Research for the capstone project

Research Finding

According to dietary guideline 2015–2020 from health.gov, most Americans have eating patterns that fall short of the Healthy U.S.-Style Pattern which result high percentage of the overweight or obese population in the country.

Susan Dudley, PhD, Isabel Platt, National Center for Health Research, said that although surveys confirm that most Americans believe they have healthy eating habits, obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases are on the rise.

User need

Nielsen’s 2015 Global Health & Wellness Survey that polled over 30,000 individuals online and suggests consumer mindset about healthy foods has shifted and they are ready to pay more for products that claim to boost health and weight loss.

• Some 88% of those polled are willing to pay more for healthier foods.
• All demographics — from Generation Z to Baby Boomers — say they would pay more for healthy foods, including those that are GMO-free, have no artificial coloring/flavors and are deemed all natural.
• Functional foods — including foods high in fiber (36%), protein (32%), whole grains (30%) or fortified with calcium (30%), vitamins (30%) or minerals (29%) — that can either reduce disease and/or promote good health also are desirable.

Stay fit is hard. Keep track of what we eat is even harder. There are mobile applications where user can input detail information about what they just ate and get quantitative graph or visual data to monitor they eating habit in order to stay healthy and fit.

But… how many people can do it? love to do it? It is haaaaaaaard. It sucks when you have to put how many pounds of salad and chicken breast you just ate. Yes, some people do it but still many of us don’t because it is time consuming and give me too much stress. There is not yet a simple enough service that helps us to monitor our consumption. What can we do? I honestly think there is a way.