Nutrient counter and tracker apps for iPhone and iPad
Researched and developed by flmc.co.uk and published on the App Store
- One-off fee (except the Mediterranean Diet Assistant and Key Nutrients RDA Calculator apps, which are free)
- Free updates
- No ads
- No subscription or registration required
- Record food & beverage consumption using the barcode scanner,* dictation, search or by favoriting foods & using your serving sizes or those provided by the app
- Tap the notepad to add notes
- Monitor daily & long-term progress, & export data to share with healthcare providers
- Add your own foods & recipes & change serving sizes to personalise the app's 400-item database for you
- All food & beverage popups indicate whether the item is:
- a plant, good prebiotic, probiotic or ultraprocessed (UPF) to inform a healthy diet
- high or low FODMAP per serving where data are available to support people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Synchronize with other flmc.co.uk apps
- Share with Apple's Health app
- Color-coded high-nutrient, prebiotic, probiotic, and UPF foods
*Barcodes rarely provide magnesium, zinc, & vitamin K content, so these 3 counter and trackers do not have barcode readers
Nutrition plays a key role in preventing and managing disease
You’d think that 5 years at medical school and 6 years as a hospital doctor would increase understanding and knowledge of health, disease and patient management. Not for me. Instead, it became clear that medical knowledge at that time 40 years ago was very basic, making me ponder serious questions about the quality of care I was able to provide for patients.
So began my fascinating journey and adventure as a medical publisher’s editor and as a medical writer marketing the products of pharmaceutical companies. My aim was to work at the cutting edge of medical science with the best experts in the world and find answers. In the process, I provided writing and editorial services for 44 international publishing and medical communications clients, contributed to hundreds of medical and health publications and communications, and reported on over 50 international medical conferences and expert teleconferences. I have learned a lot. But the more I learned, the more I discovered that there is so much more that we don’t know.
Working on a wide range of medical topics provided me with access to experts worldwide and the evolving knowledge about what causes disease. Increasingly, it became clear to everyone that chronic inflammation plays a key role in many diseases, including most skin diseases, cardiovascular disease, a variety of cancers, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
This common underlying pathology suggests that inflammation-based diseases are linked — but how? It is now known that each individual has a constantly changing reversible expression of the genes in their DNA in response to lifestyle, behavioural, and external environmental factors. These so-called epigenetic processes play a role in determining each person’s health and disease profile. Identical twins are born with the same DNA and genes, but the expression of their genes varies depending on the lives they lead. So it appears we all have some ability to control our health and disease.
Understanding the exact mechanisms by which lifestyle, behavioural, and external environmental factors alter gene expression is in its infancy, but observational and statistical studies are starting to link these factors to health and disease. For example:
- the nutrients in a Mediterranean diet have beneficial effects on the gut microbiome and metabolism, which play key roles in maintaining a healthy immune system to prevent harmful inflammation
- in contrast,
ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have adverse effects on the gut microbiome, metabolism and the immune system and are associated with an increased risk of many physical and mental health illnesses.