By Linda Bernstein, Next Avenue Contributor
Like many women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent over the age of 50, I no longer consider dairy my BFF. run low are the days when lunch was a scoop of bungalow cheese and the best light bite came from a flash-frozen yogurt denounce.
Reading: 10 Top Apps For Eating Healthy
It took two years of stomach cramps for me to accept that I, like my mother before me, am lactose-intolerant, meaning I can not tolerate milk products — or molasses, lima beans or beets, which contain similar sugars .
You can buy nonprescription pills that contain enzymes to help digest thse sugars. But even a handful of them won ’ metric ton allow my stomach to handle butter-rich piecrusts and pastry dough. On my rare baking binges, I have tried to use margarine alternatively of butter. The results have been disappointing at best .
( MORE: Milk Alternatives : Are They very Better for You, or Is It Hype ? )
Apps for Healthy Eating Choices
Google Play and the iTunes store are brimming with apps that can help us eat better or bring around food allergies. These 10 do everything from count calories to insure we don ’ thyroxine leverage endangered fish .
1. Substitutions
Platform: Apple iPhone and iPad ($0.99)
Handy in the supermarket equally well as the kitchen, this app offers alternatives for foods you wish to avoid. It besides gives tips for ingredients you can swap in a emergency if you ’ re in the center of cooking something and realize you ’ re missing a key token. ( Google Play has a exchangeable app for $ 0.99. )
2. Fooducate
Platform: Android, Apple iPhone (free – $9.99, depending on version)
I can read a few different languages, but the nutrition information on food labels is not one of them. And I know I ’ megabyte not entirely. This app lets you scan the barcode of a product or type in its name ( or a kind of food, like “ banana ” ) to uncover its total calories, fatty, sodium and other ingredients. It besides “ scores ” the food for good health and lets you know if the smoothie that advertises itself as super-wholesome is actually packed with calories .
( MORE: Do n’t Believe Everything You Read on Food Labels )
3. Seafood Watch From the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Platform: Android, Apple iPhone (free)
I used to have a laminate number of “ ocean friendly ” pisces, which I tried to remember to bring with me whenever I went to the marketplace. More often than not, I ’ five hundred forget it. This app makes eco-consciousness a no-brainer. In addition to offering alternatives to fish on the “ avoid ” list, Seafood Watch has a new feature that lets you add names and locations of restaurants that serve sustainable seafood .
fish is beneficial for us. This app is good for the fish. What goes about comes around .
4. True Food
Platform: Android, Apple iPhone and iPad (free)
According to the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, more than 70 % of all packaged foods on our supermarket shelves contain genetically modified ingredients — GMIs — and in the USA, GMOs ( the O is for “ organisms ” ) don ’ t need to be labeled .
There is some consider about how dangerous genetically modified foods may be for our bodies and the environment. But if you want to avoid these products, you ’ ll appreciate True Food. The app lists “ green ” foods ( which do not contain limited ingredients ) and “ crimson ” foods ( which do ). Click on a tab key and you can join up with anti-GMI activists to protest companies that make or sell “ crimson ” products. You can besides locate stores that refuse to carry anything with GMOs.
Read more: The Palm South Beach Diet Blog
( MORE: 10 Top Wellness Apps to Meet Your Health Goals )
5. Harvest App
Platform: Apple iPhone ($1.99)
Did you know that a jaundiced descry on the bottom of a watermelon means it ripened on the vine in the sun ? I didn ’ metric ton — until I found this app that helps select fresh grow. An alphabetic directory gives tips for identifying more than 100 ripe edibles grown on trees, vines or in the land. The app besides gives such valuable storage tips as not to wash strawberries until you ’ re fix to eat them .
6. Is That Gluten Free?
Platform: Apple iPhone and iPad ($7.99)
In the world of mobile apps, this one is bit costly. But if you have celiac disease and get seriously ill when you incidentally eat something with gluten, it ’ sulfur worth every penny. In response to a deluge of complaints about the incompleteness of the former interpretation, this latest one lists closely 16,000 items, which are searchable by name or by class. Users can add their own items and the company will then verify the information .
7. Locavore
Platform: Android, Apple iPhone (free)
I love the way this app helps me find local anesthetic produce and in-season food at farmers markets, farm stands and groceries. You can besides post directly to Facebook with this app, so your friends can partake the food fun .
8. Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal
Platform: Android, BlackBerry, Apple iPhone and iPad (free)
Anyone who has shed pounds on Weight Watchers can tell you the might of the broadcast lies not just in what you eat or what you don ’ triiodothyronine consume. Community support is a big separate of the success formula. That ’ s the beauty of this app. not only does it come with a handy food diary and access to calorie counts for more than 3 million foods, it lets you set fitness goals. The best depart is the encouragement from the built-in social network, where you connect with others, post your updates and feel all the virtual pats on the back .
9. Allergy Guard
Platform: Apple iPhone ($0.99)
It never occurred to me that a friend couldn ’ t eat milk chocolate — until I realized it contains cow ‘s milk, to which she is badly allergic. For people with food allergies, this app could literally be a life buoy .
It allows you to look the ingredients in more than 2,000 common foods. Some of the listings are “ mention brand ” items, like Taco Bell seasoning — helpful when you ’ re eating out. The app downloads the data onto your phone, so you have slowly access even when out of 3-4G or Wi-Fi range. Another decent aspect : You can use a absolve version if you don ’ triiodothyronine heed ads and want to input lone your own allergy data ( alternatively of creating profiles for other family members or friends ) .
10. Superfoods
Platform: Apple iPhone, iPad (free)
We ’ ve all heard about nutritional powerhouses that can boost our immune systems and memory, ward off disease and give us more energy. But if you, like me, need reminders about which foods to store in the pantry, this guidebook to healthful eating helps you make smart shop purchases. Spend some clock time reading through their articles ( for example, “ Superfoods for Your Brain ” ) for in-depth information about the benefits of particular items, like açai or pomegranate juice. The “ deals ” pill links you to shopping specials. At portray, most are in the United Kingdom, but more american bargains are being added .
Linda Bernstein has written hundreds of articles for dozens of magazines and newspapers, writes the blog GenerationBsquared and teaches social media at the Columbia University School of Journalism .
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