SARATOGA, Calif., Dec. 3, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- wHealthy SolutionsTM Inc., the first and only provider of scientific-based social network services for healthy nutrition, today announced major enhancements to FoodSmartTM, its free premier mobile application that helps people choose healthier foods based on their personal health profiles. FoodSmart provides the only Custom Ranking feature available for special populations and is searchable by specific chronic health conditions. The company has also added substantially more searchable and scan-able food and beverage items to its database ― increasing the total number of items eight-fold to more than 160,000, with even more ingredient and allergen warnings.
"Increasing the FoodSmart database so dramatically and adding support for some of the country's most prevalent health conditions ― including prediabetes, diabetes, weight management, hypertension and cardiovascular disease ― supports our goal to help people live healthier lives by making healthier food choices," said wHealthy Solutions' CEO and Co-founder Michael Segal. "Our application empowers users to make it easier for them to take charge of their health, while still eating delicious food."
Custom Ranking
FoodSmart's new Custom Ranking feature gives people in special health populations a way to search the database by typing in a specific chronic condition. Users can search on the following categories to view custom rankings of food and beverages specific to these health concerns: Prediabetes, diabetes (type 1 and 2), weight management, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Service functionality includes warnings about unhealthy ingredients; recommendations for healthier alternatives; user community taste rankings and reviews; personalized product lists; and the ability to create and share shopping lists with family members and other users.
Increased Database Listings
The FoodSmart database has also increased from 20,000+ items to more than 160,000 searchable and scan-able food and beverage products, which means that users can choose the most commonly used items and instantly find out nutritional information or suggestions for more healthy alternatives. This includes the addition of nearly 800 popular generic items ― such as meats, fruits and vegetables ― with full nutritional information based on USDA guidelines and Expert Rankings.
Easier to Navigate
FoodSmart is now even easier to navigate with search results classified by category. This functionality makes the process of finding specific items faster and easier. In addition, FoodSmart features new usability enhancements including sorting of products in lists based on category and the ability to refresh personal product lists in real time to support collaboration by multiple household members editing a product list concurrently.
FoodSmart uses wHealthy Solutions' proprietary food and beverage ranking algorithms, which is based on proven medical and scientific methods, combined with communal wisdom, to enable people to make smart and tasty nutritional choices easily and quickly. Additionally, it allows consumers to use their mobile devices to scan the bar codes of products in stores in order to receive the same information in real time and make the healthiest choices while shopping.
Enhanced Mobile Application Availability
The latest version of the FoodSmart application supports Apple's iOS, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and Android devices. It is available immediately for free download in both Apple's iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. wHealthy Solutions offers cloud-based and mobile services accessible via a variety of devices, including PCs, smart phones, netbooks and tablets.
Competitive Advantages
Other products in this market address only a portion of the requirements needed for consumers to effortlessly select and shop for healthy and delicious food. wHealthy Solutions integrates scientific data based on USDA guidelines and medical Subject Matter Expertise (SME) in the area of nutrition into a proprietary mathematical algorithm applied to a broad database of food and beverage products to provide health rankings of all individual items in the database. The algorithm is adaptive for an individuals' health conditions and preferences, enabling the application to provide consumers with recommendations customized for their health conditions and taste preferences.
About wHealthy Solutions, Inc.
wHealthy Solutions' mission is to enable people to live healthier lives and to help prevent and fight chronic illnesses by helping consumers make smarter nutritional choices anywhere, anytime. wHealthy Solutions is the first scientific-based social network service empowering users to select and shop for the healthiest 'nutritional basket' for their families, while saving time and effort. The company's FoodSmartTM mobile app is available for free download in Apple's iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. For more information, visit www.wHealthySolutions.com. Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wHealthySol and Facebook: www.facebook.com/wHealthySol.
wHealthy Solutions and FoodSmart are trademarks of wHealthy Solutions, Inc. Other company, product and service names mentioned herein may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
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