My Favorite Gluten Free Apps for your Smart Phone… Do you have any of these??
Over the past few years there have been some huge advances in accommodating those of us with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity and I thought I would share with you some of my favorite smart phone apps to find gluten free food, restaurants and other products.
This list of my top 5 include label reading via scanning the bar code on the food when you are out grocery shopping, lists of safe, unsafe and possible unsafe ingredients to look for when reading labels, restaurants, caterers and fast food places to find gluten free options. Even though I am not a huge fan of eating out, I understand that people are busy and always on the go! I myself am one of them, but I often pack my food with me. I got into that habit because 6 years ago when I was diagnosed there really was not much out there that I was certain I could eat when I was out, so I prepared and brought most of my food with me and it just continues to be a habit daily. However, I do find it rather exciting to see the growth in accommodations to the gluten free community.
Check out my list and why I love these apps so much!
1. In R Food:
- This app was built buy a team of dietitians, which are the experts in the field of nutrition so, there is a GREAT reason why I love this app. This app lets you scan a products bar code or simply just search a product within the app and allows you not only to view every ingredient in that particular product, but also defines the ingredients for you! So no more wondering what the hey you are eating when you cannot pronounce the ingredient (my rule of thumb is: if you cannot pronounce the ingredient, don’t buy it, it’s not good for you).
- This app contains:
- 250,000+ products
- Allows you to view color coded ingredients that inform you of their nutritional quality.
- Flags Allergens, allows you to personalize to your specific dietary needs. This app will alert you to ingredients that are not safe for you to consume based on your specific set allergens.
- If you are diabetic or on a heart healthy dietary plan this app also allows you to customize this as well.
- Allows you to review and check every ingredient and product that you consume on a regular basis by selecting “Eat this” on your favorite products.
- This app is a movement to educate and practice healthy eating choices. READ YOUR LABEL CAREFULLY!
- This app is $2.99 and well worth it!
2. Is that Gluten Free?
- This app contains 14,800 verified gluten free products and over 360 different brands that are gluten free.
- You are able to search through the ingredients individually and also search by category by safe, unsafe and possible unsafe ingredients to watch out for when you are grocery shopping.
- You can search through by product name, brand or category. Great for your grocery store runs!
- App costs $7.99 and has free updates every month.
3. Find me Gluten Free:
- This app is designed by the Gluten Intolerance Group which also certifies and tests different products, restaurants, etc that are gluten free.
- Rest assured that if it is listed in this app it is definitely gluten free.
- It is able to search places around you that are gluten free.
- App is FREE.
4. Gluten Free Registry:
- This database inside of the app contains lists of gluten friendly restaurants, coffee houses, grocers, caterers and many more.
- The database also contains private grocers as well so if the grocery store that you frequent is privately owned, it will be in there as well.
- This app is $1.99 and very useful for traveling and on the go.
5. Gluten Free Restaurant Items:
- This app contains 125 chain restaurants that offer gluten free menu items.
- When you search the restaurant it will list the menu items that are gluten free.
- You are able to search within a 30 mile radius to find gluten friendly restaurants.
- This app is $1.99 and updates every month!
I have all of these apps on my phone and use them quite a bit. They come in handy when I am out traveling and am unfamiliar with the area’s gluten free accommodations. I love that all of these apps are constantly kept up to date with the newest products and restaurants around. If you are gluten intolerant I recommend at least one of these apps to have on your phone when you are in a pinch and are not sure what and where you are safe to eat!
Label reading and becoming educated about what is in our food and how to figure out what you are putting in your body is something that I am very passionate about, knowing what you are eating and how these different ingredients in our food today can really determine your overall health. Just because the box says its “healthy” doesn’t mean it is!
I LOVE Find Me Gluten Free and use it all the time. However, I have found places on there that aren’t REALLY great or even good at gluten-free. I understand that it relies on users submitting accurate information, so obviously it won’t always be perfect but it really is a lifesaver! Also, there are obviously restaurants that DO gluten-free and aren’t included on FindMeGlutenFree (in which case I do my part and add them 🙂 LOL)
It’s especially awesome when preparing to travel to an area you’re not extremely familiar with.
I love using it, (FindMEGlutenFree) especially for travel! It helps to ease my mind a little bit about trying to find gluten free places to eat in an unfamiliar area. I have noticed that some of the restaurants are not on there and I add them as well 🙂 ! Team work! ha!