Bon'App Launches "Help Fight Teen Obesity" on Indiegogo

BOSTON, July 9, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bon'App has launched its project "Help Fight Teen Obesity" on Indiegogo. This project aims to help fight teen obesity in low-income neighborhoods, where kids are at risk for serious medical problems like diabetes and heart disease. The project will start in Baton Rouge, LA and Boston, MA shortly after Labor Day, when students are returning to school.

A link to the project (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/151887), complete with a video on YouTube gives more details.

A Boston-based start-up, Bon'App wants to educate low-income teens at risk for obesity about nutrition by using mobile technology: putting smartphones preloaded with Bon'App in the hands of kids who could not otherwise afford them. The app will allow kids to easily find out what's in their food in a language they understand. Bon'App is the best food app available because it's text- or voice-powered so, for example, you simply say 'Pizza Hut' and your phone instantly shows you the Calories, Bad Fat, Sugar, and Salt contained in every slice of pizza available at Pizza Hut, so you can order the one that's best for you.

"We believe that giving teens and young adults the resources to start thinking about nutrition is an important step in the right direction," says Dr. Stacey Bell, a Registered Dietitian and an expert nutrition consultant.

Bon'App wants to raise at least $15,000 which will fund research, development, and implementation of the program. The Bon'App team will work with researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC) in Baton Rouge, LA, Boston Children's Hospital, or the Harvard School of Public Health to create customized health messages. These messages will be sent to users in real-time to guide them towards healthier food choices. Messages will be based on geo-location and food consumed during the day. Steve Heymsfield, Executive Director of PBRC says: "We're excited to partner with Bon'App on this research that can benefit not only Louisiana's children and youth but also many communities nationwide."

$15,000 will enroll at least 120 teens, but Bon'App hopes to raise up to $1 million – with every dollar going to expanding the project – which would impact up to 12,000 teens.

Laurent Adamowicz, CEO & Founder of Bon'App, explains: "We have set our donation goal at $15,000, but hope that donations won't stop there, allowing us to expand our study and have a bigger impact on the community. We decided to ask the public to help us fund this research because we couldn't get government grants for the project, yet I feel it is our duty to educate kids about food if we want to help them make better nutrition choices."

About Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC)

Opened in 1988 in Baton Rouge, LA, the Pennington Center now houses 50 laboratories that span programs in Basic Research, Clinical Research, and Population Science. More than 80 faculty members and over 500 physicians, scientists, and support personnel focus their research efforts on 10 research program areas: Epidemiology and Prevention, Physical Activity and Health, Cancer, Diabetes, Obesity, Neurodegeneration, Genomics and Molecular Genetics, Stem Cell and Developmental Biology, Neurobiology, and Nutrient Sensing and Signaling.

About Bon'App, Inc.

While a Fellow at Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, Laurent Adamowicz founded Bon'App with the help of a team of 11 Harvard graduate students from 7 schools at Harvard. A better calorie counter, Bon'App enables users to find out what's in their food in a simpler language (Sugar, Salt, Bad Fat) so they can adhere to their dietary goals and eat healthier. Bon'App, Inc. is also an analytics company that provides real-time aggregated data to brand managers in the food industry. With its ability to pinpoint what food consumers are looking for and what they actually consume, Bon'App creates a unique proposition to help marketers tailor their product offering to consumer behavior and desires.

To learn more about Bon'App, please visit http://www.bon-app.com/

Or download Bon'App on Google Play or iTunes.

Contact information:

Via email: press-contact@bon-app.com
Via Escargot mail: Bon'App, Inc., PMB 380249 Mount Auburn, Cambridge, MA 02138
USA

This is the link to contribute to the Bon'App project on Indiegogo (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/151887).

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