To curb the growing epidemic of obesity in the country, a new cellphone nutrition app has been launched to help you decide what’s healthy enough for your food basket.
The app, known as HealthyFood Switch, was launched at the Discovery Vitality Summit yesterday and stems from a partnership between the George Institute for Global Health and Discovery Vitality.
Elizabeth Dunfor, from the George Institute, said HealthyFood Switch was designed and launched in Australia three years ago, and since then it has had more than 600 000 downloads.
The app allows consumers to scan the barcode of a packaged food item and provides nutritional information on the energy, total fat, saturated fat, sugar, fibre, sodium and calcium of the product.
The algorithm that governs the app displays nutrient composition either by a star rating system of a half to five stars, or by a traffic light labelling of red, amber or green.
The user is also shown healthier alternatives within the same food category.
“A poor diet is a major contributor to chronic diseases worldwide, not only in developed countries but increasingly in developing countries. And the current food supply is dominated by packaged foods which are providing excess levels of energy, saturated fats, sugar and salt, and this is really driving these nutrition-led diseases,” Dunfor said.
South Africa has the highest overweight and obesity rate in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, one in four girls and one in five boys between the ages of two and 14 is overweight or obese.
The app has spawned SaltSwitch for hypertension sufferers and GlutenSwitch, which Dunfor said was more popular because it allowed consumers to see gluten-free choices for their favourite products.
South Africa is the fourth country to have access to HealthyFood Switch. The app has a database of more than 80 000 products.
It is available at the SA App Store for iPhone and in the Google Play store for Android phones.