Educate yourself about food items you buy from your
local grocery store. Smartphones arm us with many apps, one I found extremely
interesting and helpful is the Fooducate. There are similar apps, this one just
happened to be the one we used to scan our food items. Use your phone to scan a
UPC barcode and receive an instant rating along with nutritional information,
and alternative choices. To locate a food app go to the application market
place on your phone and search on the keyword food.
We used the smartphone app to scan barcodes found on
food products in our house. I was happy to find that most products were very
healthy; however, some surprised me as not so healthy. One refrigerated product we scanned is a
popular butter substitute spread. The app came back with nutritional
information, a rating, and alternative choices. In addition, it provided some
information about a particular ingredient used as a preservative in the
product. This prompted me to investigate the ingredient and to make the
decision not to purchase this product in the future. On another food item, the
nutritional label listed 0 trans fat, but after scanning the barcode we found
that it did contain trans fat. According to the Fooducate app I experimented
with, there is a loop whole that manufactures use. If there is less than half a
gram of trans fat per serving, manufactures can round the amount of trans fat down
to zero, resulting in a labeling of 0 trans fat.
Scan before you buy to make healthy food choices for
you and your family. If the product does not meet your nutritional needs, or if
you find a particular ingredient suspect, select an alternative product right
at the store. It is all at your fingertips. Feel confident in the choices you
are making, buy food products that are satisfying to the taste and meet your
nutritional needs. For the health conscious person, the food app can be one
more ingredient in your treasure trove of information.
Love this app. I use it quite frequently.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!
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