Your food has an inflammation score. You've never seen it before.
Hestia grades every recipe and product from A to F — built on the same peer-reviewed index that cancer and cardiovascular researchers use to study diet.
Why chronic inflammation matters
Chronic low-grade inflammation is the upstream driver of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer — the three leading causes of death in the United States. It is not an acute response to injury. It is a slow, sustained state your body holds when the food it processes day after day pushes the wrong signals.
Most people eat a pro-inflammatory diet not because they chose to. The food system was built that way. Ultra-processed food, refined carbohydrates, industrial seed oils — these all drive the same inflammatory cascade. The additives, emulsifiers, and high omega-6 fats that dominate 60% of American grocery carts are not neutral. They have measurable effects on the biomarkers researchers use to track disease risk.
The problem is not that people don't care. It is that nobody ever showed them the number. Diet causes more cancer deaths than tobacco. Most people have never seen that statistic on a food label. Read the research. Understand the cardiovascular connection.
What Ember Score is
Ember Score is a single A-to-F grade that measures the inflammation potential of a food, recipe, or product. A means low inflammation potential. F means high. It is not a calorie count, a serving size suggestion, or a marketing claim. It is a composite measure built from peer-reviewed methodology.
- A — Very low inflammation potential
- B — Low inflammation potential
- C — Moderate inflammation potential
- D — High inflammation potential
- F — Extremely high inflammation potential
The science: the Dietary Inflammatory Index
The Ember Score is derived from the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) — a tool developed by researchers at the University of South Carolina and published in Public Health Nutrition (Shivappa N, Steck SE, Hurley TG, Hussey JR, Hébert JR. 2014;17(8):1689-96).
The DII was built by analyzing the effect of individual food parameters on six inflammatory biomarkers measured in human studies: C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-4, interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. It covers 45 food parameters — nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and dietary components — each scored based on whether it drives inflammation up or down according to the peer-reviewed literature.
The DII is used in cancer epidemiology research, cardiovascular cohort studies, and diabetes research. It is the scientific standard for measuring how pro- or anti-inflammatory a dietary pattern is. Hestia adapted this methodology for real-time, per-food and per-recipe scoring — so you see it at the level of a single meal, not just a whole-diet assessment. That adaptation is what makes it actionable.
What we measure
Nutrient quality
The balance of nutrients in the food — the ratio of anti-inflammatory to pro-inflammatory fats, the omega-3 to omega-6 balance, fiber content, vitamins and minerals that research links to lower inflammation. Not just macros. The specific nutritional profile the DII methodology has characterized across decades of population research.
Processing level
How far the food has traveled from its whole-food origin. A fresh salmon fillet and a salmon-flavored cracker both contain fish. They do not score the same. The additives, emulsifiers, and industrial ingredients in ultra-processed food drive inflammatory responses that whole-food equivalents do not.
Glycemic impact
How the food affects blood sugar and insulin signaling. Chronic insulin elevation drives inflammatory pathways. Fiber slows glucose absorption and modifies the response. The score accounts for both sides of that equation.
Your score isn't fixed. Your shopping changes it.
Every recipe starts with a baseline Ember Score — calculated using typical, widely available grocery store ingredients. That baseline is honest: it tells you what the meal looks like under average conditions.
When you shop and choose specific products, the score updates. The actual ingredients you bring home determine your actual grade.
Tuna salad starts at a B. That score assumes standard canned tuna and regular mayonnaise — the default choices most people make. Wild Planet tuna is caught wild, higher in omega-3s, lower in additives than standard canned varieties. Avocado oil mayonnaise replaces inflammatory seed oils with monounsaturated fat. Those two product swaps, selected at the shop step, move the same recipe from a B toward an A. Same dish. Different choices. Different score.
This is why Hestia needs a product database of 462,000+ items. The recipe is the plan. The products you buy are the result. The Ember Score bridges both — and it updates when your shopping does.
No other scoring system does this. Static scores grade a food in isolation. Hestia grades what you actually brought home.
What the grades look like in practice
These grades represent real foods scored against the same methodology applied to every recipe and product in Hestia.
| Food | Grade | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Wild salmon (baked) | A | High omega-3, anti-inflammatory fats, no processing, selenium |
| Lentil soup (homemade) | A | High fiber, plant protein, low glycemic load, whole food |
| Plain Greek yogurt (full-fat) | C | Good protein and probiotics, but low fiber and elevated saturated fat pull it below B |
| Grilled chicken thigh | A | Whole food, NOVA 1, favorable fat profile, high protein — no processing penalty |
| White pasta with marinara | C | Refined carbs raise glycemic load; tomatoes and olive oil offset partially |
| Canned tuna salad (standard) | B | Omega-3s from tuna push into B range; upgrades toward A with better mayo (see above) |
| Frozen breakfast burrito | D | Ultra-processed, refined flour, high sodium, inflammatory seed oils |
| Chicken nuggets (fast food) | C | NOVA 4 and high omega-6 fats drag it down, but not enough to clear the D threshold |
| Pepperoni pizza (frozen) | C | NOVA 4, processed meat, refined flour, and omega-6 oils hold it mid-range |
| Hot dog | D | Processed meat, nitrites, ultra-processed — high inflammation potential |
Why not just use NutriScore or NOVA?
| NutriScore | NOVA | Ember Score | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nutrient quality | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Processing level | Partial | ✓ | ✓ |
| Glycemic impact | – | – | ✓ |
| Inflammation focus | – | – | ✓ |
| Updates with your actual products | – | – | ✓ |
| Derived from peer-reviewed inflammatory index | – | – | ✓ (DII) |
NutriScore grades nutrition but ignores ultra-processing. NOVA grades processing but ignores nutrients. Neither accounts for glycemic impact or the omega-3/6 balance that drives chronic inflammation. Ember Score was built to close those gaps — using the DII as its scientific foundation.
Ember Score measures inflammation potential. It is a composite score derived from peer-reviewed nutritional research. It is not a medical diagnostic tool and does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition. For medical advice, consult a qualified healthcare provider.
There are families who haven't looked at a nutrition label in months. Not because they stopped caring. Because the plan grades every recipe before Saturday. The shop step updates the score when they pick the wild tuna instead of the generic. By Wednesday dinner, they're not tracking anything. The score took care of itself.
The food didn't change. The information did.
Week 5 changes everything. It always does.
See your Ember Score
Every recipe. Every product. Graded before it reaches your plate.
See a sample plan