06 January, 2016
Most people agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be tough. Now, there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their diets and their dining out experience.
OpenTable
OpenTable helps people choose restaurants when they want to go out to eat. OpenTable is a free service that shows users restaurant availability based on where and when they want to dine. OpenTable users can also make restaurant reservations directly through the app or website.
OpenTable gives users points when they make reservations. The points can add up to discounts on restaurant visits.
Food Apps
When users make reservations through OpenTable they get an email confirmation. They can also add the reservation directly to their electronic calendar.
Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing App
Cheese and Wine app
Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses?
Max McCalman's cheese and wine app can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and suggests wines to pair with each. More than 3000 possible combinations can be found based on 600 different cheeses.
The app includes a "Cheese 101" section that teaches the basics about choosing a cheese. Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing App is free for iPhone and iPad.
Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing App
Epicurious
Epicurious app
Epicurious is a free app and website to help users find recipes and become better cooks. The app has more than 30,000 recipes and can create a shopping list based on the ingredients in a recipe.
Users can search by ingredients or by vegetables that are in season where they live. The app also rates recipes for popularity and other qualities.
Users also provide advice about making the recipes. Each recipe has a list of ingredients, preparation time, instructions as well as a photo of the finished meal.
Calorific
Calorific app
What does 200 hundred calories look like? It can be hard to picture. For example, 200 calories of broccoli and 200 calories of cake look very different! The app Calorific shows just that.
Calorific provides images of 200 calories worth of food. The pictures can help people on diets and those who just want to eat healthier.
The app also provides the weights of each food pictured. The app is free for iPad and iPhone. There is also a version that provides more information for a price.
Harvest
Harvest app
An app called Harvest informs users about seasonal fruits and vegetables in different areas. This can be helpful in planning meals.
Harvest also tells about pesticide use and organic food. Users can learn the best ways to safely store food and keep it fresh longer.
Fooducate
Fooducate app
Fooducate is another healthy eating app.
It lets users scan food product barcodes with their phones. The app then gives that product a rating for nutritional value. It also provides healthy food suggestions.
The app can also record a user's calorie and exercise levels, if wanted. And, Fooducate community members discuss food choices online. You can find healthy recipes and get the tip of the day at fooducate.com.
HappyCow
HappyCow app
Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products.
The HappyCow app is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world.
The HappyCow app is based on the HappyCow website, where users can discover places nearby or search using keywords.
They can also set the search radius for the distance they are willing to travel for food.
A free version of HappyCow is available for Android that has ads and requires an Internet connection.
LocalEats
LocalEats app
Restaurant chains, like McDonalds, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. The website and app LocalEats is designed for that. It lists locally owned restaurants so users can try foods from that area.
LocalEats.com can help you find local restaurants in major cities in the U.S. and in other countries. The app costs about a dollar.
Where Chefs Eat
Where Chefs Eat app
"Where Chefs Eat" is a 975-page book. Most people would not want to carry that around. But there is a much lighter app version of the same name for just under $15.
Six hundred chefs provide information on 3,000 restaurants around the world on the Where Chefs Eat app.
Users can search restaurants on a map with the "Near Me" feature. They can also search by region, chef, or restaurant name. General pricing information for each restaurant is also on the app.
I'm Caty Weaver.
Carolyn Nicander Mohr wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
Do you use apps to make better food choices? Have you tried any of these apps? Which food apps do you like? Let us know in the Comments section below or on 51VOA.COM!
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Words in This Story
discount - n. an amount taken off a regular price : a price reduction
confirmation - n. a response which shows that information is received and understood
basics - n. the simplest and most important parts of something (such as a subject of study)
recipe - n. a set of instructions for making food
ingredient - n. one of the things that are used to make a food, product, etc.
calorie - n. a unit of heat used to indicate the amount of energy that foods will produce in the human body
broccoli - n. a common vegetable that has green branches and many small green or purple flowers
infographic - n. a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data
scan - v .to use a special machine to read or copy (something, such as a photograph or a page of text) into a computer
radius - n. an area that goes outward in all directions from a particular place
chef - n. a professional cook who usually is in charge of a kitchen in a restaurant
