Mobile App Puts Personal Dietitian in the Palm of Your Hand
Evincii, a Mountain View, Calif.-based developer of search technology, yesterday launched “Shop to Lose,” the second offering from its PICKKA line of mobile applications for health and wellness to guide consumers in making healthy food choices.
“It's the root of any diet — we eat what we buy,” said Dr. Charlie Koo, founder and CEO of Evincii. “Every visit to a supermarket or restaurant is an opportunity to violate our dieting effort. A ‘dietitian in the pocket’ will keep us honest every step of the way. Shop to Lose takes the guesswork out of weight loss and healthy eating by recommending personalized food products based on health conditions and diet restrictions.”
Shop to Lose employs its patent-pending expert-guided search technology to cover the entire lifecycle of healthy eating and weight control, from planning to buying to eating to managing. It was designed to provide advice on all types of foods, from fresh to packaged to restaurant meals, and accommodates prevalent diet choices and health conditions. Recommendations are made from a nutrition-expert-verified knowledge base of 130,000 packaged food items and tens of thousands of restaurants, according to an individual’s health needs, just as would be made by a dietitian.
“PICKKA’s Shop to Lose is revolutionary and makes front-of-pack labeling instantly obsolete,” said Dr. Adam Drewnowski, nutrition expert and the director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle. “You can make instant product comparisons while shopping, and recommendations are personalized. It even tracks daily progress toward your weight goals and allows you to engage your friends’ support.”
A consumer looking for frozen pizza in a store, for example, can easily select it on Shop to Lose based on his or her specific health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes or high blood pressure. A select list of pizzas that meet the specified health profile will then be displayed, along with nutrition facts and personalized advice, before making a decision.
Shop to Lose also tracks shoppers’ product purchases over time to help users manage the “what to buy” portion of their programs, to ensure that their pantries are stocked with the right foods for weight loss and healthy eating objectives. Shop to Lose further equips shoppers with its smart Shopping List Builder that streamlines the list-creation process for virtually all grocery items for the entire family.
The app features self-tracking tools and social networking support, including multiple ways to engage friends and family to keep the consumer going until the health objective is achieved. A user can invite friends to cheer him or her on, or set up friendly wagers by betting that he or she will meet a weight loss goal.
PICKKA Shop to Lose is available free of charge for the next six months at www.PICKKA.com/Shoptolose, or in the Apple App Store at http://www.pickka.com/shoptolose/getiphoneapp.html for iPhone.
To see a video of the App in action, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTjcJwkoZ9c.
“It's the root of any diet — we eat what we buy,” said Dr. Charlie Koo, founder and CEO of Evincii. “Every visit to a supermarket or restaurant is an opportunity to violate our dieting effort. A ‘dietitian in the pocket’ will keep us honest every step of the way. Shop to Lose takes the guesswork out of weight loss and healthy eating by recommending personalized food products based on health conditions and diet restrictions.”
Shop to Lose employs its patent-pending expert-guided search technology to cover the entire lifecycle of healthy eating and weight control, from planning to buying to eating to managing. It was designed to provide advice on all types of foods, from fresh to packaged to restaurant meals, and accommodates prevalent diet choices and health conditions. Recommendations are made from a nutrition-expert-verified knowledge base of 130,000 packaged food items and tens of thousands of restaurants, according to an individual’s health needs, just as would be made by a dietitian.
“PICKKA’s Shop to Lose is revolutionary and makes front-of-pack labeling instantly obsolete,” said Dr. Adam Drewnowski, nutrition expert and the director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle. “You can make instant product comparisons while shopping, and recommendations are personalized. It even tracks daily progress toward your weight goals and allows you to engage your friends’ support.”
A consumer looking for frozen pizza in a store, for example, can easily select it on Shop to Lose based on his or her specific health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes or high blood pressure. A select list of pizzas that meet the specified health profile will then be displayed, along with nutrition facts and personalized advice, before making a decision.
Shop to Lose also tracks shoppers’ product purchases over time to help users manage the “what to buy” portion of their programs, to ensure that their pantries are stocked with the right foods for weight loss and healthy eating objectives. Shop to Lose further equips shoppers with its smart Shopping List Builder that streamlines the list-creation process for virtually all grocery items for the entire family.
The app features self-tracking tools and social networking support, including multiple ways to engage friends and family to keep the consumer going until the health objective is achieved. A user can invite friends to cheer him or her on, or set up friendly wagers by betting that he or she will meet a weight loss goal.
PICKKA Shop to Lose is available free of charge for the next six months at www.PICKKA.com/Shoptolose, or in the Apple App Store at http://www.pickka.com/shoptolose/getiphoneapp.html for iPhone.
To see a video of the App in action, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTjcJwkoZ9c.