Synopsis of the App
YouAte is a visual food journal that lets you focus on meals and meal times while keeping simple goals in view. It requires ZERO calorie counting. YouAte may be best for those who need a nudge to eat regular meals or who simply want to maintain a visual account of what they eat and whether it’s on or off track path. Unfortunately, the nutrition information in the app is peppered with some inaccuracies. Therefore, users should seek other sources for credible, reliable nutrition information.
Platform and Price
Free. Apple.
RDN Score
2 out of 5
Pros
- Clean and easy-to-use design.
- Save meals to the timeline (your path) with just one click. Reflect upon recent and past food choices in “your path.”
- Capture meals by snapping a photo. Easily choose whether the meal is on or off path based on current goals.
- No calorie counting at all.
- View progress and statistics and how your meals fit or veer from your path on one screen.
- Easily track the elapsed time between meals.
- Includes a goals section that suggests healthy guidelines like drink plenty of water, avoid added sugars, and eat seasonal produce.
- Instead of a focus on calories, the photo journal includes prompts asking why you ate (hunger, stress, social), how the meal was, where you ate it and how it made you feel.
- Set customizable reminders to stay on path.
- Review week and lifetime stats for motivation.
- Option to allow a friend, coach, or health professional view your timeline or share progress on social media.
Cons
- To create a profile you must surrender an email address.
- Some of the nutrition content is inaccurate or questionable. For example, green beans are listed as legumes in one section.
- YouAte is currently only available on iOS devices.
Bottom Line
YouAte is ideal for those who need a gentle nudge to eat regular meals or who simply want to maintain a photographic log of the meals they eat. The app may be best for those who are food and nutrition savvy to be able to determine what’s on or off path and can tease out what’s accurate in the guidelines
