FEATURE: Foodzy

At the 2011 SXSW Interactive Festival, Jane McGonigal gave a convincing talk about how game mechanics and social structures could solve real-life problems. So what if they were to teach people how to eat healthy again?

Enter Foodzy – a social food game for web and mobile – that taps into this development. Foodzy’s apps and website enable you to keep track of what you eat and drink every day, living you insights into your eating habits in return. Like Foursquare, Foodzy uses gamification principles (badges, stats and high-scores)to encourage people to eat well, enjoy good food or start a diet.

Up until now, tracking food with either apps or websites has always been a daunting task that few people are able to maintain. Foodzy tries to simplify the process: It uses localized product databases, so you’ll only search for products in your own language and country. Your favorites are automatically on top.

A recently launched feature called ‘eatzies’ enables users to create their own meal combos: a combination of separate products into one recipe or frequently eaten dish. This way, entire meals are checked in with just one single click, or shared with friends.

In the end, Foodzy is not about losing weight or keeping track of calories. By seeing what types of products you eat most, how much you drink, but also by connecting hardware devices like the Withings scale and Fitbit, you are able to start monitoring your full health and well-being all in one place and ultimately, change it for the better.

• Visit: foodzy.com