Food Diary See How You Eat App
Price
$ 0
In-App purchases
Update: 12-30-2024
Supported Platforms
iPad
iPhone
Android
Food Diary See How You Eat App
*While the app is free to download, it does require users to initiate a 7 day free trial that automatically starts a paid membership after it ends*
Food diaries are a valuable tool for dietitians and health care professionals when working with clients. As part of nutrition evaluations, follow-up nutrition counseling sessions and for individuals working on their own wellness goals outside a clinic environment, food diaries provide necessary information and are an effective behavior modification and accountability tool. While the actual and accurate information from food and beverage intake is important, the task of completing food diaries is known to be time consuming and tedious.
Mobile device apps designed for tracking food intake have stepped in and reduced some of the “user burden” for completing food diaries and have emerged as powerful, inexpensive, and convenient tools for monitoring dietary behaviors. The See How You Eat app has transformed documenting food intake beyond itemized food entries into an even more efficient and user friendly interface with the use of photos to create a visual food diary.
The See How You Eat app is very user friendly and is sensibly organized in a calendar format. When the app is opened, the screen immediately displays the current day with it’s entry fields for meal/snack photos. The user touches the empty square photo spots in order to either take or import pictures of that current meal. There is an option at each photo to type a note which can be for any special food information, location, mood, how much of the food in the picture was eaten, etc. The free version of See How You Eat allows for a 7-day food diary while the premium version keeps a 42 day history and includes a 7 day plan ahead option for meal planning. Both versions include an integrated goal setting feature, “inspiration” tips, and the ability to “share” the day’s food picture diary via text, email, and to social media. An additional app called See How You Eat Coach 80/20 expands the goal setting and visual food diaries of See How You Eat into supporting a balanced “80/20 rule” approach to food intake.
BridgingApps trialed See How You Eat with an adult with cognitive impairment who has a health goal of maintaining his weight and increasing fiber intake. It was an excellent way for him to easily document his meals and snacks eaten while at his day center. His caregiver was pleased with her loved ones’ success with sharing his food intake information and was surprised at seeing that he ate a food at his center that she thought he disliked. She would like to see a two picture per meal option in order to document the amount of food offered versus the amount of food consumed.
The potential for the See How You Eat app in both the young adult and adult disability communities is particularly impressive to BridgingApps’ registered dietitian. With an easy platform for anyone to create their own visual food diary combined with the big picture “balanced diet” approach rather than counting calories, the See How You Eat app is an engaging way for parents, teachers, and community programs to impact nutrition confidence and healthy eating behaviors.