Our meal ratings on Yuka vary depending on the recipe. This is due to analysis algorithms that sometimes yield more or less relevant conclusions. It's important to always remember to be critical when using nutrition rating apps.
Additives.
The additives we use in our products are minimal and are not harmful to your health! Often confused with additives, it's the essential vitamins and minerals in our ingredient lists that wrongly lower the scores. Our vitamin mix provides you with about a quarter of your daily needs per meal (depending on the recipe), so there's no risk of overconsumption. Yuka's policy is to "rate red" most additives as a precaution, i.e., to classify them in the "harmful" category. This goes against the grain of a regular and balanced intake of vitamins and minerals.
Calories.
It is sometimes indicated that our products are "too" caloric. A complete meal of 400 kcal or 500 kcal is not, however, a meal that is too caloric, because it only represents 20 to 25% of the average daily requirement (2000 kcal/day). Remember that we offer complete meals and not simple foods. Yuka and other applications of this type, focus on evaluating the nutritional relevance of a single component of your diet, they are not equipped to evaluate all product categories. This is also why food supplements, sports proteins and even infant formula milks are not listed on Yuka. If they were, they would also receive very poor ratings. Faced with this inability to objectively rate these product categories, Yuka has chosen to remove them from its directory.
The same should apply to complete meals, which are by definition rich in macronutrients. If Yuka could scan all the foods in a typical meal at once, it seems obvious that the calorie count would be high.
Sugar.
The sugar in our bars comes from fruit, chocolate, and agave syrup. This unrefined syrup has a low glycemic index and is naturally rich in minerals such as iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. At first glance, even 25g of sugar in our Original meal bars may seem like a lot, but for comparison, a plate of raw vegetables, a dish of rice, and a piece of fruit provides much more than 25g of sugar per meal. In addition, OKR offers complete meals that are very rich in fiber, protein, and essential fatty acids, which will slow the absorption of the sugars present. The final glycemic index is therefore very low! This is also the case for our snacks, our raw bars, whose sugar content is criticized on Yuka, even though it comes exclusively from fruit (dates, plums, cherries, bananas, etc.). However, dates or bananas taken alone are rated "very good" by the app, because they are a fruit. Fruit is therefore highly acclaimed by Yuka, but very poorly rated if it's an ingredient. The health benefits are nevertheless the same! There is half as much sugar in our raw bars as in fruit, but also twice as much fiber and 5 times more protein! A super-fruit rich in vitamins and minerals! Ideal at any time of day, but which does not fit into Yuka's rating codes.
The quantity.
Yuka doesn't take quantity and portion into account. The nutritional values evaluated are always taken per 100 grams of product. Our snacks are only 40 grams. The values used for their ratings are therefore twice as high as in reality, which seriously hinders a realistic and objective judgment. For example, 100g of pizza is compared to 100g of chips, while a portion of pizza is 300g versus 30g for a portion of chips. That's a shame!
Gluten, lactose and other allergens.
Yuka doesn't take into account the efforts made to offer products with ultra-demanding specifications, balanced, vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, made in France, nor the industrial constraints that this entails. Gluten-free blends and manufacturing, for example, are much more complicated and sometimes require the use of specific ingredients that can alter the final score. The application allows itself to suggest products, certainly better rated, but which contain a lot of gluten or other allergens. This choice assistance is extremely dangerous for the health of a consumer with an intolerance or allergy.
Balance and diversity.
Yuka also ignores the fundamentals of nutrition, which are balance and diversity. An apple will be rated “green” on Yuka, but no other information will be transmitted. However, if you only eat apples, you will quickly become deficient in certain nutrients such as proteins, essential fatty acids, and minerals. Generally speaking, encouraging consumers to only eat foods rated “green” without providing the concepts of nutritional balance and diversity is very dangerous and leads to eating behaviors that are often very deficient in nutrients. It is essential to maintain a critical mind with this type of application and not forget that a balanced diet is essential, well before simply rating a product out of its food context. Rest assured! All our meals and snacks are balanced!
In summary.
Rest assured! We have confidence in our products. So should you.
