As Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, sweeps the nation, people seem even more conscious about what they eat. The trick, however, is finding healthy foods. Label readers try to decipher the contents, such as monosodium glutamate, disodium phosphate, or maltodextrin. The possible ingredients seem endless, but there may be good news for health-conscious individuals. Now, there are a handful of mobile apps to help shoppers weed out the bad apples – including an app that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to endorse. Let’s clear up the confusion and showcase a couple of the apps in this inaugural installment of High on Health With Kelli Ballard.
MAHA Inspiring Shoppers to Use Health Apps
Let's look at Yuka first, a mobile app that rates food choices in grocery stores. Initially developed in France, it made its way to America in 2022 and boasts about 25,000 new users each day, Julie Chapon, a Yuka co-founder, told Fox News Digital. “I think consumers are really being more conscious now about what they want to eat – and there is really this need to have access to more transparent information,” she said. “I think the MAHA movement has also fueled this interest.”
RFK Jr. told the outlet in April, “I use Yuka,” which reportedly sent the app's popularity soaring even higher.
It works on a color-coded grading system. Simply scan the barcode with your phone and see if that all-natural cereal is really as healthy as it claims. If the result is dark green, that means it’s an “excellent” choice, light green means “good,” orange indicates the food is a “poor” idea, and red means it’s a bad choice. Yuka also gives you alternatives that are supposed to be healthier.
The app apparently bases its ratings on information provided by the European Food Safety Authority, the National Agency for Food and Occupational Health Safety, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The company claims not to have any sponsorships or ads, so there shouldn’t be any conflicts of interest. Yuka recently launched a feature that allows users to call out a food maker with high-risk additives. Chapon said that, since the app was made available in November, there have been more than 600,000 callouts made.
“A lot of brands have received a lot of emails – and they are very mad,” she said. Tru drinks and Chobani are among some of the brands that have had discussions with the app maker.
The program can also be used to evaluate cosmetics and flag ingredients like endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, allergens, or irritants, according to its website.
Nothing Is Perfect
Of course, nothing is perfect. Yuka bases its recommendations on European guidelines, so the information might not be as accurate for users in the US. It also doesn’t investigate a food climate footprint, which can be very important for some consumers. Then there is the concern that it classifies some products as not being healthy because they have natural sugars and fats, ranking them along the same lines as processed sugars and fats.
A review by Mélanie Marks Purnode for the World Cancer Research Fund showed some examples. One regarded a vegetable stock she wanted to purchase, but it got a score of 9 out of 100, with 100 being the best. It was marked low because it contained monosodium glutamate (MSG), which was used to enhance the flavor. The app claimed the additive is hazardous and can cause symptoms like nausea and lead to obesity. MSG, the app warns, also plays a role in the development of auto-immune disorders, Purnode detailed.
Concerned, she spoke with Matt Lambert, Health Information and Promotion Manager (and nutritionist) at World Cancer Research Fund. He explained: “The amount of MSG that will typically be used in your stock cube will be so minute that you do not need to worry about it. Also, MSG has been reviewed by many expert committees and they have concluded that at current levels of use, it doesn’t represent a risk to health.”
He continued: “What is happening is that the app isn’t able to give you the percentage of additives used, so whether it contains 0.01% or a larger percentage, it is scoring lower as soon as it contains it.” Lambert also advised that we should be mindful of how many additives we’re consuming, but “it is also worth bearing in mind that some of them have functional benefits like stopping food from going rancid. Just because a food contains certain additives it doesn’t necessarily mean the product is bad for us.”
The Greenhouse Gas Effect
There are more choices for grocery-shopping apps available. For instance, the GreenScore app is a lot like Yuka with color-coded scoring. But it has more options, ranging from great, good, okay, limit, and avoid. It also gives scores on the nutritional value of foods, food processing, ingredient safety, and even the food climate footprint.
What the heck is a climate footprint score? According to the company’s website, it “is based on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard. Each product is evaluated based on its (i) estimated carbon footprint per serving and (ii) its estimated water footprint per serving.”
Still confused? “The carbon footprint considers the greenhouse gas emissions (measured as carbon dioxide equivalents) emitted throughout the lifecycle of each ingredient from farm to farm gate,” the website reads. “The water footprint considers the blue, green, and grey water used throughout the lifecycle of each ingredient from farm to farm gate. The lower the estimated carbon and water footprints, the higher a product will score.”
Shelf Engine, using data from a 2021 study published in the American Association for the Enhancement of Science journal, Science, listed the top ten best and worst foods for climate footprint. Soybean oil, pork, palm oil, farmed crustaceans, coffee, dark chocolate, cheese, lamb, and cows – both for beef and dairy – were the worst offenders. Soy milk, peas, bananas, brassicas (like cabbage, cauliflower, and turnips), onions and leeks, potatoes, root vegetables, apples, citrus fruits, and nuts were the darlings of climate footprint – meaning they produced the least greenhouse gas emissions.
As MAHA continues to inspire Americans to make healthier choices, apps such as Yuka and GreenChoice are growing in popularity. While they aren’t perfect, they can give consumers a chance to get more information before tossing that box of cornmeal into their shopping cart.
