Digital Health: Is There an App For That?

by Andrea Holwegner | Nov 30, 2016

Apps for Nutrition, Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle

Digital Health Week in November promotes healthier Canadians through innovative digital health solutions.

Technology plays an important role in many aspects of our lives. Similar to the way technology has improved banking or the way we connect with family and friends, digital health is changing the delivery of care.

~ Better Health Together

In today’s smartphone-driven world, for most of us digital innovation means downloading an app. Digital health and wellness apps provide health-related tools and information on our smartphone or tablet. According to the FDA, the most popular digital health apps are:

Sports and fitness activity tracking
Diet and nutrition
Weight loss coaching
Pharmacy
Sleep cycle analysis
Stress reduction and relaxation
Meditation
Medical advice and patient community
Menstrual period tracking
Pregnancy
Hospital selection and appointment management

Andrea’s Top Apps for Nutrition, Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle

Are you wondering what the top fitness, health and nutrition apps are? With hundreds to choose from, I wanted to provide a starting place for some of my favourite apps to support a healthy lifestyle. I have chosen a wide range of the best apps for nutrition, cooking, fitness, meditation and goal setting to get you started. (Note that I have not selected apps that only track calories, since after all there is more to healthy eating than simply just adding up numbers.)

Top Nutrition Apps

eaTipster

Free app created by Dietitians of Canada (English and French)
Credible short nutrition tips on a variety of common questions and topics about nutrition and healthy eating
Read the tips, save favourites and share them with friends on email, text or social media

EATracker

Free app created by Dietitians of Canada
Help plan meals with feedback on a variety of nutrients (not just calories)
Search and add favourite foods to your “pantry”
Quickly access a nutrition facts table to find out the nutrients in a food
Compare your intake to national guidelines
Set eating and exercise goals and track progress
Post your own quotes and photos to keep motivated
Nutrition analysis of recipes

iHydrate Water Tracker Reminder

Track your daily water intake
Set reminders

Top Cooking Apps

OrganizEat Recipe Organizer

paid app
Organizes all your recipes quickly (no need to type!)
Snap a photo of your recipe from home or clip a photo from the web
Sync between your iPhone and iPad

How to Cook Everything

Paid apps by culinary guru Mark Bittman
How to Cook Everything kitchen companion app is a must have fundamental resource for every cook to own
Search by ingredient or category the 2,000 plus recipes with variations for this award winning no-nonsense cookbook
Also check out How to Cook Everything Fast, Basics, Vegetarian as secondary purchase options

Top Fitness, Meditation and Sleep Apps

Sworkit

Free and premium paid version app
Pre-built workouts or design your own
Strength, stretching, cardio, pilates and yoga
Set your own time limit from 5 minutes or more
No equipment required
Video instruction and audio cues

Insight Meditation

Free meditation app
Connect with a worldwide community of millions of meditators
Choose from a variety of timers for meditation
Access hundreds of free guided meditations by renowned experts

White Noise Sleep Sounds

Free app with sounds to help you relax the day and sleep at night
Create your own custom sound mixes by mixing several sounds together
Change the color and brightness of your screen
Gentle alarms and timers that slowly fade in

Digital health is commonplace in our lives. Many people have already incorporated health apps into their daily routine:

Fitness bands
Calorie trackers
Nutritious grocery lists
Menstrual and ovulation trackers
Electronic medical records

Note: There are some accuracy issues with activity and calorie tracking apps, see my article: Why your calorie counting apps and devices may be wrong: Fitbit and MyFitnessPal issues.

What are your favorite fitness, health, cooking and nutrition apps? I would love to hear from you on how you incorporate digital health apps into your personal life and at work!

a version of this article appeared on LinkedIn

Meet our team of Registered Nutritionists that specialise in meal planning, overall healthy eating, weight loss, eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder), IBS, celiac disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, kids nutrition and more here.

Success stories

"I am a psychologist in private practice and it is very important to me that my clients have the best care with other health care professionals. For that reason Health Stand Nutrition is my only source for exceptional Dietitians. Andrea and her team provide highly knowledgeable, compassionate, and real world support to my clients who require assistance with food lifestyle. I trust my clients to them and you would be in excellent hands making them part of your health care team."

Adele Fox, Psychologist

“This is the first time I feel satisfied; my cravings have diminished dramatically and I have a whole new relationship with food. I am eating guilt-free for the first time in my life. My energy has also dramatically increased and I feel great!”

Rhonda Jenkins, Nutrition Counseling Client

“The Dieticians at Health Stand Nutrition help you to take action on the science behind eating well by making it practical, understandable, and fun. Their office is cozy and not at all clinical or intimidating. I felt like I was sitting down with a really smart, caring friend who wanted to help me make the best choices for my lifestyle and food preferences. They really are the best in the business.”

Marty Avery, Nutrition Counseling Client

“I have come to think of the program as a one stop shopping excursion for everything one needs to know about creating a joyous relationship with food and our bodies. In a single word, the course has gifted me with freedom from the punishing rigidity of disordered eating, old stories that never were true, and body dysmorphia that did nothing but make me lose sight of a body that has done everything I've asked, despite my careless dismissal of her needs. Now when I look in the mirror I find myself shifting from harsh criticism to gentle gratitude.”

Lynn Haley, Pursuit of Healthiness Online Course Participant

“I spent 3 hours when first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I learned more from my Dietitian about food in those 3 hours than I had learned in all the years of my life. I also love the newsletter, there is always something to learn.”

Peter Whitehead, Nutrition Counseling Client

“I didn’t realize how strong my “diet mentality” was, and all the rules I had in my head about food. I was in a cycle of reward/punish/binge/cringe. I booked with your business very reluctantly, on the repeated advice of my doctor, to get my slowly rising cholesterol levels in check. I thought I knew everything about food, and my behaviour with food, but I was definitely re-schooled. My weight is creeping down, I feel good about my diet, exercise, body image, and lifestyle.”

Amy Floyd, Nutrition Counseling Client

“Thanks Andrea for an amazing presentation, I have heard all positive remarks from attendees and the evaluations show the same sentiment. It is really gratifying when a speaker does their “homework” and weaves in our profession’s day to day challenges within their content, you did an awesome job of this! You truly took the “die” out of Dietician! Your information on healthy eating and simplifying how we can work towards this as we are all so busy really hit the mark. Andrea connects very well with her audience; she is energetic, funny, and very approachable.”

Carole Ann LaGrange, Transfusion Medicine Safety Officer

Event Planner for Laboratory Diagnostic Imaging Annual Event

“I am a family physician who sees patients with a myriad of eating concerns – from wanting to know how to plan healthy meals for active families, to weight loss, to eating disorders, and so on. I cannot recommend the Health Stand team highly enough. I have worked with (and been to!) other Dieticians in the past and too often find that they just ask for food logs and make suggestions that are easily obtained online or in books. The Dieticians at Health Stand offer much more than just telling clients what they “should be eating.” In contrast, the team really does more of a counselling practice, and they work hard to help their clients learn more about why their eating habits may be off track and not optimal for them, as well as helping people to effect change at a deep level that, most importantly, is sustainable for lifetime health.”

Dr. Deb Putnam, Family Physician

Nutrition Counseling Client & Referring Physician

“I am a busy mom, with kids in high level sports, working full-time downtown, and running our home acreage outside the City. I now have the knowledge and tools I need to plan for and manage the chaos of meal planning.”

Gillian Gray, Pursuit of Healthiness Online Course Participant

“As a construction company, we select speakers who can relate to our industry and its employees. Andrea’s message was delivered with humor and empathy. She makes people feel as though they can make changes without leaving behind every favorite food. Andrea focused her presentation on healthy eating as a way to keep energy high throughout the day. This message and the way it was delivered resonated with our predominantly male, blue collar culture. I would highly recommend Andrea as a speaker for groups such as ours. She will get your message across without alienating anyone in your audience – which is a huge hurdle when trying to introduce a wellness program in the workplace!”

Stephanie Wood, HR and Safety Manager

Fisher Construction Group, Burlington, WA

“I found my Dietitian warm, funny, and skilled at teaching nutrition concepts without the overwhelm. The general approach of each session was to mix science with emotion, which was exceedingly effective in helping me shift my perspective on food from one of anxiety to one of joy and curiosity.”

Erin Kronstedt, Nutrition Counseling Client

“Excellent presentation! What a refreshing change to have a speaker inspire rather than “lecture” about nutrition. Your captivating stories, tips and overall approach to healthy eating uplifts and puts people at ease. It was great to hear we don’t need to strive to be perfect eaters, and that small changes really can make a difference in how we feel and in our health. Thanks to Andrea, we have solutions to our everyday nutrition challenges that can actually work in real life!”

Tina Tamagi, Human Resources

ARC Resources Ltd.

“Had I not joined this course I would have struggled with no focus, low energy, and mindless eating. Excellent teaching and motivation. This is not just a course, it is a nutrition club with mentorship, support, and connections with other people with similar situations.”

Lorri Lawrence, Pursuit of Healthiness online course participant

Digital Health: Is There an App For That?

Apps for Nutrition, Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle

Andrea’s Top Apps for Nutrition, Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle

Top Nutrition Apps

Top Cooking Apps

Top Fitness, Meditation and Sleep Apps

Meet our team of Registered Nutritionists that specialise in meal planning, overall healthy eating, weight loss, eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder), IBS, celiac disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, kids nutrition and more here.

Andrea Holwegner

About Andrea Holwegner

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

As seen in

Success stories

Satisfy your curiosity.

Pin It on Pinterest