positiveEats

A study shows 97% users abandon food journal apps within a week. If you are one of the 3%, stop reading now.

Why are they so hard to use? First, they throw up too many roadblocks to the straightforward task of logging food. Second, they have a reductionist view of food. They turn food into a tally of nutrients, ignoring its broader context. Ironically, it actually takes more work.

PositiveEats is based on the Positive Eating Plan, which employs science to eliminate worries, not to introduce them.

When you open PositiveEats, you start logging food with the first tap. There is no need to create an account, complete a questionnaire about your weight loss goals (or emotions), or decline trial offers.

Logging a cup of black coffee requires just three taps, while recording a more complex dish like a baked egg recipe with onion, tomato, spinach, eggs, and pesto takes only nine. Other apps, by contrast, would demand that you create a custom recipe for the dish, and a sub-recipe for the pesto.

Simplicity is the greatest feature of PositiveEats. Mark Twain once said that he didn't have time to write a short letter, so he wrote a long one. The Positive Eating Plan is the short list of rules that result from taking the time to think through the science.

Key features of the plan include:
1. It's positive. Telling people not to do the wrong thing doesn't get them to do the right thing. The Positive Eating Plan emphasizes filling up on the right foods, thus reducing the temptation to eat the wrong ones. The goal for each category is the minimum you need to eat, not the maximum you can eat.
2. It tracks food in broad categories. While a balanced diet with variety is essential, food tracking need not be overly granular. Whether you ate a peach or an apple matters little in the broader scheme of a varied diet. Similarly, whether your bread is whole wheat or white is of less consequence if bread plays a minor role in an otherwise balanced diet. Tracking six broad categories of food offers a more nuanced view of your diet than a single calorie count.
3. It tracks real food, not nutrients. Real foods offer benefits beyond the sum of their nutrients. Scientific studies demonstrate that vitamin A supplements, for example, do not replicate the benefits of consuming carrots. Nutrients interact differently within whole foods, as evidenced by the higher absorption of fructose from orange juice compared to whole oranges.
4. It tracks weight, not calories. Calorie tracking often requires weighing food, identifying it precisely, and looking it up in a database—a process fraught with complexity. The USDA database, for instance, lists over 1,000 entries for French fries alone, with calorie counts varying by as much as 100 kcal for small servings. This complexity often leads to frustration and abandonment of the effort.
5. It leaves room for you to eat freely. You don't have to swear off ice cream. Balance, mental and nutritional, is key to sustainable eating habits.

PositiveEats and its underlying Positive Eating Plan simplify the process of food logging, making it accessible, manageable, and ultimately, more effective.