People with Gluten intolerances may struggle when making healthy food choices. With the FoodSwitch app, people who are gluten-free can shop easier. The George Health Institute and Bupa have developed a new gluten-free app called FoodSwitch.
You can use FoodSwitch for making decisions about what products to buy when you are out grocery shopping. Consumers can receive nutritional information on about 40,000 Australian supermarket products, including almost 10,000 gluten-free items.
The FoodSwitch app assists you to make better food choices for you and your family. This free app allows you to quickly and easily identify products that are gluten-free.
How to use the FoodSwitch App?
FoodSwitch is easy to use. You just need to follow these steps to achieve a healthier diet:
- Scan barcodes of packaged foods with your camera and see the ingredients list in the food you’re eating.
- Switch to similar foods that are healthier choices.
- Share your healthier food choices with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or email.
FoodSwitch App Features
FoodSwitch has the following features:
- Easy-to-understand nutritional information for more than 38,000 products in Australia
- Simple colour-coded ratings for four key food components (total fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt)
- Get a list of healthier choices for the food you scan
- Find out whether a packaged food product is gluten-free or not in the GlutenSwitch mode
- Save your healthy favourites on personalised shopping lists
- Export your lists of healthier choices or share them with friends and family
FoodSwitch has been developed to help Australians understand more about the nutritional value of the food we eat and empower people to make healthier choices. Most importantly, the database that powers FoodSwitch is the result of three years of research by food and health policy experts from The George Institute.
For your information: Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats. Health consequences: can affects the bowels and damages the tiny fingers that line the bowel, impairing sufferers ability to absorb food and nutrients. If you suspect you have coeliac disease or are gluten intolerant, see your GP before making significant lifestyle changes.
https://www.georgeinstitute.org/projects/foodswitch
About FoodSwitch
Making even small changes to our diets, such as consuming a little less salt and added sugar, and eating less fat (particularly saturated fat) and energy (kilojoules) could prevent many health problems including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and type 2 diabetes. This could in turn help reduce the incidence of heart attacks, strokes and some cancers.
Starting in the supermarket aisle, the FoodSwitch App empowers you with access to information to help you make informed decisions about what you eat.
By scanning the barcode of a food item, FoodSwitch presents you with immediate, easy-to-understand information about that product’s nutritional make-up. Results are presented as either a simple ‘Health Star Rating’ which scores a food between 0.5 stars (least healthy) to 5 stars (healthiest), or as colour-coded ‘traffic light’ icons that show key nutrients as green (good), amber (so-so), and red (bad). FoodSwitch also presents a list of similar foods that are healthier alternatives.
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