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Flint Eats hosting launch party for app that connects residents with healthy food

FLINT, MI – A mobile app designed to connect Flint residents with healthy food by using map interface and information sharing will host a launch party this weekend.

The launch party takes place from 3 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 18 at the Ophelia Bonner Park, 5300 North St., in Flint.

Flint Eats will enable residents to share and discover information about local food for purchase at retailers, share quality and cost of food at local food retailers and share food preparation and nutrition tips, according to the Flint Eats news release.

The event also marks the re-grand opening of the park, which has been cleaned up to become a community gathering place once again.

The event will include food, kickball, raffle prizes and a community resource fair. Attendees should bring a lawn chair to the event.

The mobile app was designed and is managed by Flint Innovative Solutions. The platform allows residents to share information about quality food that is available from retailers. In addition, local food providers are able to advertise healthy food to residents through the interface.

Users can download the app from Google Play Store or the App Store.

“Our goal is to get local retailers to provide high quality healthy food to Flint residents,” Athena McKay, executive director for Flint Innovative Solutions, said in a Flint Eats news release. “We also want to educate residents on how to make smart eating habits.”

Flint Eats allows residents to share information with each other through the

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Does the app targeting behaviour change really work?

The UK is facing a health crisis, with a majority of citizens failing to eat an adequately healthy diet.

It is estimated that 75% of men and 72% of women do not consume enough fruit and vegetables in their diet, while recommended sugar intake guidelines are exceeded by 100%. Two in every three adults are currently obese or overweight.

As obesity and associated health conditions are recognised as major concerns, researchers are interested in behavioural weight management interventions designed to reduce calorie intake. These range from taxing beverages with high levels of added sugar to providing information about healthy diets.

However, a group of psychologists from the Universities of Exeter and Cardiff in the UK believe unconscious, impulsive psychological processes may play an important role in consumer diets. As a result, the team has developed a computer game that aims to help consumers reduce their intake of unhealthy foods.

Being researchers, they have also conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of the computer app in both lab and real-world experiments. And the results are in.

Putting the brakes on junk food​

The researchers describe their FoodTrainer (FoodT) app as a ‘simple computer game’ capable of training one’s brain to stop consuming unhealthy food and drinks.

By repeatedly playing the game, consumers build up associations between certain foods (such as chocolate) and stopping, which the researchers describe as ‘effectively putting the brakes on your eating behaviour’.

“This won’t stop you from eating these foods completely, but it will give

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