Worried about how many calories(卡路里) you will get in that piece of pizza, chocolate cake or bag of chips? A new iPhone app MealSnap may help. Users just need to take a picture of the meal with the phone, and it will give a calorie read-out almost immediately.
MealSnap was developed by DailyBurn, a health social network that wants to help its users lead healthier lifestyles. It has created several other health and diet-related iPhone apps. The app gives users a quick reply. To do that, it matches the taken picture to a databank (数据库) with the calorie information of nearly 500, 000 kinds of food. Users then get the range of calories for the meal that is photographed.
We started with something simple--an apple. A couple of minutes later, the app replied that it was an apple and between 64 and 96 calories. More impressive was the reply we received after sending a photo of a mixed salad bowl. MealSnap replied that in the bowl was “yellow rice with corn, boiled eggs and beans” and that the food was between 532 and 789 calories.
What's more, MealSnap can act as a food diary. No need to write down what they've eaten, the photos will be stored. The users can keep a visual record. It's like a food journey, but easier. All you do is to take the picture. Knowing the calorie range makes you think more about what you are eating and whether it is healthy enough.
