How This Fantastic App Helps You Eat Better

Phrenssynnes
4 min readApr 28, 2022
Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash
Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

As Michael Hunter MD says in this article, it is better to avoid eating ultra-processed foods. But it is impossible, from my perspective, to cook my crackers, bread or homemade tomato sauce. Some products have to be purchased ready-made.

I recently discovered, through a family member, the Yuka app. You can download it for free on your phone and scan the goods you buy to test their quality. This app gives a score out of a hundred for different items, from food to personal care to beauty products. Moreover, a colour code (green to red) allows us to visualize the result.

Easy to use

I found it very easy to use because having it on our cell phones makes it uncomplicated. After all, we always have our mobile with us.

The main advantages of this application are the following:

1- If a product is not Yuka’s recommended, we can click to know why.

2- Yuka shows an equivalent that meets their standards.

I had so much fun scanning the barcodes of all the foods in my pantry and at the grocery store. I was amazed!

Objectivity

It occurred to me that some companies might have paid this organization to give their product an advantage. I was delighted to see on the Yuka website that they made sure they had funding from users (premium version, book sales and calendar), allowing them to be objective and independent.

There are no sponsors or advertising on the site.

Therefore, according to Yuka, brands or groups cannot influence the evaluation of articles.

Yuka’s criteria

I wondered what their criteria were for rating the different varieties of food. On the website, they explain these criteria.

For food products, 60% is for the nutritional quality, 30% for the additives present and 10% for the organic indication.

Yuka evaluates the ingredients for beauty and hygiene products for their level of danger to health. There is a classification in four categories, from “no risk” (green sticker) to “high risk” (red sticker).

My tests with the application

Phrenssynnes

Optometrist by education | writer by passion | Francine Boilard blog about food, books, travel and ideas. https://phrenssynnes.ca