<p>Two Indian-American scientists have designed a new smartphone app that will record your erratic eating habits throughout the day and help you not only cut some bad habits but also prevent "metabolic jetlag".<br /><br /></p>.<p>Satchidananda Panda and Shubhroz Gill from the Salk Institute have developed the app that can collect, analyse and interpret patterns of food intake in humans.<br /><br />"The study is about developing methods and offers some preliminary insight into what and when people eat," said Panda, associate professor in the Salk Institute's regulatory biology laboratory.<br /><br />The duo have kept the app simple, only requiring users to send pictures of everything they ate or drank, whether it was an entire water bottle or a few bites of a cookie.<br />Each click also captured metadata (such as the location where food was consumed) and recorded a timestamp.<br /><br />Users were healthy males and females between the ages of 21 and 55 who were not actively managing their diet.<br /><br />"One pleasant surprise was how many participants got used to taking a picture of anything they ate or drank; it almost became their second nature," noted Gill, post-doctoral associate in Panda's group.<br /><br />The context of the pictures spoke volumes. For example, when taken next to a keyboard, in bed, watching TV, on the sidewalk, in the car or while filling gas.<br /><br />"This is an example of a new class of research studies that have become possible due to the massive adoption of smartphones," Gill added.<br /><br />In addition to cutting out some bad habits, the authors feel that the app can also prevent "metabolic jetlag" - when differences in day-to-day or weekday/weekend meal times cause metabolic organs to become out of sync with the body's overall circadian rhythms.<br /><br />The app could also be a powerful tool for personalised medicine.<br />For example, the pictures revealed that nearly two-thirds of participants took some kind of nutritional supplement or vitamins, but the time at which they took these pills varied from day to day.<br /><br />The same held true for medication.<br /><br />In addition, the data revealed cultural food practices, such as people's' consumption of coffee and milk in the morning, alcohol in the evening, and tea throughout the day.<br />Also, yogurt was a morning food, sandwiches and burgers were primarily reserved for lunchtime while vegetables and ice cream were saved for the evening.<br /><br />Photos of chocolate and candy were recorded from pretty much 10 a.m. Onward.<br />Panda now hopes to test the benefits of time-restricted feeding under different conditions of sleep, activity and disease.<br /></p>
<p>Two Indian-American scientists have designed a new smartphone app that will record your erratic eating habits throughout the day and help you not only cut some bad habits but also prevent "metabolic jetlag".<br /><br /></p>.<p>Satchidananda Panda and Shubhroz Gill from the Salk Institute have developed the app that can collect, analyse and interpret patterns of food intake in humans.<br /><br />"The study is about developing methods and offers some preliminary insight into what and when people eat," said Panda, associate professor in the Salk Institute's regulatory biology laboratory.<br /><br />The duo have kept the app simple, only requiring users to send pictures of everything they ate or drank, whether it was an entire water bottle or a few bites of a cookie.<br />Each click also captured metadata (such as the location where food was consumed) and recorded a timestamp.<br /><br />Users were healthy males and females between the ages of 21 and 55 who were not actively managing their diet.<br /><br />"One pleasant surprise was how many participants got used to taking a picture of anything they ate or drank; it almost became their second nature," noted Gill, post-doctoral associate in Panda's group.<br /><br />The context of the pictures spoke volumes. For example, when taken next to a keyboard, in bed, watching TV, on the sidewalk, in the car or while filling gas.<br /><br />"This is an example of a new class of research studies that have become possible due to the massive adoption of smartphones," Gill added.<br /><br />In addition to cutting out some bad habits, the authors feel that the app can also prevent "metabolic jetlag" - when differences in day-to-day or weekday/weekend meal times cause metabolic organs to become out of sync with the body's overall circadian rhythms.<br /><br />The app could also be a powerful tool for personalised medicine.<br />For example, the pictures revealed that nearly two-thirds of participants took some kind of nutritional supplement or vitamins, but the time at which they took these pills varied from day to day.<br /><br />The same held true for medication.<br /><br />In addition, the data revealed cultural food practices, such as people's' consumption of coffee and milk in the morning, alcohol in the evening, and tea throughout the day.<br />Also, yogurt was a morning food, sandwiches and burgers were primarily reserved for lunchtime while vegetables and ice cream were saved for the evening.<br /><br />Photos of chocolate and candy were recorded from pretty much 10 a.m. Onward.<br />Panda now hopes to test the benefits of time-restricted feeding under different conditions of sleep, activity and disease.<br /></p>