Thursday 1 February 2018

Making Healthier Choices With The Change4Life Food Scanner App

Like a lot of people, I am starting the New Year trying to be healthier, I hold my hands up and admit that I have gained weight over recent years and I want to change that. I want to lead a healthier life and I want to lead by example so that my children lead a healthier life in return. My children are 3,4 and 15 and I admit that as a result of me not being as healthy as I should be my youngest two have been allowed a few too many treats recently. 

I do try and ensure they eat a balanced diet, they have three meals a day, one of which is always a home-cooked meal. We don't allow them to drink pop, they are limited to just one packet of crisps and/or sweets per day and we encourage them to eat fruit as snacks. However bad habits have started creeping in, as they have got older they want to choose their own foods more often and chocolate covered cereals, sugar-laden drinks and a few too many convenience foods have crept in.

Using the Change4Life food scanner app

So when I recently heard about the new Change4Life Food Scanner app I downloaded it straight away to my iPhone, as I thought this would be a great way to help us make better food choices as a family. You can find out more about the app at www.nhs.uk/change4life


PHE (Public Health England) who are behind Change4Life say "Without realising it we're all eating too much sugar, saturated fat and salt. That's why the brand new Food Scanner app is here to help you and your family make healthier food and drink choices. Simply scan the barcode of your food and drink to find out whats inside."

Downloading the app is completely free and it is available for android or ios devices. It is so easy to use as you simply open the app and you are ready to start scanning straight away. You just hold your phone over the barcode on the product and it scans and brings up the results within seconds. It will tell you the name of the product, how much sugar, salt, saturated fat and calories are in the product you scan and it also shows the traffic light symbols too. It really is so quick and easy to use.

using the Change4Life Food Scanner app

I can easily use this app when we are shopping as it is so quick and easy to use and I don't think anyone would even realise what you were doing. When we go to the shops and the children pick up a drink or some sweets I can easily scan the item and see what it contains, it is so much quicker and useful than reading the ingredients myself. For example, I let the children have a fruit juice that had no added sugar and I naively thought this meant it was good for them. When I scanned the drink I found it actually had the equivalent of 3.7 sugar cubes and was an amber traffic light for sugar content. Safe to say I won't be buying them again. 

Results of scanning a drink on the Change4Life Food Scanner app

Since I started using this app I have really started thinking about the foods and drinks that I buy my children, it is definitely helping me make much better choices and buy things with a lot less sugar in them. I will be using the Change4Life food scanner app all of the time from now on as it is just so easy to use and is such a useful way to find out what is in your food and drinks and to make better choices. 

If you are thinking of making better food and drink choices for your own family then I really do recommend you download this app. It is free, easy to use, quick to use and like me you might be surprised with just how much sugar, salt or saturated fats are in foods without us realising.

Change4Life Food Scanner app

Just search for the Change4Life Food Scanner app in your app store to get started. You can download from Google Play for Android devices or app store for Apple devices

Disclosure This is a collaborative post with Mumsnet and Change4Life. 


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36 comments

  1. This is a great way to help people make healthier choices, and fun to use too (even if the results may make you put it back on the shelf!!)

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  2. I love the look of this app - when you actually look at the sugar content of some food it is shocking!

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    1. It really is, I would never have guessed how much was in some products x

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  3. What a good idea - I like the visual representation of the sugar as it hits home so much more as to what food actually contains! x

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  4. This app sounds great and a perfect addition to any family home, will have to download it.

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  5. This is such a great idea to help you understand the foods you eat a bit better. I know not all people actually adopt the traffic light system so it can be sooo confusing!

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    1. It really does help you understand what is in foods so much easier x

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  6. What a fun way to kick start healthier choices :)

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    1. It really is, I am sure older children would have fun using this app x

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  7. What a great idea. I work in a school and it always shocks me what kids have in their lunchbox so this would be a handy tool for any parents. The kids could even scan their own food so they know what is going into their lunch

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    1. It would be perfect for checking what to put in a lunchbox, I bet older children would enjoy using the app and deciding what to put in a lunchbox too x

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  8. Ohh this app looks great. I really think it would help us. My kids often need to be reminded of how healthy/unhealthy things are.

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    1. It really is great, my 4 year old can even understand it x

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  9. That app sounds brilliant. My husband is always going on about us eating too much sugar. I wonder if it would work here in Portugal though as I could definitely use something like it

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    1. It is great for keeping track of how much sugar you consume, I had no idea there was so much in some things! x

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  10. That app sounds like such a good idea to get you thinking about what your children are eating. I can see it being a great way for us to make much more healthier choices.

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    1. It really is a really good way to make healthier choices x

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  11. This is a great idea for an app! It's scary at times, you think you're picking a healthy option but just don't realise how much sugar is in them!

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    1. I totally agree, I am shocked by the sugar content in some so called healthy products x

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  12. This is an excellent to make healthier food choices. Ill give it a go!

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    1. You will have to let me know how you get on with it x

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  13. Good the app is free. Off to play around with it.

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    1. It is brilliant for a free app, so easy to use too x

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  14. This is a brilliant idea. Although I think the labelling helps, because they usually use an example of a ridiculous amount i.e. 150 ml for a glass of orange juice (I mean seriously that doesn't fill a glass) it doesn't give you a correct idea of how much sugar you are actually consuming. I'll download this

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  15. What a great idea to help make healthier choices. Labels can often be confusing

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    1. They really can, this is such an easy way to see how much salt and sugar is in foods x

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  16. This is a very useful app. We sometimes underestimate the sugar content of some snacks.Thanks for sharing.

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    1. I have been so surprised with how much sugar is in some x

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  17. This sounds like a great app. I think something that helps us learn about healthier food choices has got to be a good idea and I will be giving it a go for sure

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  18. Do you know how to delete food items once scanned please,?

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    1. Oh no sorry, I am sure if you ask Change For Life via Twitter or Facebook they will be able to help you with this

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