If only every fitness choice came with a game...

Yesterday I was scanning my e-mail when I noticed something from Bloom, my local grocery store. Apparently when I registered for their Savings card, it required my e-mail and I was beginning to receive SPAM from them. I was about ready to hit the delete button when at the bottom corner of the page the catch phrase "Looking for foods with More Nutrition? Let the stars be your guide..." caught my eye. I was looking for food with more nutritional value, so I clicked on the link.

It took me to a page which explained Bloom's unique and new program where they were making an effort to make shopping easier for the consumer by implementing a system to label their foods by nutritional values. Zero stars, no nutritional value, One star Good nutritional value, Two Stars Better nutritional value  Three stars, the Best Nutritional value.  Instead of having to scan labels for ingredients, percentages and more, you can simply look at the number of stars associated with the item and know that the more the stars, the more vitamins, minerals, dietary fibers and whole grains the items have and the less saturated fats, cholesterol, trans fats, added sodium and added sugars the items have. It seemed like a pretty good idea at face value, but was it really necessary? To be honest I only shop at Bloom once in awhile, because Shopper's is closer, so while the idea was somewhat intriguing to me, I wasn't sure it was enough to get me  in the door more often. And then Bloom set the hook...

At the bottom of the page was a link to "Play the Guiding Stars Game". Curious, I clicked on the link. The game was designed to test your knowledge of just how nutritional different food items were. This shouldn't be too difficult, I just had to guess the number of stars Bloom assigned to the item. Once I correctly answered ten questions, the game would stop. This should be a quick game, I thought to myself.

The first picture was of Bartlett Pears. That was easy, 3 stars. Correct ...Gold star for me. The second picture was of baby red potatoes...hmm 2 Stars. Correct....Two Gold stars for me. Somewhere around the third or fourth question though my perfect record went south. A Picture of Orville Redenbacher's Smart Pop Popcorn came up. I thought for sure that was a maximum of one star on the nutritional scale, but instead it was worth two stars. Fiber One bars was the next picture; this must be at least two stars, but instead it was rated only one star. As I continued to click the wrong stars, it became clear that I should have been reading labels, because my nutritional compass was sadly eschew.

After playing the game for much longer than I expected, it became very evident that I needed a ground guide to teach me the rules. I guess the good news is Bloom has one. The hook was set, it looks like I will be shopping at Bloom more often.