I thought my meal was healthy, but Lark considered it neutral or unhealthy. Why?

Lark's nutrition coaching focuses more on the general quality of the food you are eating. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, it is more intuitive and can work for the long-term to look at food quality compared to obsessively counting calories and nutrients.

Second, there is more to a healthy diet than calories and macronutrient totals. For example, a protein shake may have the right number of calories and amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates to let you hit those goals, but it could contain a lot of sugar or sugar substitutes and other additives. That is why Lark categorizes them as a neutral choice instead of a healthy one. Lark also generally takes a "real foods are better" approach to our health classifications because, overall, they tend to be more nutritious and better for the body. So if your food choice is highly processed or contains a lot of added sugars or additives, Lark may not categorize it as healthy. 

Lark considers a meal healthy only if it contains all healthy, or all healthy plus neutral, foods. If there is even a small amount of an “unhealthy” food, Lark will categorize the meal as “neutral.” 

The meal may also be unexpectedly categorized as neutral or unhealthy if it included a food that Lark considers “neutral” or “unhealthy” but that you thought was “healthy.” Granola bars are a common example, as they are often perceived to be a health food but are often high in sugar and added fats.