Current approaches to measurement of diet quality lack precision, do not translate well beyond academia and may have unintended consequences. A novel metric- ‘Unrefined Plantfoods’ (UP) is proposed. The UP metric is grounded in established science, precise, easy to measure, consistent with wider nutrition agendas and policies, reduces potential commercial and ideological exploitation of public health nutrition goals, is unbiased, translatable, and inclusive. The concept is value-aware and grounded in a harm minimisation approach.