In today’s world it’s very easy to obtain nutrition information about the food we eat. From websites to mobile apps or simply the package label, the calories, fat, and any nutrition data about a particular food is readily available. The issue is that the market is so saturated with sites, apps, and info that it’s hard to tell which is the best or even most accurate. How can you know if your food is actually healthy for you based on this information? The founders of iFood.tv believe they have the ultimate answer for those wanting to know if their food is healthy.
Alok Ranjan and Vikrant Mathur are the founders of the popular food and cooking video channel iFood.tv. The site is the most trafficked site in the food-video industry. The duo’s newest project is called NutritionRank. They have launched the nutritional database and search engine in hopes of making it the web’s number one resource for dietary health information.
In a market saturated with nutrition information, why is NutritionRank better or even different? Apparently the creators have worked with three nutritional scientists to create an algorithm that will assign a simple numeric value to our food. All foods will fall on a scale of 0 to 100; 0 being the worst and 100 being the best. These values will apply to fresh food items, packaged items, or even restaurant dishes.
This system will also allow for side-by-side comparisons of foods to help the consumer make the better choice. An example shows that the Burger King cheeseburger has a score of 15 while the McDonald’s Big Mac has a score of 21. Neither very high on the scale, but if you had to choose, at least you could pick the one with the higher score.
Along with choosing specific meals, users can add ingredients to see their value. For instance, the cheese topping for many boxed mac and cheese mixes has a value of zero. This might make it easier to at least search a higher quality brand and possibly get some better nutrition.
NutritionRank certainly isn’t alone in this web category. Sites and services like TwoFoods.com, HowGood.com, and Fooducate are all doing something identical or at least very similar.
This seems like a good place for people to start. If reading labels are hard and one just wants to start making better choices, seeing a simple rank may be a great place to begin. The system breaks down the nutrition info in addition to providing a number ranking. As one begins to understand nutrition more, the system won’t become obsolete, it may be a lifelong resource tool.
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