5 Hot Food & Nutrition Apps
1) GoodGuide
We all know that quick food is not healthy for us on any level and that carrot and celery sticks (and most fruits and veggies, for that matter) are at the other end of the spectrum. But what about that middle ground, particularly packaged foodstuffs that make their way into our grocery cart and reside in our pantry? While there are disclosure rules set down by the FDA, including ingredients, calories, stout content, etc., those figures can be hard to interpret and may be somewhat misleading. Nutritional labeling may show a healthy 100% of your daily Vitamin C and 6 grams of fiber but have a significant amount of unhealthy saturated or trans fats. Enter the GoodGuide, which provides the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products in your home. They have gone a step further with consumer foodstuffs by measuring the ratio of restricted-to-recommended ingredients. This is where the excellent vitamins and fiber get pitted against the sugars and terrible fats. The end result is a nutritional analysis that can help you make an informed choice about the companies you spend your money on and what goes into your mouth. Currently, the site has over 70,000 product ratings— Food, Personal Care, Household Chemicals, and Toys —over half of which are packaged foods. The GoodGuide iPhone app makes it simple to choose just which cereal you should be buying, while really looking at the 500 choices in the supermarket.
Price: FREE
(2) Seafood Watch (Monterey Bay Aquarium)
In looking for healthier menu options, it is wise to consider the addition of two or more servings of fish in your diet each week, as recommended by the American Heart Association, among others You should try to buy fresh, sustainable fish whenever possible for maximum health benefit and to reduce ingestion of contaminants. I’ve often mentioned the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch on HealthNews as a excellent source to identify which types are the healthiest, lowest in toxins like mercury and PCBs, and environmentally friendly. Seafood Watch recommendations are science-based, peer reviewed, and use ecosystem-based criteria. Their Super Green List includes seafood that meets the following three criteria:
- Low levels of contaminants (below 216 parts per billion [ppb] mercury and 11 ppb PCBs)
- The daily minimum of omega-3s (at least 250 milligrams per day [mg/d])*
- Classified as a Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch “Best Choice” (green)
Now Seafood Watch has its own iPhone app to help you make those decisions while standing in the grocery store, butcher shop or fish monger.
Price: FREE
(3) Locavore (by Buster McLeod)
If you get a weekly CSA or shop at your local farmers market, you know what is in season in your area, but you can’t say the same about your neighborhood grocery. Strawberries in January? No problem, courtesy of Mexico. But if you are concerned with where your produce comes from and/or your carbon footprint, and are shopping in your local markets, then having an app tell you what is in season in your locale is vital. Locavore has an iPhone app that does just that and more.
Locavore can identify what state you are in, what is local to your area, food that is coming in season in the near future, and has links to recipes on Epicurious. And the app can point you in the direction of nearby farmers markets so that you can support your local growers.
Price: $2.99
(4) Right Food Shoppers Guide (Center for Food Safety)
The Center for Food Safety today launched a mobile application in July that helps shoppers quickly and easily identify foods made with ingredients from genetically modified (GM) organisms. “The Center for Food Safety’s Right Food Shoppers Guide”, is available for mobile devices through iTunes and Android Market.
Today, thousands of products on supermarket shelves are made with ingredients from genetically modified (also known as genetically engineered [GE]) crops. But GM foods are not labeled in the U.S., despite warnings from doctors and scientists that these foods may not be safe in the diet or the environment. This lack of mandatory labeling can make it hard to determine which products are made with GM ingredients and which are not. The new application is designed to give health-and-safety-conscious consumers who wish to avoid GM ingredients the tools they need to make informed purchasing decisions.
Price: FREE
(5) Nutrition Menu
Advance your diet by having nutritional information for over 81,000 food items right at your fingertips! Whether you go out to eat or cook at home, Nutrition Menu takes the guesswork out of choosing healthy meals and even includes a calculator to compute your Food Score. Have the peace of mind knowing that your meal fits within your dietary allowance. You can then track from meal to meal insuring a higher weight loss by keeping a journal of what you have consumed. Whether you are counting carbs, watching calories, or have diabetes, Nutrition Menu makes it simple for anyone who needs to track what they eat.
Includes calorie, stout, carb and fiber counts, and daily food and calorie tracker, all without a need for an internet connection. Available for the iPhone.
PRICE: $2.99
Source: healthnews.com
