Synopsis: Back to Basics is an educational app that promises to help users learn to be healthy without dieting.
Price and Platform: Free seven-day trial, then paid: $12.99/month to $79.99/year. Apple and Android.
RDN Score: 4.5/5
Pros
- Attractive app with bright, appetizing food photography and cheerful graphics.
- Provides insight into the all-or-nothing mindset, habit formation and mindful eating.
- “Personalized plan” is based on whether you eat a regular, vegetarian or pescatarian diet and if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or postpartum.
- More than 500 recipes with substitution ideas for dietary needs such as dairy- or gluten-free. Consistent with the app’s theme, the recipes do not include calories, macros or points.
- Includes an easy-to-use meal planner with an automatic shopping list and the option to swap and delete recipes with ease.
- Handy and informative hunger check-in tool allows users to rate hunger using an in-app sliding scale version of a hunger scale, then offers insight into the ratings.
- Offers meditation and mindset videos and 5- to 20-minute at-home workouts including more than 100 pregnancy-safe exercise options.
- Created by an accredited practicing dietitian (Australian equivalent to the registered dietitian nutritionist credential).
- Experience the full app using a free seven-day trial.
Cons
- Must sign up for a cancellable, automatically renewing subscription to access the free seven-day trial.
- Recipes include descriptors such as “free-range eggs” and directives including “don’t buy pre-cut store-bought fruit,” which may limit accessibility for some and be counter to some of the messaging around creating a good relationship with food.
- Privacy disclosure indicates that usage data is not linked to your identity but may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies.
Bottom Line: Back to the Basics may be a good fit for pregnant women and newbies to the intuitive eating space who enjoy more mainstream flavors.