Let’s Talk Tech: Nutrition Apps – The Best of the Best
Try finding a nutrition app and inevitably you’ll be bombarded with a whole lot of choices. With the rise of technology, lifestyle apps are rapidly becoming the go-to for nutrition advice. But with hundreds to choose from, we can be left feeling unsure as to whether we’ve selected the right one. Here’s a list of the best apps to help you count calories, eat healthy, and shop mindfully.
MyFitnessPal
This app is one of the easiest to use and allows users to develop an eating plan according to personal nutritional needs. You can adjust your goals, recording input (food) and output (exercise). With the largest food database, this app alerts you when you’ve exceeded your daily limit of the bad stuff – think sodium and fat, for example.
Fooducate
Who has, at least once in their life, felt overwhelmed and confused when it comes to reading a nutrition label? I’m sure all of us have. The good news is that Fooducate is an app designed to fix this. Using this app, you can scan nutrition labels and receive a fast assessment of how healthy – or unhealthy – something really is. If you’re buying cereal at the grocery store, for example, scanning the barcode of a specific box could tell you that there’s a bunch of added sugar. Fooducate alerts you of this by displaying a red exclamation mark.
Ingredient 1
Let’s face it – who doesn’t have some type of food allergy in this day and age? Ingredient1 is an app designed to help shoppers with food allergies find foods that fit their needs. Apply a filter for your dietary restriction (ie. dairy free or gluten free) and the app will pull up foods that you can buy at nearby grocery stores.
ShopWell
ShopWell is another app that helps us shop mindfully. Create an account, enter your health goals and any allergies you have, and then you’re all set to head over to the market. Scan the bar code of items you’re eyeing and ShopWell will tell you if the selected item will help you reach your health goals. It will suggest other options that may work better for you and also offer tasty recipes for you to try!
