Cooking: My Five Favorite Food Apps

Recently, Cristina and I jumped back on the fitness band wagon. We did well until the half-marathon and slowly succumbed back to our old ways. It’s not the food we write about on here that got us out of shape; it’s the food we don’t write about that hurt us. This weekend we did a pantry cleanse and said goodbye to (most) processed foods. Some we just have to exercise moderation.

Yet, we need help. Technology to the rescue. So these are my top five food apps.

1. My Fitness Pal: My Fitness Pal is at its heart a food diary. You keep track of your food, and it breaks it down by calories, sodium, protein, fat, etc. This is the rare app that actually does the job better than its corresponding website, at least with the food diary. However, My Fitness Pal should be named My Fitness Pals. What separates it from the other food diaries out there is that it has a social networking component. You can provide encouragement to your friends. This is what truly makes it a great app.
2. Fooducate: Let’s face it, sometimes we don’t know if a food is healthy. Words like natural and multigrain are not regulated so any food company cantheir foods with those words. Fooducate does the work for you. Scan the code and you are given a grade on your food. That healthy Kashi we bought a couple of weeks back was given a grade of C+. Not horrible but too much sugar. The fact that app also gives you suggestions for healthier alternatives pushes the app to a must have if you are interested in what is in the food you are eating.
3. How to Cook Everything: See this blog for more details. For my meat shunning friends, he does have a How to Cook Everything Vegetarian as well.
4. Seafood Watch: Food safety is important. So is sustainability. I know too many good local fishermen who don’t need to suffer because we want to import in cheap and possibly dangerous seafood. This app lets you know if the fish you are choosing is safe to eat according to its place of origin.
5. Open Table: This app has nothing to do with dieting. This makes going out to eat easy. Calling on your smartphone to make a reservation? Ain’t nobody got time for that! Actually, you probably do, but why when this app makes it easy. Just like on the phone, you can give all your information the restaurant needs about your party. Unlike on the phone, this app shows you what times are available. Best part of this app: you can change your reservations on the fly.