Track your food! Do you eat as healthy as you think (or wish)?

We live in a strange world, where obesity figures seem to be high all over the developed world and -at the same time- information and options for healthy eating are becoming more and more available.  Of course, there are many reasons for that which are beyond of the scope of this post. But sometimes it is just difficult to keep track of what one eats throughout the day, or to figure out its nutritional value without too much of an effort. Or to remember exactly how much of protein is too much or that there is sugar in things that are not sweet.

I would like to share a website with any of you that falls into one (or more) of the categories above: It is called Super Tracker and it is part of ChoosMyPlate.gov , part of the US Department of Agriculture. Super Tracker helps you find nutritional information by just entering the name of a food (and even compare foods between them); but it is beyond just a nutritional fact encyclopedia. My favourite feature is its trackers. You can track what you ate and how much you have exercised in a day, see how you did in relation to different goals you have set. You can also manage your weight by choosing whether you want to maintain your current weight or lose (and it passed the test: it won’t let you lose a weight target that is beyond the healthy BMI for your height!). Everything is presented in nice and easy to understand graphs, so you can immediately know if you need to have some more fruit before the day is over!

What I like is that it is easy to use and straightforward; you can also personalise it as much as you want, by even keeping a journal or producing reports. The choice of foods is not exhaustive of course and it is rather focused on products found in the US but this is normal, I guess. In any case, in my opinion, the usefulness of this website is not that it offers yet another precise calorie counter but rather that it gives a comprehensive overview of what you have been eating and brings awareness to healthy eating.

Try it out and let me know what you think!