When I first heard about NuVal, I figured it was some form of birth control. That’s what it sounds like, right? But it’s actually a new way of reading nutritional labels and comparing product information before you buy.

Nuval works by using something we’ve all grown accustomed to and use regularly on everything from Netflix to Amazon reviews—a rating system. It rates products with a score from 1 to 100, giving products that have a higher level of nutritional benefits higher score a and items with less nutrients a lower score. It sounds so simple that you wonder why it wasn’t done ages ago (aside from the obvious disapproval from companies that would definitely get lower scores for their goods, of course). According to the website, you can even “compare apples and oranges.” Heh.

To calculate a product’s score, NuVal takes dozens of things into consideration—over 30 nutrients, cholesterol, protein, you name it. It then uses each of these factors to help determine the product’s number. The “science of NuVal” can be read here. Certain stores are already carrying NuVal scores to help customers evaluate their products. These stores can be found at the same webpage.

If you think you can predict the scores of everyday foods—an apple in the 90s, for example, or French fries in the mid-40s—you might be surprised. Click here to see the ratings of several common foods.

Is this new system fail-proof? I say no, because a lot of the numbers just seem silly. For example, a husked coconut only has a score of 24 and cut canned spinach has a 76. While I know that canned foods aren’t the best to buy (in fact, we’ve stopped buying them in our home for the most part), why would you want to hinder someone who’s going to buy a canned food anyway from buying spinach? He or she might look at that 76 and think gee, that’s not very healthy; I’ll go for the canned green beans (100) instead.

Some people may be outraged to see their favorite cereals scoring super low on the scale. Cap’n Crunch, for example, only scores 10, and Kashi Strawberry Fields—supposedly a very healthy choice—has an 11. Could Kashi cereal really be worse for you to eat than canned food? Vegetarians, of course, might be happy to know that most meats (other than fish) do not score above a 50.

Would you use the NuVal system if it were available in your area? Though it might seem easier, it might also simply be taking the common sense out of shopping—and if there’s anything mankind could use a bit more of, it’s common sense.