Interactive approaches to health and nutrition

A big thank you to Chelsea Fuchs, dietetic intern from Teachers College, Columbia University, for this post.

Looking for an interactive approach to learning about health and nutrition?  Fortunately, there are now a myriad of ways to learn about food—without having to pick up a physical book.  In this post, I highlight some innovate methods that are being used to offer health and nutrition content in an engaging, user-friendly manner.

First, I encourage everyone to check out EatRight Radio, a new offering from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.   These pre-recorded PSA’s are offered in English and Spanish, and are recorded by registered dietitians.  Choose from a variety of topics like grocery tote safety, health benefits of antioxidants, preparing for a healthy pregnancy, healthy eating as we age, and lots more.  Check out all of the terrific offerings from EatRight Radio by clicking on this link: http://www.eatright.org/radio/#.UXp3JDlE8Vt

There are also a myriad of interactive health tools offered by the USDA.  The MyPlate Super Tracker allows you to track and score your eating and activity habits.  It also provides helpful tips for making healthy lifestyle changes.  Food-A-Pedia is another offering from the USDA.  This resource provides quick access to food information, such as food groups, calories, and comparisons of two foods.  Finally, there is the Children’s Healthy Eating Calculator.  This interactive tool lets you calculate a child’s energy needs based on age, current size, and activity level.  This is an extremely helpful resource to help parents plan meals and snacks for their little ones!  For more information, take a look at the Interactive Tools section on the USDA website: http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/dietary-guidance/interactive-tools

In regard to interactive tools that kids can use, I highly recommend the website Nourish Interactive.  You will find fun nutrition games for kids, an online interactive food pyramid, and get access to daily health tips and healthy recipes.  One nutrition game on this site that I find extremely educational for kids is the Build-A-Meal Game.  Children are given an empty calorie bar with a goal number of calories, and an empty plate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also get a backpack for two snack times. The goal is to build one full day of meals and two snacks that meet the required number of food groups and calorie amount. All kids have to do is click on the meal they want to put food on, use the computer mouse to open cabinets and the refrigerator, and then select food items.  I encourage you to explore all of the offerings from Nourish Interactive here: http://www.nourishinteractive.com/

Finally, this post would not be complete without addressing physical activity!  My favorite interactive tool to help get active is exercise DVD’s.  There are an overwhelming number of websites offering exercise DVD’s for purchase, and one of my favorites is collagevideo.com.  The site allows you to search by personal fitness goals, type of workout, instructor, brands, or equipment used, to find the DVD that best meets your needs. For those new to the exercise DVD scene, I highly recommend investing in Leslie Sansone’s DVDs.  Her walking workouts are easy to follow, don’t require any special equipment, and incorporate simple aerobic moves that emphasize toning and an increased calorie burn.  Exercise DVD’s feel exactly like having a one-on-one personal training session—from the comfort of your own living room!

Hopefully this provides you with a few suggestions for interactively incorporating health and nutrition into your life.  As you can see, learning about ways to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle can be fun and engaging, so be sure to take advantage of the fantastic learning resources out there!

iCatching Nutrition and Fitness Apps

Special thanks to Chelsea Fuchs, Teachers College Dietetic Intern, for the following blog post!

Finding the right app among thousands of options can be a challenge. With nutrition and fitness apps, it can be hard to find one that is easy to use in addition to having accurate nutrition and exercise information. Here are eight free nutrition and fitness apps that have been reviewed by nutrition experts for helpfulness and accuracy. These apps focus on weight management, healthy food shopping, and fitness, among other topics.

MYFITNESSPAL:

Description: With an emphasis on weight loss promotion, this popular app allows you to track your food and exercise daily.

Pros: The app will remember your commonly eaten foods and activities making it easier to add those items to your log again. Includes a food database of over 2,506,000 items and a barcode scanner that allows you to scan in packaged foods. The app also allows you to add your own foods and recipes.

Cons: Less polished interface than some of its top competitors

FOODUCATE:

Description: To promote minimally processed, real foods rich in nutrients and antioxidants, this app grades food products with a letter grade based on its nutrition facts and ingredient list. You can search for basic food items and find the healthiest brands, making this app useful when food shopping.

Pros: Provides daily tips to find more nutritious foods and discusses current events and public health policy. Bar code scanner for packaged items.

Cons: Navigating through the app can be difficult. Manually searching for key words can yield unrelated results.

CALCOUNTER:

Description: Tracks food, exercise, weight, and all of the nutrients listed on a Nutrition Facts label. The app includes inspirational articles, healthy recipes, and an easy-to-understand help section.

Pros: Detailed analysis section; logging-by-voice feature; large database of foods; easily able to log common and recently eaten foods and meals; bar code scanner; community forums for group support

Cons: Takes a long time to register and navigate through the app. Also, the app doesn’t track sodium, saturated fat, fiber and other important nutrients.

LOSE IT!

Description: Keeps track of foods you eat with a detailed, easily searchable food database. Users can also enter exercise, set goals, and establish a daily calorie budget. Great for individuals looking to lose weight or for individuals with diabetes.

Pros: Food database includes restaurant items; easy-to-use interface; can be integrated with Facebook or Twitter; offers reminders if you forget to log meals

Cons: Food logging can be time-consuming, especially if you are entering homemade meals with multiple ingredients. Also, not all foods in the database include all of the nutrients users might wish to track.

MY NET DIARY:

Description: Easy-to-navigate, thorough app for logging calories and other nutrients throughout the day, tracking exercise, and monitoring.

Pros: Large food database and built-in scanner; database of +500 exercises; calculates target calories, weight maintenance calories, BMI and Basal Metabolic Rate; shows Nutrition Facts label upon request; recipe section; detailed daily nutrition summary

Cons: Average food database; does not automatically save foods manually entered

CALORIE COUNT:

Description: Leading calorie counting app with unique logging-by-voice feature available for free for a limited time.

Pros: Logging-by-voice function; barcode scanner; food database includes offline support; syncs with caloriecount.com; includes food, activity, weight and water logs; detailed nutrition analysis; active forums

Cons: Requires creation of log-in credentials; interface isn’t as sleek and well-designed as other apps; social forums and updates on homepage can be distracting

MY DIET COACH:

Description: Designed to keep dieters motivated and committed to meeting their weight loss goals. Uses reminders that pop up at the moment you might experience diet derailers like food cravings, emotional eating or exercise laziness.

Pros: Simple design and navigation; quick start guide; reminders can be received through push notifications; customizable reminders; direct links to YouTube videos and other online sources to perform quick exercises.

Cons: User must be able to first identify danger zones; poor image quality and copious typographical errors; only the paid version includes an extensive diet journal and weight chart.

LIVESTRONG MYPLATE CALORIE TRACKER

Description: Useful app for individuals trying to manage their weight, including an easy-to- use tracking feature for major nutrients and fitness activities. The app is a companion tool for members of The Daly Plate at www.livestrong.com.

Pros: +625,000 food and fitness database; tracks major nutrients like calories, fat, sodium, sugar and protein; shows how many calories are left during the day; shows related free apps that may be useful

Cons: Lacks goal-oriented details; may send unnecessary emails; does not track iron, saturated fat, calcium and other vitamins

Springpad: The Next Pinterest?

Special thanks to Nikki Bolduc, University of Maryland College Park Dietetic Intern, for the following blog post!

Are you looking for a tool that is similar to Pinterest, but with a Facebook spin?  Springpad might be the tool for you!  Springpad is an application that combines the look of Pinterest, in which picture galleries are compiled into boards that you can follow, with many of the same liking, tagging, and commenting features as Facebook.  

Springpad is a free application that is accessible through a laptop, tablet or smartphone (iPhone, iPad and Android).  It is a tool that allows you to store a variety of content in one place by creating a public or private “notebook.”  Notebooks can be created for any interest, project or topic.  Within your notebook you can upload almost anything, such as movies, to-do lists, check-lists, images, recipes, files, places, website links and even your favorite wine.  In addition, you are able to modify the content (which is referred to as a “spring”) by writing a description, creating a title, adding a tag, or commenting on it.  You also have the ability to collaborate with friends or coworkers by sharing your notebook.  Watch a quick video to help you get started!

Below is an example of one of my notebooks, titled “Health and Nutrition”:

Springpad is also frequently compared to Evernote, which is another application that allows you to store and organize data all in one place.  The major critique of Evernote, compared to Springpad, is its incompatibility with Android phones.  However, like Evernote, you can store a variety of information in one place, with the added bonus of adding your own creative design to themes, ideas or projects that you have a personal interest in and/or want to communicate to others. 

So, how can dietitians and nutrition educators use Springpad? They can create public notebooks with health-promoting messages, such as “nutrition for diabetes” or “healthy comfort-food recipes”; collaborate with others to create a notebook; or follow other dietitians and nutrition educator’s notebooks.  

Create a free Springpad account today and watch your creativity get to work!