Mobile application to encourage healthy eating habits.
In the United States, nearly 40 percent of adults and 20 percent of children and adolescents suffer from obesity. Obesity increases the likelihood of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Healthy eating and active living are important to curbing medical conditions including obesity. While mobile applications have become a popular tool for facilitating healthy eating, many apps can be complex, cumbersome, or induce guilt, discouraging their use. A system to encourage healthy eating habits without stress and difficulty is needed in the market of mobile health apps.
Emory researchers have developed a mobile application to help people feel better about their eating choices and to help them maintain a healthy weight. This app includes four tools: Appetite Ratings, How Mindful? Ratings, Lessons, and History. The goal is to help users stop repeating eating decisions that are not "worth it", reducing the thinking or feeling of guilt about their eating choices. The app teaches users to pay attention to hunger and fullness cues, as well as distinguish between hunger and wanting to eat for other reasons. This app focuses on lessons to help users make more mindful choices in the future, rather than criticism or guilt. This app is NOT designed to treat eating disorders on its own.
Available on the Apple App Store under the name "EAT-C" or "The Mindful Eating Coach."