I took some time to go through all my old tables of point values and update them for SmartPoints and the result is that for the food I eat most of the time, my old tricks work. If you follow my instructions for a 1 PPV-density on-the-fly pasta-or-grain salad, it still works fine. As a rule, you'll see that lean proteins, especially fish, come out as winners here, mostly because the fats in those proteins get penalized less. Nonetheless, at reasonable portion sizes, those changes will often amount to no more than a point, so your old estimates will probably work just fine.
The thing that quickly emerges from the point densities are that prepared foods get hit -- assume at least a 1-point-per-ounce increase for most prepared foods -- and that sugar and butter get hit hard, which is bad news in Christmas Cookie season. The points-density of sugar and butter have nearly doubled, which means that for a typical cookie, the points will have nearly doubled as well.
I've broken down the points in more detail by categories below. Enjoy!
Real Food:
For real food, the change doesn't seem too bad. Here are the charts I used to justify my guestimate per-ounce calculations, with conversion into smart points.
| Food | Point Density (value of 1 oz) | Smart Points (value of 1 oz) |
| Most Fruits & Vegetables | 0 | 0 |
| Potato, baked | 1 (0.67) | 1 (0.76) |
| Egg | 1 (1.03) | 1 (1.13) |
| Cooked pasta | 1 (0.99) | 1 (1.09) |
| Rice (brown or white) | 1 (0.79,0.83) | 1 (0.9, 0.92) |
| Hamachi (raw yellowtail) | 1 (0.97) | 1 (0.71) |
| Chicken breast - meat only | 1 (1.05) | 1 (0.63) |
| Pork chop, cooked lean | 1 (1.15) | 1 (1.01) |
| Swordfish | 1 (1.17) | 1 (0.97) |
| Salmon | 1 (1.45) | 1 (1.34) |
| Cooked pasta | 1 (0.99) | 1 (1.09) |
| Bread | 2 (1.68) | 2 (2.21) |
| Chicken thigh - meat only | 2 (1.65) | 1 (1.03) |
| Pork Ribs, country style | 2 (1.98) | 2 (2.10) |
| Pork Sausage | 2 (2.48) | 3 (2.94) |
| Cheese | 3 (3.04) | 4 (4.32) |
| Bacon, cooked crisp | 3 (3.41) | 4 (4.08) |
The result is that for the foods that should make up most of your eating, there's not that big a big difference. For indulgences, the penalty is bigger.
| Category | PPV | SmartPoints |
|---|---|---|
| Fruits and vegetables | 0 | 0 |
| Cooked starches/grains & lean protein | 1 | 1 |
| Fatty meat | 2 | 2-3 |
| Cheese & Really fatty meat | 3 | 4 |
| Butter & oil(2) | 6 | 8-10 |
There was some talk in my meeting about big differences among the oils, but I'm not seeing them. Here are a few fats in the new SmartPoints:
| Olive Oil | 9 (8.71) |
| Canola Oil | 8 (8.10) |
| Butter | 10 (9.99) |
| Safflower Oil | 8 (7.96) |
The one thing I should note here is that in general proteins are "cheaper" in this new system, and the relative penalties or benefits of the more healthful choice are exaggerated. For example, the difference between yellowtail and pork sausage (fatty fish vs. fatty meat) used to be 0.97 vs. 2.48. Now that difference is 0.7 vs. 2.94. That means that 3 ounces of Yellow Tail now comes in at a mere 2 PPV, undercutting my 1 point rule-of-thumb for lean protein, and the pork sausage needs to be estimated at a solid 3 points per ounce with 3 ounces coming in at 9 rather than 8 points. That said, for a reasonable portion, your errors are within a point, so I'd say you could do worse than to say you can estimate points the same for everything but your fats, for which you have to learn new rules of thumb (4-points-per-ounce for cheese, 9 for oil, 10 for butter).
Baking Ingredients:
For those who cook food themselves, here are the key points-contributors of home-made treats. You'll see that the big changes here are for butter and sugar, which have almost doubled in value. That's going to have a big impact on cookies, pie, etc.
| Food | PPV Density (value of 1 oz) | SmartPoints Density |
| Butter | 6 | 10 (9.99) |
| Sugar | 3 (3.26) | 7 (6.67) |
| Flour, white | 3 (2.56) | 3 (2.83) |
| Flour, whole wheat | 2 (2.42) | 3 (2.54) |
Prepared Foods
For prepared foods, you could do worse than to say, take your old estimates, and add a point with the new system. Here's my summary with PPV compared with Smart Points -- some more specific data follows below.
| Food | Point Density (value of 1 oz) | Smart Points |
| Dry snack foods | 3 | 4 |
| Dry greasy or sugary snack foods | 4 | 5 |
| Bready stuff | 2 | 2 |
| Cakey stuff | 3 | 5 |
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
| Baked Good | Point Density (value of 1 oz) | Smart Points |
| Chocolate Chip Cookie (homemade) | 3 (3.42) | 5 (5.10) |
| Brownie (prepared) | 3 (3.43) | 5 (5.18) |
| Apple Pie (prepared) | 2 (2.06) | 3 (2.94) |
| Cheesecake (prepared) | 2 (2.4) | 2 (1.783) |
| Chocolate cake w/ frosting | 3 (3.09) | 5 (5.01) |
| Snack Food | Point Density (value of 1 oz) | Smart Points |
| Popcorn, light | 3 (2.85) | 3 (2.73) |
| Multigrain Cheerios | 3 (2.71) | 4 (3.73) |
| Corn Flakes | 3 (2.79) | 3 (3.12) |
| Frosted Flakes | 3 (2.81) | 5 (4.57) |
| Saltine Crackers | 3 (3.08) | 4 (3.43) |
| Animal crackers | 3 (3.40) | 4 (4.32) |
| Tortilla Chips | 4 (3.62) | 4 (4.22) |
| Cheetos Puffs | 4 (4.11) | 5 (4.88) |
| Potato Chips | 4 (4.24) | 5 (4.75) |
| Milano cookies | 4 (4.39) | 6 (6.33) |
| Edy's Slow Churned Caramel Ice Cream | 1 (1.32) | 2 (2.44) |
| Premium Ice Cream | 2 (2.06) | 3 (3.45) |
| Pound cake | 3 (3.12) | 5 (5.08) |
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