8 Essential Mobile Health Apps for Integrative Dietitians

January 12, 2017
By: Julia Pleasant, RDN, LD

With many holistically-focused mHealth apps to choose from, the possibilities for their use in integrative and functional nutrition are ever-expanding!

As an Integrative Dietitian committed to engaging your clients and patients in their own healing process, there is no denying the value mobile health applications (a.k.a. "mHealth apps") can bring to your practice. It’s estimated that up to 80% of Americans now own smartphones, with the number of mHealth apps available on Apple and Android platforms now numbering in the hundreds of thousands. With many holistically-focused mHealth apps to choose from, the possibilities for their use in integrative and functional nutrition are ever-expanding!

8 Essential mHealth Apps For Your IFN Toolbox

Integrative and Functional Medicine 

  • About Herbs: Developed by the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering, About Herbs describes the structure, uses, side effects and interactions of various herbs, supplements, and therapies. Users can search by product name or medical condition. Content available when offline. (iTunes) (Google Play) (iOS/Android, free. Avg. user rating 4/5)
  • Nutriguides: Nutriguides by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics contains 300+ recommendations from the EAL that can be filtered by disease/condition or topic. Recommendations are rated based on how well-supported they are by evidence-based research. This is a handy reference to have on hand and it will likely improve with future versions. (iTunes) (Google Play) (iOS/Android, $1.99. Avg. User rating 3.5/5)

Mind-Body

  • In The Moment: Created to help users practice body awareness and mindfulness around food, In the Moment encourages healthy coping skills for triggers that might otherwise end up in emotional eating. (iTunes) (Google Play) (iOS, $1.99; Android, $0.99. Avg. user rating 4.5/5)
  • Buddhify: Buddhify offers 80 guided meditations that are categorized by occasions, such as Work Break, Going to Sleep, Feeling Stressed and more. The app provides community interaction and statistics for usage and progress. (iTunes) (Google Play)  (iOS, $4.99; Android, $2.99. Avg. user rating 4.4/5)
  • InsightTimer: InsightTimer has 3,500 guided meditations, music playlists, and teachings from experienced yogis and meditators worldwide. Community features include discussion groups and local meet-ups. (iTunes) (Google Play) (iOS/Android, free. Avg. user rating 5/5)

Food Allergies and Intolerances

  • mySymptoms: With mySymptoms, users can track foods, activities, medications, and other factors that may contribute to allergic symptoms, which the app then analyzes to identify correlations between symptoms and likely offenders. (iTunes) (Google Play)  (iOS/Android, $2.99. Avg. user rating 4.4/5)
  • Find Me Gluten Free: Find Me Gluten Free allows users to search for local gluten-free dining options, view menus, get restaurant information and see other users' ratings and reviews. Database includes both local establishments and national chains. (iTunes) (Google Play) (iOS/Android, free. Avg. user rating 4.5/5)
  • Low FODMAP Diet: Developed by Monash University, the low-FODMAP diet is one of the most commonly recommended therapies for IBS. Using a red/yellow/green circle rating system, the app provides accurate information about FODMAP-containing foods. Users also have access to recipes, a shopping list generator, and symptom tracking. (iTunes) (Google Play) (iOS, $7.99; Android, $9.00. Avg. user rating 4/5)

As with all technology, mobile applications are a dynamic world and new apps are being created and improved constantly. Before recommending any apps to your patients or clients, test them out yourself to see how they can benefit your practice.