Apps to Scan Food and Know When It’s Healthy

Carlos Sánchez 6 min. of reading Legislation and Quality Leave a comment

The Yuka App is a tool that, when used right, can help us pinpoint certain foods as healthier than others.

Index

1 What is real food?
2 Benefits of real food
3 Product analysis apps
4 Why use health apps to eat well
5 Downsides of using them
6 Related posts

What is real food?

Real food or realfooding is a nutritional awareness movement that has gained a lot of momentum in recent years. Its main figure is nutritionist Carlos Ríos, although a whole bunch of professionals already use the principles of the acclaimed realfooding in their consultations.

The concept isn’t complicated or new: eat real food and stay away from ultra-processed products.

This, of course, involves educating people about what real food is and what ultra-processed products are.

The core message of realfooding is that the epidemic of obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases is driven, to a large but not exclusive extent, by the massive intake of ultra-processed products by the population.

Once we’ve pointed out the enemy, the only thing left is to offer a solution, which means going back to focusing on the food we’ve always known: unprocessed foods or good processed foods that have always been in our markets and kitchens.

Benefits of real food

The main benefit of this movement is that it puts an undeniable fact on the table: ultra-processed foods have crept into our lives without us realizing it, and that is a negative thing health-wise, backed by scientific evidence.

So, trying to eat more real food and less ultra-processed stuff can never be a problem, quite the opposite…

The problem comes later, with how the message is delivered, especially to vulnerable groups like younger people, who might take the realfooding message to extremes and use it negatively.

This often happens on social media when “bad” (ultra-processed) and “good” (real food) are clearly defined.

Product analysis apps

In recent years, several mobile apps have popped up with a very noble goal: to simplify food choices for people and guide them to make, of course, more informed and better decisions.

How do they work?

These apps usually generate a score or rating for each product. To get this score, which ranks the product as more or less recommendable, they use different criteria.

Let’s take the Yuka app as an example.

Criteria used by Yuka app

60% of its analysis is based on Nutriscore: The well-known nutritional traffic light model which, as we know, isn’t perfect by any means.

This model could rank canned sardines as a worse food than whole grain cereals or a zero sugar cola just because they’re “high in fat.” And I’m talking about a real example.

Presence of additives: These apps classify the different additives in a product according to their supposed health risk.

With Yuka app, for example, additives are classified as “medium risk,” “intermediate risk,” or “no risk.”

The problem?

It starts from a wrong premise: Commercial additives, at the amounts regulated by bodies like EFSA, have been proven safe and therefore don’t pose a danger to consumers.

We’d be in a very different situation if these official bodies regulating additive concentrations in foods didn’t exist, but that’s not the case.

Chemo-phobic sentiment: These kinds of scores, instead of informing people, create an unnecessary and unethical chemo-phobic feeling.

Yes, many times this will steer consumers away from less recommendable products, but other times it will cause rejection of harmless or even recommendable foods just because they contain several E-numbers.

Organic or not: Another criterion Yuka app uses is whether a product is organic or not, which seriously confuses people since being organic doesn’t make a product healthier.

Let me be clear: an organic or ecological product isn’t necessarily healthier. Saying otherwise is untrue and unsupported by evidence.

What are the most popular real food apps?

Yuka app has gained the most traction lately, but Myrealfood app is also making waves.

Both have a similar purpose, and choosing one or the other mostly comes down to user preference.

Why use health apps to eat well

These apps, like many other tools, have advantages if you know how to use them.

On one hand, it’s undeniable that for some users, they help spot unhealthy foods that they might have thought were okay.

If you thought those cookies claiming “improves your gut flora” or “high in fiber” were top-notch, and this app shows you they’re no better than an eggplant, then the app has done its job.

On the other hand, I think they have another positive effect: sparking interest in people about what they eat and helping them understand that their diet is the root of health or disease.

If these technologies can get people more involved and make them part of improving their diet, then bring it on.

Downsides of using them

Still, it would be unwise to deny these tools are imperfect (all are) and have weak points to improve:

Often unreliable

The criteria used by these apps’ algorithms can rank a “sugar-free” soda higher than a can of mackerel in oil, and while these are isolated examples that get fixed over time, they mislead people.

Encourage chemo-phobia

There’s a user profile that uses these apps to justify and fuel a chemo-phobia that, far from improving health and wellbeing, can make it worse.

I often see patients in consultations who avoid certain healthy processed foods just because they contain this or that preservative or stabilizer.

Based on scientific evidence, but not always

Many analyses done by these apps rely on “independent studies” that methodologically leave a lot to be desired.

I wish there were big, independent, and methodologically flawless studies, but sadly, they’re rare.

Reduce user decision-making power

If these tools are used to complement your decisions at the supermarket or to answer specific questions, they’re being used right.

But if you get to the point where you can’t buy anything without scanning it with Yuka first, you’ve got a problem.

Part of nutritional education is helping users make better decisions on their own, based on their knowledge, experience, and (why not) common sense.

If you can’t check out without scanning 15 barcodes first, something’s not right.

More benefits of Real Food at this link.
Do you know how the new Nutriscore nutritional label works? Check out this link to find out everything.
What you need to know to read a food label by click here
The role of AI in the evolution of fitness