nutrition

Diet apps are a dime a dozen. And with good reason: your smartphone is the ideal mobile companion for counting calories, managing exercise, and tracking overall health.

The latest entry into this crowded field: Super Diet Genius. What separates this $3.99 app from the likes of Lose It, Calorie Tracker, and MyFitnessPal? It's all in the "super."

Specifically, Super Diet Genius puts you on a diet that relies heavily on superfoods -- stuff that packs the maximum vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and overall nutrition goodness. (You know: not pizza. Not candy bars. Not French fries.)… Read more

Nutritional information is becoming more and more important as people become more conscious of what they're putting into their bodies. Nutrition Facts is a simple program that contains nutritional information for more than 7,500 foods. It's definitely not the most comprehensive option available for accessing nutritional information, but it's not bad.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive. You enter the name of a food into a search box and the program returns a list of possibilities. Click on one and the nutritional information is displayed in a pane on the right. In addition to … Read more

Of the many apps spotted at Appnation, one called NutriSleuth had a particular ring to it--a ring that called out to anyone with a bent on health and nutrition. Sadly, this iPhone and iPod Touch app isn't as generally useful as I initially thought, but it does provide some interesting and useful features for those who have to shop for multiple eaters with particular dietary concerns.

NutriSleuth uses your device's camera to scan the bar code on any food item in order to expediently test its compatibility with dietary profiles you've set in the app. So, if … Read more

Scales are handy little things to have around the kitchen. One can weigh ingredients for baking and always be assured of the exact amount. Flour is notorious for volumetric trickery, so for baking, weight-based measurements are the way to go. The same can be said about a whole host of other ingredients, but when it comes to the actual scale, there is no reason they can't do a little more.

The Cesto by Escali is a scale that brings more to the table. In fact it brings more to wherever you would like it to go. Dubbed a "… Read more

When my eating starts getting out of control, I usually fire up the Lose It app to keep tabs on my calories for a few days.

Of course, it's a hassle to have to manually enter the foods I eat. Enter FoodScanner, a new app that scans package bar codes for quick and easy calorie logging.

Does it work? It does. Is it just as cool as it sounds? It is. Will it earn a spot in one of Apple's "There's an app for that" commercials? Almost certainly. It's just that slick.

To use … Read more

Dell has partnered with Nickelodeon and Whyville.net to give life to its latest version of the Mini10v. According to Dell, the kids' Netbook has been designed with safe computing, education, and entertainment in mind. At a glance, Dell is only trying to reach another market (children), but if you look a little closer, the Netbook may represent a change in the way the next generation of preteens and children will learn to socialize and develop their decision-making skills.

The Netbook comes with desktop animations which link to Whyville.net, a virtual world where kids of all ages chat, shop, and visit places in town that engage them in science, nutrition, art, and business activities.

One of the most interesting locations is the cafeteria, where Whyvillians can pick a food item, view its nutritional facts, and select a meal based on an educated decision. If their character eats more fattening, high-calorie items, the cartoon character will see the effects as it becomes fatter and unhealthy. Likewise, if the character doesn't eat enough, he will become frail and sickly. A lack of vitamin C will cause scurvy sores, and a lack of calcium will cause weak bones and a bandaged head. As a result, the child may be advised that his Whyvillian should see the Whyville nutritionist.… Read more

Mealformation is a multifunction food tracker that allows users to create meal plans, track their food intake, and analyze their nutrition. Overall it is a solid program, although some aspects of it could be more intuitive or better explained.

The interface is fairly straightforward, with various functions--personal profile, a food database, a recipe database, and so on--organized in tabs. The thing that threw us about the program is that it's never made clear what content is included and what content has to be user-generated. It turns out that the program does contain a fairly large database of foods, meaning … Read more

Lose It is a free, simple-to-use weight-loss app that can help you set long-term goals and track calories consumed and burned. The Lose It interface is very intuitive, making it quick and easy to log both food and exercise--which is a must for any good diet and exercise tracker. The first time you use Lose It, you enter your gender, age, weight, height, and desired weight and weight-loss rate, and the app sets a goal date and gives you a daily calorie budget. The app then helps you track your progress with graphs, logs, and daily feedback (such as useful &… Read more