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
In the studies, the dip two to three hours after a sugary meal predicted hunger well. Its link to how alert people felt was not significant. Bazu does not measure that dip. It reads the food for quick sugar, the kind that dips the most. So the battery shows how long a meal tends to hold before hunger, never how you will feel.
Effects on how people feel are small. The battery is a prediction of how long a meal like yours tends to hold for a typical person. It is not measured from you, and people vary by about an hour either way.
Findings here are associations. Bazu itself has not been studied.
The energy read
The research behind the battery: what brings hunger back after a meal, what holds it off, and how long meals tend to hold.
1,070 adults. The dip two to three hours after a meal predicted hunger and the next meal. Its link to how alert people felt was not significant. Why the battery reads hunger, never how you will feel.
895 adults and 7,650 everyday meals. Any dip brought the next meal about 27 minutes sooner. The same finding as Wyatt, on real meals.
More than 1,000 foods. Sugary foods and drinks fall below where they started by two hours, starchy foods stay above, and potatoes are the exception. Why the battery counts quick sugar, sugar in a drink most of all, and half of a potato's starch.
The same sugar as whole apple, puree and juice. Juice fell back the furthest and filled the least. Why sugar in a drink weighs the most.
Protein eaten with carbs slows how fast they land. Why protein counts as something that slows quick sugar.
38 foods at the same calories. How full people stayed tracked fiber, protein and how much food there was. Behind reading protein, fiber and how dense a food is.
13 experiments, 511 people. The more calories eaten first, the less eaten at the next meal. Why calories count toward the hold, and a bigger plate is never marked down.
Protein and appetite at a meal: the benefit shows from about 25 to 30 g. Behind how much protein counts toward the hold.
Bigger breakfasts held longer before people asked for food, but slowly: four times the calories added about 74 minutes. Behind how the hours grow with the size of a meal.
How long US adults go between meals: about 5 hours from breakfast to lunch and about 6 to dinner. Behind "till your next meal" and the hours the app shows.
Reference values for how fast a food's carbs digest. Behind the "Fast carbs" row on the energy card. They do not set the battery.
Eating protein and vegetables before carbs. Background reading only: no screen in the app uses it, and it does not move the battery or any score.
The Nutrition Score, on the label
The penalties and bonuses read straight from the nutrition facts.
The clinical backbone: added sugar, saturated fat and minimally processed foods. Cited across the score's levers.
Fiber and whole grains carry the strongest outcome evidence. The basis for the fiber bonus in the Nutrition Score.
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.