to-baseline.
The dawn phenomenon. Background on the body's overnight and morning glucose rhythm, behind the resting baseline a meal's curve starts from.
Reference GI and GL values for foods, the starting point for a meal's glucose load.
Eating protein and vegetables before carbs lowers the meal's rise, the basis for the meal-order insight.
The Nutrition Score, on the label
The penalties and bonuses read straight from the nutrition facts.
The clinical backbone: added sugar, saturated fat, minimally processed foods, and what the guideline says about glucose. Cited across the score's levers.
Fiber and whole grains carry the strongest outcome evidence. The basis for treating fiber as the counterweight to a food's carb load.
The carb-to-fiber ratio for telling refined from whole-grain foods. Behind the carb-quality lever.
Daily added-sugar limits. All sugar counts toward the score, added sugar judged hardest against this line.
The per-serving claim lines (low sodium, low saturated fat, low calorie) that decide when a serving is judged in full.
The heart guardrail for saturated fat, and the fat-quality judgment for fat-rich foods.
Unsaturated fat is the fat worth eating, the basis for the good-fats bonus.
Daily sodium limits behind the sodium penalty.
The reference fiber intake. The backdrop to the fiber bonus.
Protein and satiety. Sets the gated protein bonus.
Charges energy density per 100 g, the model for Bazu's calorie penalty on refined foods.
A second front-of-pack system that charges energy density, corroborating the calorie penalty.
Free-sugar and general dietary guidance behind the score's direction.
A comparison of national dietary guidelines, including where they land on ultra-processed food.
Beyond the label
The handful of ingredients that move a score in ways the nutrition facts can't show.
Advises against non-sugar sweeteners for weight control, the basis for the sweetener strike.
Advises limiting foods high in saturated fat, the basis for the deep-fried strike.
Isolated fibers must prove a benefit to count as fiber. Behind the isolated-fiber discount and the refined-starch flag.
Maltodextrin digests faster than table sugar while the label still counts it as ordinary carbs. Why refined starches read as the fastest carbs.
High dietary phosphorus is tied to higher all-cause mortality. Behind the small penalty for added phosphates.
The ingredient check
How additives are tiered on the separate Clean axis, from health and safety bodies.
Cancer-hazard classifications for specific additives.
The international expert body on food-additive safety and acceptable intakes.
Re-evaluations and intake limits for E-numbers across the EU.
US approvals and the GRAS list for additives and colors.
Toxicology reports informing higher-risk tiers.
Substances known to cause cancer or reproductive harm, a source for avoid-tier flags.
An independent additive-safety rating we cross-reference.
A second independent additive database we cross-reference.
Where the food data comes from
The nutrition and product databases Bazu reads before it scores anything.
See the science in action
See how Bazu turns these papers into one clear number.