This Scary App Will Make You Think Twice About Eating Sugary Snacks
‘Tis the season to be healthier, and that doesn’t just mean doing extra squats at the gym and eating all the kale recipes you can think of. It means improving your holistic health, whether it’s tracking your water consumption, sleep quality or sugar intake. Luckily, there are lots of non-workout health apps to help you improve your mental and physical health. One such is Change4Life Sugar Smart from Public Health England, which lets users scan the barcodes of over 75,000 foods to check out the sugar content.
The app is currently only available in the UK, but it points to a growing trend in food-scanning technology that can help us make better diet choices. For those of us stateside, there are other sugar-monitoring apps available, such as How Much Sugar Is in It Spoons Or Cubes, which helps you visualize your food’s sugar content in a concrete way, and Fooducate.
It’s not just obvious sugary snacks that are the problem. Sugar is hidden in so many different foods without us even realizing it, and seemingly healthy snacks like flavored yogurt and granola bars can be packed with sugar. And don’t forget that some of your favorite cocktails can also pack a sweet punch.
According to the app, children ages 4-6 should have 19 grams or less of added sugar per day (five cubes), while children 7-10 should stick to 24 grams or less (six cubes), and those ages 11 and older should stay under 30 grams (seven cubes). It makes you think back to how many cubes of sugar you ate over the holiday season, right? Seven sugar cubes per hour is more like it.
The app can be downloaded via Google Play or the iTunes App Store UK.
Are you planning to download Sugar Smart or other health apps in the new year? Let us know @BritandCo.