We talk to all of our patients about improving their diets not only to treat specific conditions like hypercholesterolemia or diabetes but also to generally support energy and wellness. It is difficult to navigate the convoluted world of nutrition science because nutrition science is full of controversies, and conflicts of interest, and packaging is designed to be deceiving. While we give you information and tools in the office, there are many food choices that are hard to make without specific guidance. This is why I recommend the Fooducate App.
How Fooducate Helps You Make Good Choices
As you begin to work on eating healthier foods, you may feel overwhelmed by all of the choices that you have to make. Have you ever stood in the grocery store reading labels and trying to figure out which is the healthiest option? Maybe you just pick the packaging that looks the healthiest. This app will put an end to the guesswork by giving you information about each food item and compares that item to other items in its class by using letter grades. You can search for a food item by typing it into the search bar or by scanning the barcode on the packaging.
The foods that spend the most money on advertising to convince you that they are healthy are probably not the healthiest foods. Meanwhile, broccoli sits in the produce section without an advertising budget and its health benefits far exceed the food in the brown and green “all natural” box. There are some cereals that tout themselves as being very healthy but that actually score a D+. In other words, you can’t judge a food by its packaging.
Fooducate Takes the Guess Work Out
Fooducate uses an algorithm to assess the health effects of each food. The app provides you with a blurb about why the food was given a particular grade so you have the opportunity to learn more about how to assess foods and recognize harmful additives.
The very best foods are found on the outside edges of the store and don’t come in packages, but this app is easy to use and helpful for making decisions about the foods that we may want to eat but that are difficult to make – like crackers and bread. Finding the product that you are considering is quick and easy with this app.
Fooducate is a free app for nutrition information and grading and is available for iOS and Android. There is a premium version that allows you to quickly scan foods to check for common food allergens like gluten, nuts, shellfish or dairy.
To schedule a consultation with one of the doctors at Third Stone integrative Health Center about tailoring your diet to your specific needs, please contact us.
