Posted May 17, 2010
In the United States, 89 percent of our population owns a cell phone. We carry it with us almost everywhere. Many of these phones are not just phones, they are smart phones, they text and offer Internet.
They are mini-computers. They can be another tool to improve our nutrition awareness. There are approximately 2,000 iPhone applications related to health or medicine. I realize not everyone, me included, owns an iPhone. Yet, most medically-related smartphone applications are compatible with Palm, Blackberry, Windows mobile and Android phones.
The health/nutrition applications include some that will help find healthy recipes, track your calories or offer suggestions to your menu plans. There are numerous apps that provide information regarding exercise and calories burned.
These applications can provide a fun, easily accessible method to assist you with living a healthy lifestyle. Here are a few to get you started.
Applications
–www.goodfoodnearyou.com
In one simple search find food choices and menu nutrition information at restaurants near you
–www.loseit.com
The most complete and streamlined weight loss application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
–http://dailyburn.com
Offers a Food Scanner app which allows one to scan UPC’s to find foods, track them and total daily calorie intake. And the Daily Burn app will track exercise and nutrition.
–www.myfitnesspal.com
Click on Tools for the app
–http://mobile.sparkpeople.com/
Access this popular site with your phone to log-in for current trackers, look up food or browse restaurant foods.
–http://www.gomeals.com/
Makes it easy to access nutritional information, find restaurants and keep track of your food intake.
If you are not interested in exploring phone apps there are plenty of additional options to utilize technology. Send a text message to 432584 (HEALTH on most phones) with a food and receive a text in minutes with a grade (A, B, etc.), serving size and calorie count.
Another option to utilize in the future is DIET1 (34381). This service provides restaurant nutrition information. By sending a text message with the restaurant name, followed by the menu item, you will receive the basic nutritional information for that item.
For those individuals with diabetes, Johnson and Johnson, the makers of the One Touch glucose meter, offer this site: www.onetouchdiabetes.com/reminders.
Individuals can use the site to set up reminders to check their blood sugar. Reminders can be received through voicemail, email or text messages.
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Copyright © 2010, Newton Daily News, Iowa
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