President's Choice Archives

We know that not all foods are good for you, and we also know that some foods are better than others. And if you watch the news, this information seems to change quite frequently.

Guiding Stars® makes choosing healthy foods so much easier!!

Guiding Stars is a nutrition program that rates foods based on its nutritional value and assigns 1, 2 or 3 stars; with three stars being the highest rating within the Guiding Stars® program. Guiding Stars® ultimately helps guide you to nutritious options on our store’s shelves.

Guiding Stars® scores foods based on a balance of credits and debits.

Foods are credited for vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, whole grains and omega-3s, and debited for saturated fats, trans fats, added sodium and added sugars. Items are rated impartially using an algorithm based on information from the food package or a Canadian nutrition database.

There is a whole scientific algorithm behind it all! And they explain it here — http://guidingstars.ca/science/

In-store info

When arriving at the store, on a mission to find stars, we found the Guiding Stars Kiosk of info. There is a book that explains the program and has an index so everyone can look up different foods to see how they are rated.

Stars are easy to find!

As we made our way around the store, the stars were easy to find.

And was a bit eye opening. Why were Rachel’s favourite melons only 2 stars versus blueberries which were 3 stars?

Food Finder – How is your favourites rated?

When we got home, I had to find out about blueberries vs melons. We could have looked in the book too!

Huh. Honeydew melon has more sodium. Blueberries have more fibre.

2 stars is better than no stars. But education is so important! Using the stars, we can make better choices when comparing products!

Your Personal Profile lets you know how you’re doing!

When you go to GuidingStars.ca, you can click on your Loblaws store to then log into your Guiding Stars profile.

This dashboard has so much information to show you how you and your family are doing!

I was amazed when I first logged in and immediately showed Craig how well we are doing!

We had been earning stars all along and didn’t know it.

Because your Guiding Stars profile is directly connected to your PC Plus account, the tracking happens automatically.

Look how we’re doing so far!

How did this happen?

A lot of our favourite foods are all 2 or 3 stars!

How is your family doing?

This really is an educational, eye-opening program that everyone should be a part of. You just have to go to http://guidingstars.ca/ to get started!

Or maybe, like us, you’ve already started with your PC Plus card and don’t know it!