Use this app to avoid calcium deficiency, which is common if you are on a vegan, milk-free or weightloss diet or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Deficiency results in weakened fracture-prone bones and teeth, impaired muscle function with muscle cramps and spasms, dry skin, and brittle hair and nails. A higher calcium intake has also been linked to a lower risk of bowel cancer in women under 55 years of age.
Set your target daily calcium intake based on guidance provided in the app and your preferences for weights of food (g or oz) and display of calcium content in foods and beverages (ie, %target/serving, mg/100g or mg/1oz, or %target/100g or %target/1oz).
Record food and beverage consumption using the barcode scanner (please note that only manufacturers in the US are required to include potassium content in the nutrition label read by the scanner), dictation, search or by favoriting foods and using the serving sizes provided (which can be changed at any time). Tap the notepad to add notes.
Monitor daily and long-term progress, export data to share with healthcare providers, synchronize data with other First Line Medical Communications Ltd nutrient counter apps, and share data with Apple's HealthKit.
Add your own foods and recipes and change serving sizes to personalize the app's 400-item database for you.
The app also provides nutritional information for many healthy foods and supports a healthy gut microbiome diet using color-coded type and icons as follows:
1.All high-calcium foods (ie, contain more than 150mg of sodium per serving) appear in purple type. Tap on the food name to find out more about the food including the serving size and see icons: a green leaf icon indicates that the food is a plant and can be included as one of the 30 different types of plant per week recommended by experts for a healthy gut microbiome; a red warning triangle icon indicates that the food is ultra-processed (see below); a gold microbe icon indicates that the food is a probiotic.
2. Plants that can be included as one of the 30 different types of plant per week recommended by experts for a healthy gut microbiome and contain less than 150mg of calcium per serving are in green type (with a green leaf icon used to indicate a plant in the food popup). The most prebiotic of these plants (ie, those particularly beneficial for the gut microbiome) are in a darker green type.
3. Fermented foods that contain beneficial live microbes to become part of the gut microbiome (probiotics) and contain less than 150mg of calcium per serving are in gold type with a gold microbe icon in the food popup.
4. Foods that are likely to be ultra-processed (UPFs) — ie, contain ingredients not found in a home kitchen (eg, preservatives, flavorings, and emulsifiers) and contain less than 150mg of calcium per serving are in red type with a red warning triangle in the food popup. UPFs are often high-calorie, low-fiber, high-saturated fat, high-sugar, high-sodium, low-nutrient foods linked to obesity and chronic inflammation (due to their adverse effect on the gut microbiome), which is a key feature of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs include type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, many cancers, depression, dementia and Parkinson's disease.
5. Foods in black type contain less than 150mg of calcium per serving and are neither UPF, plant, prebiotic nor probiotic and are healthy when consumed in moderation as part of a healthy diet.