Bon'App

Poor dietary knowledge and choices can lead to many serious illnesses, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. National data show that currently 33.9% of American adults age 20 years and older are obese, and diabetes has killed about 70,000 people each year (CDC, 2007-2008). In an attempt to tackle this challenge, Bon’App was designed as an innovative tool to improve people’s eating habits and dietary choices. Bon’App is a revolutionary smartphone app that functions as a “nutritionist in your pocket.” More than a simple calorie counter, it empowers individuals to change the way they think about the food they eat through three simple yet effective ways. By giving users the opportunity to create an individual profile, they can track their daily food intake, create their own recipe book, and make well-informed choices of places to dine out.

Bon’App’s design is intended to make discovering nutritional content for anything a user eats both easy to find and easy to understand. First, the app employs a unique visual representation of the fuel a person’s body needs - based on the user’s gender and age information - through "batteries" that deplete as s/he uses up his/her daily allotments of calories, sugar, salt, and bad fat in order to provide a complete nutritional picture. Users may keep track of their nutritional intake by adding items to a food list, verifying the impact of each food item on their “batteries” prior to consuming it, and then deciding whether or not to add the item to their daily consumption tracker, which automatically discounts nutrient allotments from the person’s daily fuel.

Second, users can create a personalized recipe book. Based on the information users provide about ingredients and portion sizes, they can verify the impact of each recipe on their “batteries.” Finally, the app has an option for users to find specific food or restaurants where they wish to dine out, according to their location. Bon’App stores a large database of menus from hundreds of local and chain restaurants to help users choose the food that is best for them. This component enables people to make well-informed choices with regard not only to the food they consume, but also the restaurants they select.

All these features make of Bon’App a powerful tool that connects anyone, including individuals in under-served and hard-to-reach communities, to the knowledge and information they may be lacking to make healthy choices in their daily lives. The app also enables user-designated dietitians and physicians to remotely monitor their patients’ food intake in real time and coach them towards better eating habits. It is already being used by a small group of doctors at the Weight Center (Massachusetts General Hospital), Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

This grant will help Bon’App to fund a clinical study, recently approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Harvard School of Public Health, aimed at evaluating the application’s impact on eating behaviors of a sample of high school students from Boston Public Schools. This is an initial attempt to assess the effects of this innovative tool on producing positive behavior changes in the general population.

The Bon’App application is available for both iOS and Android OS, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Android Market by searching for Bon'App and following standard procedures. The Bon’App website (www.bon-app.com) also offers direct links to the downloads through the “Download for Android” and “Download for iPhone” buttons. After the application is downloaded and installed on the device, the new user needs to register by providing an email and password. The next step is to create a personal profile which requires information on gender, date of birth, zip code, weight and height. Then, the app is ready to be used.