Knowledge base
The NakedCalorie knowledge base
The NakedCalorie knowledge base is a plain-English reference on food, nutrition, and industrial food processing, organized around the four NOVA groups and the ingredients and additives that decide them. It exists so that when the app tells you a product is Group 4 or flags an additive, you can go one click deeper and see exactly why.
NakedCalorie has two jobs: help you track what you eat and help you understand what's actually in it. The knowledge base powers the second job.
What this knowledge base covers
The knowledge base is organized around two Wikipedia-verified entities: Food and Nutrition. Every article ties back to one of them, and to the concept that connects them for consumers: food processing.
What we don't cover: recipes, workout programming, weight-loss surgery, and pharmaceutical protocols. Those are real, important topics — they're just not ours. If you need them, we'll link to a reputable source rather than write a shallow page.
Start here — the four essentials
Read these four pages in order and you'll understand the whole app: the framework, the hard case, the tracking half, and how the score is calculated.
Essential 1
Complete guide to food processing levels
The definitive NOVA overview — read this before anything else.
Essential 2
Ultra-processed foods: evidence-based overview
What Group 4 is, what the research links it to, and where the debates are.
Essential 3
Calorie tracking — how it works, when it helps
The tracking half of the app. Why numbers alone don't tell the full story.
Essential 4
How NakedCalorie scores food
The product methodology — how we combine NOVA, ingredients, and additives into one score.
Every article, by topic
Seven hubs today across processing, ingredients, additives, sweeteners, macronutrients, micronutrients, and food labeling. Fats & oils, dietary patterns, cooking, and health outcomes are the next hubs on the roadmap.
Framework
NOVA classification
The four-group taxonomy from Prof. Carlos Monteiro's team (University of São Paulo, 2009) that sorts every food by the extent and purpose of industrial processing. Start here — it's the frame the rest of the knowledge base depends on.
- The NOVA food classification system
- NOVA Group 1 — unprocessed and minimally processed foods
- NOVA Group 2 — processed culinary ingredients
- NOVA Group 3 — processed foods
- NOVA Group 4 — ultra-processed foods
- How to spot ultra-processed food at a glance
- NOVA vs Nutri-Score — what each one measures
- Criticisms of the NOVA framework
Plain-English references for the ingredients that show up on packaging — emulsifiers, thickeners, isolates — what they do, where they come from, and how NakedCalorie scores them.
Reference
Additives
Colorants, preservatives, emulsifiers, and flavour enhancers: what regulators say, what the evidence says, and how much you're likely eating without noticing.
- Red 40 (Allura Red AC, E129)
- Sodium benzoate
- BHA and BHT (butylated hydroxyanisole and toluene)
- TBHQ (tert-butylhydroquinone)
- Potassium sorbate
- Sulfites (sulphur dioxide and related compounds)
- Sodium nitrite and nitrate in cured meats
- MSG (monosodium glutamate)
- Titanium dioxide (E171)
- Tartrazine (Yellow 5, E102)
Reference
Sweeteners
Sugars, non-sugar sweeteners, plant extracts, and sugar alcohols — the most-contested category on modern food labels, split from additives into a dedicated hub.
Nutrition
Macronutrients
Carbohydrate, protein, and fat plus fibre — what each macronutrient does, how much you need, and where added sugar and saturated fat fit on the label.
Nutrition
Micronutrients
The vitamins and minerals most often over- or under-consumed in modern diets: sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, vitamin D, and B12.
How to read a label. The Nutrition Facts panel, the EU declaration, allergen highlighting, front-of-pack schemes, and the meaning of 'natural' and 'organic'.
Concepts you'll meet
A short glossary of the terms that come up repeatedly across the knowledge base. Each links to the article that owns the full definition.
- NOVA
- The processing classification
- Ultra-processed foods
- Group 4, the industrial category
- Nutri-Score
- Nutrient-density rating, complementary to NOVA
- Emulsifiers
- Ingredients that bind oil and water
- Non-sugar sweeteners
- Aspartame, sucralose, stevia, monk fruit
- Colorants
- Synthetic and natural food dyes
- Preservatives
- Sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, BHA/BHT
- Modified starches
- Maltodextrin and cousins
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Industrial sweetener
- Added sugar
- The label line that decides most scores
- Sodium
- The over-consumed electrolyte
- Front-of-pack labels
- Nutri-Score, traffic lights, warning octagons
Latest from the blog
All posts →Jun 24, 2026
How to read a nutrition label without falling for it
The label is designed to be read. It's just designed by people who don't necessarily want you to read all of it. Here's how to see past the front-of-pack noise.
Jun 18, 2026
What NOVA classification actually means
NOVA isn't a moral scale. It's a way to describe how much industrial processing a food has been through — which turns out to be one of the most useful frames we have for reading a modern supermarket.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the NakedCalorie knowledge base?
- It's a plain-English reference on food, nutrition, and industrial food processing. Every article is written by our editorial team, medically reviewed, and lines up with the score you see on products in the NakedCalorie app.
- How is Learn different from the blog?
- Learn is evergreen. Every page is designed to stay accurate for years and is reviewed every six to nine months. The blog is where we cover new research, seasonal topics, and commentary — dated, time-sensitive writing that links back into Learn for the underlying explanations.
- What is food processing?
- Food processing is any deliberate change to a food between harvest and plate — from washing and refrigeration through fermentation, milling, canning, and industrial reformulation. The NOVA framework groups these changes into four levels of intensity from Group 1 (unprocessed) to Group 4 (ultra-processed).
- What makes a food ultra-processed?
- Presence of any ingredient not used in a home kitchen — protein isolates, hydrogenated oils, invert sugar, modified starches — or any cosmetic additive such as a colour, flavour, emulsifier, or non-sugar sweetener. That single rule moves a product into NOVA Group 4 regardless of its calorie or macro panel.
- How does NakedCalorie decide what a food is made of?
- We read the ingredient list against a knowledge base built from Open Food Facts, USDA FoodData Central, the NOVA decision-rule paper (Monteiro et al., 2019), and the FAO/PAHO reference documents. Every additive on the label is tokenised, mapped to a knowledge-base entry, and factored into the final score.
- How often is the knowledge base updated?
- Every page carries a `Last reviewed` date and is re-checked against current literature every six to nine months, or sooner when a major review or regulatory change lands. See our editorial standards for the full process.
- Who writes and reviews the content?
- Articles are written by the NakedCalorie editorial team and medically reviewed by a registered nutrition professional. Author and reviewer bylines appear on every article, linking to a full profile with credentials and prior work.
- Does NakedCalorie give medical advice?
- No. Everything in the knowledge base is educational information grounded in peer-reviewed literature and regulatory sources. Anyone managing a health condition or medication regimen should follow guidance from their own clinician.
Editorial standards
Every article is written by the NakedCalorie editorial team, medically reviewed by a registered nutrition professional, and updated on a six-to-nine-month cadence. Sources come from peer-reviewed literature (PubMed, Cochrane), international bodies (FAO, PAHO, WHO), regulators (EFSA, FDA), and reference databases (USDA FoodData Central, Open Food Facts).
Read the full editorial standards for our sourcing rules, review cadence, corrections policy, and disclosure of any conflicts.
Written by NakedCalorie editorial team.
Medically reviewed by Pending registered dietitian review — last reviewed July 15, 2026.
Educational information only, based on peer-reviewed literature and regulatory sources. Not medical advice.