Apple invention uses RFID tags, Apple Watch to track food nutrition

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  • Reply 21 of 30
    StrangeDaysstrangedays Posts: 13,226member

    volcan said:
    MacPro said:
    I eat just about anything I want, in moderation, and keep my BMI spot on.
    Just an assumption on my part but those who eat fast food and packaged snacks where an RFID would apply generally aren't concerned with nutrition anyway and most likely don't care about calorie or fat intake.

    I really don't see the usefulness of this invention, especially for people like me who go to the grocery store and buy fresh foods to prepare family meals at home.
    1) Poor assumption. Believe it or not even mindful eaters enjoy fast food sometimes. Doesn't negate the desire to track it as part of your caloric budget. Not unlike having a budget even when vacationing Las Vegas. 

    2) If no one bought anything but fresh produce grocery stories would be a lot smaller. Obviously packaged goods are a normal part of grocery shopping. I routinely scan my packaged ingredients while making recipes and meals. MyFitnessPal is a very popular app (now owned by Under Armor) to do this sort of tracking. It's not rocket science or an alien concept -- it's just being more hands-on with meal prep and planning.

    Identifying current behavior baselines is the first way to change them and create new ones. Tools like this enable that.
    edited May 2017
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  • Reply 22 of 30
    StrangeDaysstrangedays Posts: 13,226member
    paxman said:
    Hmmm.... color me sceptical. Most health conscious people don't eat commercially prepared foods. At least not very often. And who knows how much of anything I eat at any given sitting. And who trusts a) the manufacturers to be accurate, and b) that the 'average' will be an accurate reflection. If I eat an Apple and a bun with butter and cheese (that I made at home) for lunch, how will this work. What is needed is an app that let you search by voice, and then flip through the results (with images) with a swipe. If I could say "raw Apple" and a list pops up and I can swipe through until I get something pretty similar, and then tap on that, I think that would be a quicker and more comprehensive way of recording dietary intake. 
     Citation needed. I don't know any mindful eaters who don't enjoy commercial foods. It's  not an either/or decision (the fallacy of false dilemma). 

    Also, as the article details this is inclusive of retail foods such as packaged items in groceries -- bread, cheese, pasta, etc. It is common to log the components of your own "turkey sandwich" and then save and reuse it, or modify it, etc. 

    Clearly the critics of these use cases haven't even done any tracking personally or used the current tools...yet feel right at home panning it. How funny. 
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  • Reply 23 of 30
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,456member

    spice-boy said:
    If you can read a package label you don't need this. It is already bad enough that retail chains collect information on everything we buy to either sell to a third party for personalized advertising or worse help insurance companies and bank determine if we are living risky lives and raise our rates or deny us loans. 

    I try to use cash as much as possible until it is taken away by congress at the bequest of their corporate sponsors. If you are an adult you should be skilled enough to ready about nutrition and make informed decisions regarding what you eat and how much of it you eat. Here's a tip: don't eat processed foods. Avoid products with more than 3-4 ingredients, don't eat late or within 3-4 hours of going to bed. Use your brain and don't depend on your phone or watch to save you from obesity and bad health. 
    Pull yerself up by the bootstraps, yada yada. Great advice but impractical in reality. Do you use a calculator, despite knowing how to do math? Why? Oh yeah, because it's easier. Same thing. 
    What part of understanding something about the food we eat is "impractical"? I agree with what others had said about people which choose to eat a lot of processed and fast food, this technology would be worthless to them. Although the intention is noble only the nutritionally obsessed would concern themselves with this much detail. Calories hide in plain sight which is why many of us can't understand why we are not losing weight even when we believe we are doing everything right. 
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  • Reply 24 of 30
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    evilution said:
    Food companies, like most companies want to make as much money as possible. They aren't going to spend any unnecessary money adding RFID chips to their products. You might get a few but not enough to make it worthwhile.

    What happens when you go shopping? Is it going to count everything you pick up? 200,000 calorie day.

    The only sensible option is to scan the unique bar code and have a database of contents for each item. It'll be easier, quicker and available as soon as they add a camera to the watch.
    You seem to think Apple didn't think this through...

    By the way, RFID is typically very near field unless it's active RFID.  What you're looking at here is literally easy to manufacturer, printable circuitry that has a unique identifier.  I doubt they are imbuing the sticker with expensive RFID circuity.  It's basically a bar code. The difference is that you can have billions of codes available.  The scan looks up the item's information and returns the user.  If they've consumed it, they can probably confirm that on the screen.  Again, the chance of an accidental scan is unlikely.
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  • Reply 25 of 30
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    volcan said:
    paxman said:
    What is needed is an app that let you search by voice, 
    You can just ask Siri. "Raw apple calories." (about 9)
    Yes, I too that all the time, but for more in depth focus that is not enough. It is very easy to find the info but I saw an app that gave a result to a voice command in the form of  swipe-able images (with info). It was a health app and it wasn't any good (whatever it was called) but the nutritional info feature was the best and quickest I have aver come across. 
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  • Reply 26 of 30
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    paxman said:
    Hmmm.... color me sceptical. Most health conscious people don't eat commercially prepared foods. At least not very often. And who knows how much of anything I eat at any given sitting. And who trusts a) the manufacturers to be accurate, and b) that the 'average' will be an accurate reflection. If I eat an Apple and a bun with butter and cheese (that I made at home) for lunch, how will this work. What is needed is an app that let you search by voice, and then flip through the results (with images) with a swipe. If I could say "raw Apple" and a list pops up and I can swipe through until I get something pretty similar, and then tap on that, I think that would be a quicker and more comprehensive way of recording dietary intake. 
     Citation needed. I don't know any mindful eaters who don't enjoy commercial foods. It's  not an either/or decision (the fallacy of false dilemma). 

    Also, as the article details this is inclusive of retail foods such as packaged items in groceries -- bread, cheese, pasta, etc. It is common to log the components of your own "turkey sandwich" and then save and reuse it, or modify it, etc. 

    Clearly the critics of these use cases haven't even done any tracking personally or used the current tools...yet feel right at home panning it. How funny. 
    Citation needed? Get outta here. Here's your citation - Most mindful eaters eat little commercially prepared food because commercially prepared food is generally full of the kind of crap mindful eaters do not like. Even you could have figured out what I meant, I am sure. Oh, and you think what I was doing was 'panning'? I'd say I was expressing skepticism which kind of implies a degree of uncertainty (based on my personal experience with food tracking, by the way). 
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  • Reply 27 of 30
    volcanvolcan Posts: 1,799member
    StrangeDays said:
     I routinely scan my packaged ingredients while making recipes and meals. MyFitnessPal is a very popular app (now owned by Under Armor) to do this sort of tracking.
    When you buy a box of something and you only use a portion of it per serving, you really need a gram scale for any sort of accuracy in your tracking. And for fresh ingredients you also need some accompanying data source because they don't usually come with nutritional information like you find on a package. Anyway, none of that interests me. I prepare very sophisticated gourmet recipes and serve small portions. My health and fitness have always been very good so no need to count calories.
    edited May 2017
    paxman
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  • Reply 28 of 30
    GeorgeBMacgeorgebmac Posts: 11,421member
    volcan said:
    MacPro said:
    I eat just about anything I want, in moderation, and keep my BMI spot on.
    Just an assumption on my part but those who eat fast food and packaged snacks where an RFID would apply generally aren't concerned with nutrition anyway and most likely don't care about calorie or fat intake.

    I really don't see the usefulness of this invention, especially for people like me who go to the grocery store and buy fresh foods to prepare family meals at home.
    I eat fast food occasionally and I care about nutrition. Eating fast food once in a while isn't going to hurt you. 
    Neither will an occasional bullet...
    ... "Moderation" was invented by the tobacco companies once they lost the battle and shifted from Alternative Facts to muddying the waters...
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  • Reply 29 of 30
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    volcan said:
    MacPro said:
    I eat just about anything I want, in moderation, and keep my BMI spot on.
    Just an assumption on my part but those who eat fast food and packaged snacks where an RFID would apply generally aren't concerned with nutrition anyway and most likely don't care about calorie or fat intake.

    I really don't see the usefulness of this invention, especially for people like me who go to the grocery store and buy fresh foods to prepare family meals at home.
    I eat fast food occasionally and I care about nutrition. Eating fast food once in a while isn't going to hurt you. 
    Neither will an occasional bullet...
    ... "Moderation" was invented by the tobacco companies once they lost the battle and shifted from Alternative Facts to muddying the waters...
    Are you serious? Pretty bad comparing a bullet and tobacco to fast food. Unless I choke on it and die, a Big Mac isn't going to kill me. 
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  • Reply 30 of 30
    GeorgeBMacgeorgebmac Posts: 11,421member
    volcan said:
    MacPro said:
    I eat just about anything I want, in moderation, and keep my BMI spot on.
    Just an assumption on my part but those who eat fast food and packaged snacks where an RFID would apply generally aren't concerned with nutrition anyway and most likely don't care about calorie or fat intake.

    I really don't see the usefulness of this invention, especially for people like me who go to the grocery store and buy fresh foods to prepare family meals at home.
    I eat fast food occasionally and I care about nutrition. Eating fast food once in a while isn't going to hurt you. 
    Neither will an occasional bullet...
    ... "Moderation" was invented by the tobacco companies once they lost the battle and shifted from Alternative Facts to muddying the waters...
    Are you serious? Pretty bad comparing a bullet and tobacco to fast food. Unless I choke on it and die, a Big Mac isn't going to kill me. 
    No, a BigMac won't kill you -- very quickly.....  
    That's the beauty of the moderation spiel:   A BigMac here, a hot fudge sunday there, a pizza here, a hot dog there, a fries here, a donut there...  
    Which one caused the obesity?
    Which one caused the heart disease?
    Which one caused the cancer?
    Which one caused the diabetes?

    Or none of them?   Oh!  That's right!   It's all genetic...
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