Trying to cut back on the sweet stuff? Then enlist the help of the new Sugar Counter app
Sugar has always been regarded one of the baddest and highest profile diet villains around. However, with the recent debate on its long-term health effects causing more of a controversy than ever (with even a sugar tax being called to reduce child obesity by Action on Sugar ), it’s safe to say that people are trying their upmost to cut back.
Sure, we can leave the chocolates, biscuits and ice creams out of our weekly shop, but what about the products that act as host to a surprisingly large amount of hidden sugar too? That’s where the new Sugar Counter app comes in, to provide a much needed teaspoon of sugar sense and ensure we’re making informed decisions about the food we eat and buy.
MORE GLOSS: Is there a healthier alternative to sugar?
Created by nutritionist Angela Dowden (she was awarded the Nutrition and Health Writer/Broadcaster of the Year in 2012), the app contains a comprehensive database of over 1400 types of food with their sugar stats broken down in a clear and explanatory way. From cereals to desserts and fast food to sauces, soups and alcoholic drinks, each product is accompanied by a handy traffic light coding system to highlight the foods and drinks that definitely shouldn’t be making their way into our kitchen cupboards. As the app states though, some foods that score low for sugar may be high in saturates and salt or vice versa - testament to the intelligent and commonsensical approach that it takes towards healthy eating .
Easy to navigate with useful articles on sugar addition, it also provides useful tips on how much we should actually be eating plus a great Sugar Swapper function for a range of easy yet effective tweaks we can make to our meal plans. It also allows you to record and monitor your sugar intake and create daily food planners too, to provide all the tools you need to devise a tracking diet hub bespoke to you.
Intelligent and portable, providing a wealth of information at our fingertips, it offers a valuable insight into the products that we would never expect to yield such unexpectedly high quantities of sugar.
Going sugar-free could actually be surprisingly simple.
Available to download from the iTunes App Store at the introductory price of 99p.