CalCutter app from the New York Health Department

A new app has been developed by the New York City Health Department, which gives users the ability to cut the calories they use in their meals they prepare. The app was released on Wednesday and is called CalCutter and it is being made available for free to all iOS and Android users.

So how it works… Cooks will be able to enter the ingredients of a specific recipe and the app will calculate the number of calories per average serving. The app will then suggest alternative ingredients to use in that meal which are lower in calories, for example swapping white pastas for wholemeal.

CalCutter will include over 400 different ingredients with calorie counts, which have all been determined by the USDA. The New York Health Department are also working alongside a top chef to help incorporate the healthy alternatives.

The Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley was quoted saying that “many people want to count calories as a way of avoiding weight, but they have no way of knowing how many calories are in restaurant food or even food they prepare themselves,” which is not entirely true, since a very high percentage of food chains and restaurants now post calorie counts next to their meals, so do all package food from supermarkets. The app does however offer a much quicker and more efficient way of handling this.