Review: My Nutrition – A Food and Nutrient Tracker for iOS

With all of the food log applications on the market, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is easier than ever before. Tracking foods, calories and workouts has never been more simplistic than in this digital age. My Nutrition is an app that is so much more than just a food log, it allows users to truly identify what they are putting in their body and the benefits, or lack thereof.

Overview

My Nutrition is free in the App Store, the free version allows users to browse foods and view the nutritional value, vitamins, minerals and more. The interface is sleek and simple, with graphics emulating oak wood, which gives the app a healthy look and feel.

Within the My Nutrition application users can search foods, view nutritional information and add items to a favorites list, avoid list, or an other list utilizing the free version of the app. Also available within the My Nutrition application are recipes, a food diary and an option to add family members to understand their daily nutritional intake as well. Each of these itema is an in-app purchase, individually, the items cost $1.99, otherwise users can opt to unlock all of the features for $4.99.

The recipes feature allows users to add their own recipes using the available food items within the app. Once recipes are added, My Nutrition will calculate the nutrients for the recipe. The MyNutrition food diary allows users to search the available food items in the application and add them to their food log, helping track intake and nutrients consumed throughout the day.

The My Family option in the My Nutrition application makes it easy for users to view nutritional information needed by each family member based on age, sex, height and weight. Having used multiple calorie tracking applications, food logs and exercise trackers, I was excited to review the My Nutrition application. Unfortunately the app fell short of what I was hoping for. The app is slightly confusing initially. The search is broken up into three options, categories, foods and nutrition. Users are able to then search for their desired foods under each menu option.

Concerns

The biggest issue that I encountered is that it seems like there are so many items lacking within the search. For instance, there are limited branded items in the foods search and the application does not allow users to add new items to the library, further complicating things. If users opt to only have the free version, all they can do is search for foods and view the information pertaining to each food item. So users are basically forced to pay for the in-app purchases in order to really experience the benefits of the application.

I frequently make in-app purchases, it doesn’t bother me to pay for items within an app if I believe they are truly beneficial. The recipes feature is interesting and different from other applications, however as stated earlier, it seems like the food items could be expanded even further. Searching for items is kind of frustrating, for example, searching for strawberries results in foods such as candies, cookies, cereals, etc. which is confusing because strawberry cookies aren’t generally part of a recipe. The search within the recipe menu is the same as the overall food search menu, which leads to the confusion, as all foods are included in the search.

The My Family option is an interesting item available in the application. Everyone is different; being able to understand nutritional requirements for individual family members could be beneficial for a lot of people. Unfortunately the food diary is only available to the main user, not to family members added within the application. The My Family option only allows users to view nutritional information for each family member.

Verdict [rating: 2.5]

Overall I didn’t feel that this application was useful to me, especially with all of the other food applications available in the App Store. If users are looking to understand vitamins, minerals and nutritional information, this app may be beneficial.

Download My Nutrition, free in the App Store.

Pros:

  • Users can download for free to experience before making in-app purchases

Cons:

  • Users cannot add their own food items
  • All major components are in-app purchases
  • Food database is lacking in significant ways
  • App didn’t seem particularly useful compared to the competition.

 

*The above review was commissioned by the developer in accordance with our app review policy, and has been written in an objective, unbiased fashion.

C. Marie Johnson

Christina has been an Apple lover since the tender age of 5, when she received her first Apple computer, a Macintosh Classic. Today, Christina has an abundance of Apple products, ranging from an iPhone 5, MacBook Pro, iMac, Apple TV, iPad (3rd generation) and an iPad mini. Christina is currently a resident of the windy city, Chicago, and works as a Digital Marketing Specialist. She spends her free time writing, shopping, reading, and adventuring.