Social media watches what you eat
Posted by Sandra Cosser on 08 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: Social Media
Know what I love about social media? The fact that it caters to everyone. There isn’t an interest (or fetish) that doesn’t have some online outlet. Lauren recently wrote about some of the weird and wacky social networks that have made themselves at home in cyberspace (myweirdbeard and hatebook were my two favourites) and recently I noticed a crop of diet related sites cropping up. Tweet What You Eat, Nutristyle and Gling (both in Vancouver) aim to promote healthier living, provide the help and support needed to stick to a healthy diet and, in the case of Tweet What You Eat, shame you into sticking to your eating plan.
Nutristyle’s adopts an holistic approach to healthy living. It works to increase awareness of the dangers of obesity, especially childhood obesity and donates 2% of all revenue to non-profit organisations dedicated to stamping out childhood obesity. Basically, it bridges the gap between grocers and consumers. You register, and fill in the comprehensive profile questionnaire, which includes sections for exercise and weight goals, menu preferences and favourite foods.
In turn it supplies you with customised shopping lists (with recommended grocers in your immediate vicinity), meal plans and suggested exercises. One of the most common obstacles to a healthy diet (other than lack of discipline) is difficulty finding appropriate ingredients. Nutristyle does away with that excuse. It would be nice to see the idea spread to other cities and countries. I know South Africa desperately needs something similar, particularly if your diet is limited (diabetic or vegan, for example).
Gling’s focus is narrower than that of Nutristyle, catering to those who have to follow gluten-free diets (Gling – gluten-free living). It was founded by Mike Lee, whose wife and son are gluten intolerant. It was born out of a need to find appropriate recipes and shopping resources in one place. It provides pages upon pages of gluten-free recipes, food descriptions, labels (so you know whether something is entirely gluten-free or there is any doubt about the ingredients) and locations for gluten-free food suppliers and restaurants that serve gluten-free food.
Tweet What You Eat is based on a far simpler principle: the food diary. Food diaries have long been considered one of the most effective diet monitoring tools around. The premise is simple enough; anything you eat is recorded in a food diary – anything, from the two grapes you tasted at the supermarket to a mid-afternoon biscuit binge. If you go out for dinner, you should even include the mint that came with your bill. The diaries show, in stark reality, exactly how much you eat per day, and I understand that the revelations can be shocking (I’ve never kept a food diary – I’m too lazy to record the vast volumes that I consume each day). They’re supposed to make you more aware of how often food passes your lips and, if you’re determined to be more careful about what you eat, provide a baseline for you to see how well, or not, you’re doing.
Tweet What You Eat is the online version, the very public online version. If you have to record a bad food day in your private food diary, you feel bad and then shrug it off with a promise to do better tomorrow. If you record a bad food day on Tweet What You Eat, everyone knows. Of course, this could lead to cheating, but then you’re only cheating yourself. Ideally, it should provide greater motivation to eat well because the whole world is watching; you don’t want to let them or yourself down (just don’t take it too far and veer towards anorexic). Some British celebrities have done quite well on Tweet What You Eat, Matt Lucas (Little Britain) and Stephen Fry (Twitter pioneer) are fans of the service, and so if you want to give it a try, you’ll be in good company.
