When it comes to healthy eating, forget the stick, and use CarrotLines

Countless Canadians make their New Years’ resolution a challenge to themselves to eat better. Year after year, we promise ourselves that this is when we start eating better food and take better care of our bodies.

But how do we know if the food we’re buying at the supermarket is really good for us? Enter CarrotLines, an iPhone app developed by Vancouver’s Portalife, which gives detailed nutrition info like fat content, fibre content, vegan status, and the presence of gluten. All you have to do is scan the food item’s barcode to get all the details.

We’ve covered CarrotLines in the past, but they’ve been busy since their launch six months ago. In addition to recruiting Kitsilano’s Greens Organic + Natural Market as a partner business, with over 95 per cent of products listed on CarrotLines, they have worked out a deal with Blenz to list the nutritional information of all of their coffees through barcode scanning. Products from Happy Planet and Avalon Dairy are also being added.

2011 promises to be a big year for the app as well. App designer Wahiba Chair says that new features will be coming in addition to adding new products to the CarrotLines database.

You can find more information about CarrotLines here. It’s a great way to eat healthier, and a great way to keep those New Year’s resolutions.

Personally, though, I don’t know why people find New Year’s resolutions so difficult to keep. Me, I’m doing great on my resolutions. I’ve resolved to play more video games and exercise less, and so far, so good.