Private MD News

Cholesterol test for status, smartphone app to lose weight

Category: Heart Health and Cholesterol

For some people, there may be another reason to reach for their smartphone in the middle of the day, especially if they recently got a cholesterol test that indicates their levels may be high.

Some studies have linked high cholesterol to obesity, which has spurred some health officials to encourage people to change their diet and exercise routine in an effort to lose more weight.

But instead of taking time to read nutritional labels to make sure a food is healthy enough, two doctors have developed a smartphone application that can help a person lose weight.

Deemed the FoodGauge, it quickly calculates what foods will help simply by crunching the fat, carbohydrate, fiber and protein levels of certain foods.

The application was developed by Drs Robert Ziltzer and Craig Primack as a way to make weight loss easier by ranking the food on a scale of five to one.

"Dr Ziltzer and I choose to embrace the tools at our disposal, such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, and make them useful," Primack said. "Having a program in your pocket that assists with weight loss is very appealing to those who struggle with discerning between good and bad foods."