Restaurants are seldom packed as they are right after the holidays, when people are sick of cooking and leftovers and cleaning up and just want to go out and enjoy a good meal in great company. For most of us, eating out is a one of life’s simple pleasures, but for others it’s a cause for much stress. With food allergies and sensitivities increasingly common, navigating restaurant menus is difficult for many.
A new app called EveryoneEat! was created to help the nearly 150 Million Americans living with nutrition-related chronic conditions make smart dining choices when eating out. It’s really hard for these folks to eat out and not be worried that the meal they’re consuming is unhealthy for their specific condition. Unlike other nutrition apps (calorie counting, generic health scoring, etc.), EveryoneEat! provides highly-tailored nutrition guidance based on a consumer’s personal profile, disease stage and cuisine.
“Today, there are dozens of ‘nutrition’ apps providing basic nutrition facts or generic health ‘scores’ for hundreds of restaurant chains. But for Americans with special dietary restrictions, it’s unfortunately left to them to decipher the nutrition facts provided, in order to understand whether a dish is appropriate for the needs mandated by their specific condition,” says Ken Marshall, CEO at FoodCalc. “What we recognize is that no matter how simple or complicated a dietary restriction, people need to easily answer the basic question, ‘does this dish meet my dietary guidelines?’, and if not, ‘what’s off and by how much?’. EveryoneEat! addresses this need head on.”

Nearly 150 Million Americans live with nutrition-related chronic conditions; Everyone Eat! helps them make smart dining choices when eating out. Photo courtesy of FoodCalc
After downloading the app, signing up and entering basic information (age, gender, weight), health condition, stage, and other special dietary restrictions, FoodCalc, the company behing the app, uses dietary guidelines from several major health associations (the American Diabetes Association, the National Kidney Foundation, the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and others) to give you an instant analysis. You can search by type of cuisine or restaurant name, and dishes are sorted based on how closely they match your dietary needs and restrictions. The interface provides a comprehensive, easy-to-understand nutritional overview. If a nutrient level in inappropriate (i.e. too many carbs, too much sodium, phosphorus, etc.), the app gives you context by comparing the dish to an appropriate meal for your specific health condition.
The database currently contains over 180,000 dining locations nationwide. If you don’t see your favorite place on the list you can “nominate” it and FoodCalc will contact the restaurant directly and encourage them to participate.
“Web, mobile and social apps are the future of dietetics,” said Registered Dietitian Meri Raffetto, author of Glycemic Index for Dummies and co-author of Restaurant Calorie Counter for Dummies. “To guide their journey of nutrition transformation, our patients and clients need guidance wherever they eat. Going forward, this type of solution is going to be our primary driver of patient and client coaching.”
Try it out for yourself, even if all you are trying to do is lose or maintain a healthy weight. The EveryoneEat! app is available for iPhone and Android.