Eat This, Not That! iPhone app overindulges on price point

Frequent fast-food patrons on diets could benefit from the Eat This, Not That! iPhone app, but there is a more economical choice for other health-conscious folks.

The Eat This, Not That! app ($4.99), based on the popular book with the same title, gives you the ability to compare foods by their nutrition information. It’s divided into six main sections: Search for a food, Restaurants, Supermarket, My Foods, Calorie Logger and Top Swaps & More.

What’s good about this app is the ability to compare foods side by side in the “Compare Cart.” This is a handy feature if you’re going to decide between foods at one of the 66 chain restaurants in the app’s database. For example, should you eat an Arby’s beef and cheddar or a Wendy’s cheeseburger? Eat This, Not That! can help you decide.

There is also nutrition information for grocery store foods, and having this information in an app is slightly more convenient than holding the packages next to each other.

The Calorie Logger allows you to set up a health profile, enter your weight-loss goal, and calculate your allotted calories throughout the day by entering your consumables and exercise.

The problem with this $5 iPhone app is that there is another app, Lose It!, that performs almost all of he same functions for free. The only features I found that Eat This, Not That! has which Lose It! does not are its ability to display two foods’ information on-screen at once, and its Top Swaps & More! section, which contains general tips and information.

Lose It! appears to have all the information and capability Eat This, Not That! has, and Lose It! has one thing noticeably missing from Eat This, Not That! – produce. There are no fruits and vegetables listed in Eat This, Not That!’s Supermarket section, a glaring omission for a weight-loss tool.

Lose It! also does one thing Eat This, Not That! does not. Lose It! saves custom foods that you enter. Let’s say you consume something not listed in the app. Both apps have a feature that allows you to enter the name and calories of the food. The difference is Lose It! saves that information so you can pick it again. Eat This, Not That! requires you to re-enter that information every time you consume that food.

Unless you frequent chain restaurants and can get a lot of benefit from being able to compare foods side-by-side on-screen, Eat This, Not That! is not worth purchasing. Lose It! is a healthier choice for your wallet. Download this, not that.

Latest from NewsReports