Our phones are full of apps that are designed to help make our lives better, easier, and more organized. There are hundreds of apps on how to shop for healthy foods. Three popular apps are Yucca, Bobby Approved, and Trash Panda. Let’s take a look at these apps to see if the science stacks up to their recommendations.
| Yucca – a food and cosmetic products scanner that provides a score from 0-100 and assigns a color tier. The app uses a proprietary algorithm that rewards high protein, fiber, fruits, and vegetables while penalizing high calories, sugar, salt, and saturated fat. 30% of the score of a food is based on the use of, or lack thereof, of additives. The app provides a 10% bonus for organic. Any link to Science? Yucca is based on the European system Nutri-Score used in several countries. While it is based in some science, there are controversies surrounding their system in that it ignores how processed the food is or if it contains artificial synthetic ingredients. In addition, a number of reviews of the system have indicated that the large share of studies that support this system were co-authored by the developers. This indicates that more peer review is needed. Pros: • Quickly gives a snapshot of a foods value based on calories, added sugar, and protein. • Independent with no products to sell. • Provides alternative to foods that score poorly. Cons: • Only looks at calorie density and can penalize high fat, but nutritious foods such as nut butters or cheese. For example, it may give a better score for low-sugar or “diet” item while the traditional item receives a poor score just because it has more calories. • It penalizes any presence of food additives too heavily without examining concentration or service size. A tiny amount of an additive gives the same penalty as a higher dose. • Gives a flat 10% bonus for organic. Organic does not always mean low sugar or healthy. Recommended with reservations – if you use this app you need to understand why a food is getting a high or low rating. There are some foods that are rated high that you may want to skip and visa versa. |
| Bobby Approved – a barcode scanner and grocery shopping tool. It uses a binary rating which is either Bobby approved or not approved. It flags ingredients including seed oils, artificial food colorings, refined sugars, GMOs, and artificial preservatives. The app offers swaps for a food that is not approved. Any link to Science? Bobby Parrish, the creator of Bobby Approved, has no science or medical credentials and is not a registered dietitian. The app uses a subjective yes or no for each food based on Parrish’s personal rules as opposed to peer-reviewed analyses. Pros: • Easy to use. • Users may like the yes or no approach without any grey area. Cons: • Does not evaluate the overall nutritional value of a food. Bobby Approved looks only at ingredients as good or bad. • Does not provide the user with the overall value of the food, is it high in empty calories, overall fat or saturated fat? • The app lacks context of how much of an ingredient is in the food. If a food contains an ingredient that Bobby Parrish disapproves of, then no matter the quantity, the food is NOT approved. It is not based on solid science nor is Bobby Parrish trained in nutrition, medicine, or food science. One example of this is his “not approved” stance on seed oils. The science reality for this is that large-scale human epidemiology studies and clinical trials show that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated seed oils lowers systemic inflammation and decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Further, seed oils are commonly found in highly processed and highly palatable junk food including chips, baked goods, and almost all fast food. Eliminating or restricting these foods is advised. However, there is a mountain of data indicating that seed oils are not the enemy. • Bobby Parrish frequently pushes users to his line of products or affiliated product lines. Not Recommended |
| Trash Panda – a food scanner where you scan the barcode of a food or take a picture of the ingredient list. The app focuses on ingredients and warns the user if any ingredient is questionable according to their database. It flags seed oils, artificial dyes, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, GMO foods, added sugar, and high fructose corn syrup. It may recommend ingredients that are considered to be “cleaner” alternatives. Any link to Science? The app claims to be science based. However, many of the recommendations on this app are based on a philosophy rather than consensus of the medical and nutrition community. It often cherry picks studies done in vivo (test tube) or on animals instead of large-scale human trials. Pros: • Easy to use. • Provides swaps for foods that are not highly rated. • Independent and does not sell products. Cons: • Does not provide the user information about the overall value of the food. Only looks at ingredients. • Relies too heavily on small test tube or animal studies while ignoring large-scale human trials. • Labels seed oils as bad. See about more info above in the Bobby Approved section about seed oils. • Relies on arbitrary standards that are not backed by mainstream science or have consensus in the scientific community. Not recommended |
BOTTOM LINE
Any of these nutrition apps get you thinking about the foods you are putting in your shopping cart. However, this comes with a BIG caveat. All of these apps can create unnecessary fear of food. I have seen friends throw away food just because it was not ‘Bobby Approved’ or it did not rate high enough in Yucca. Every food is a choice. You may use an app as a starting point but understand why they are saying a food is a good choice or giving it a high rating. The easiest food scanner sits right in your brain. Eat real food, mostly plants. Eat food as close to the way it was grown. Eat foods that are as lightly processed as possible. No app needed.