9 ms·

I’m working on mehungry dot app that I launched last week. It’s the 1 hour mvp and after some positive feedback, now I’m working on my next milestones with tons

I’m working on mehungry dot app that I launched last week. It’s the 1 hour mvp and after some positive feedback, now I’m working on my next milestones with tons more features. My goal is to simplify healthy eating and improve nutrition habits. I asked people outside various grocery stores and most folks do not know how to read nutrition labels nor identify healthy foods. My dad was able to practice some healthier eating habits and get his BP from hypertension to normal. Please feel to reach out if you have any questions or advice for me. I’m new to this so I appreciate your message. YC videos have been instrumental for me as someone who is a self taught engineer and wants to build useful software.

shubb 4y ago
This looks useful, nice mvp. Assuming you have a normal diet are the recipes it generates pretty healthy?
sph 4y ago
As someone that has had high BP from their 20s, I would not trust any app to give me good advice, because I found that mainstream dietary advice, especially surrounding circulatory problems, is utter nonsense. In my deep dive into the world of low carb, I learned that elevated levels of fructose/uric acid reduce the synthesis of nitric oxide, a known vasodilator, among other mechanisms (did you know that the explosive nitroglycerin is an effective vasodilator?). High blood pressure is reversible by reducing the amount of insulin spikes and ingested simple sugars, and low carb is the most effective method. Yet most apps tend to pride themselves in "medically approved science here!", which means the usual story of eating less meat and saturated fat, and exercising more. "Leafy vegetables!" The problem is that medically approved science that your GP offers tends to be about 25 years out of date, so we're at least a generation away before we have apps that tell you to stop eating bread, cereals for breakfast and heaping bowls of fruit, but instead eating real, non-sugary foods and not to shy away from saturated fat. Now I am 50kg overweight than my first hypertensive diagnosis in my early 20s, and I have better blood pressure in about 2 weeks of eating fewer carbs than I did at the time when I was fit as a trout, but with tight arteries. And don't get me started on cholesterol and statins, because I'll be here all day. A link to get you started, if you want to base your app on up-to-date research: https://youtu.be/KlHPmJTihBc https://youtu.be/KlHPmJTihBc
- moneywoes 4y ago
  What is your diet like, especially protein? What about the type of carbs in oatmeal, those are better right?
- stevespang 4y ago
  [dead]
- stikit 4y ago
  I respect your enthusiasm and journey to get healthy. My experience is I went on a low fat, low simple carb, low sugar diet (commonly referred to as vegetarian) and lost over 30 pounds and reduced my LDL by 60 points over 4 months. I think it’s unfortunate that the Keto industry has chosen to brand themselves low carb/high fat. Rarely do they distinguish good fat from bad fat and good carbs from bad carbs. Keto gets its benefit from low simple carbs , not high saturated fats.
  - moneywoes 4y ago
    Is it possible to elaborate, what are these bad fats? Meat?
    - stikit 4y ago
      I avoid or minimize saturated and trans fats. When I do eat meat now I eat lean meats. Eat whole non-boxes foods, mostly vegetables,legumes,oat meal, brown rice, some whole wheat and fruits, some chicken , turkey fish, and eggs. Red meat and dairy rarely. Edit on initial reply: “Keto gets its benefit from avoiding low simple carbs , not from avoiding complex carbs or consuming high saturated fats.“
- dahart 4y ago
  This is an insanely valid point, and I didn’t realize til I just looked it up how many people have high blood pressure. But isn’t the problem with medically approved science assuming that any given metric or recommendation works for everyone? This happens on both ends; apps marketing advice based on some amount of science without specifying or understanding who it does and doesn’t apply to, and us consumers taking the “it’s science” to mean it’s supposed to work for us, and that if it doesn’t it means the science was wrong. Scientists and papers and doctors definitely do not agree on everything dietary, and any given scientist or doctor will give you different dietary advice if you have high vs low blood pressure. (But I guess it’s good to look at the things that all doctors and scientists do agree on.) Lowering saturated fat and meat intake and increasing fiber intake actually is generally good advice for a lot of people, especially if they’re overdoing it, but definitely not everyone and most especially not everyone with specific health issues. I’m a little surprised by the comment that advice to eat low carbs feels a generation away to you. I can’t think of specific apps, I guess, the only dietary apps I’ve used track macros and calories, and don’t make recommendations. But, practically everyone I know is highly carb aware and many have tried the Atkins diet for weight loss and/or high protein for workouts, with varying levels of success. It’s gone far enough that I’m starting to hear people talk about how we’re eating way too much protein, and that people misunderstand carbs (they build muscle as well). While that might be true for many, it’s definitely not considering high blood pressure, nor, for example, celiac or Crohn’s disease. I guess we always need to remember, both when making apps and when buying them, that whether the correlation a scientist found in a study works for someone may depend entirely on how closely this person matches the study cohort, and we have to remember that assuming we can project correlations found in a cohort to a wider audience has historically been one of the best ways to get science wrong, right?
brookside 4y ago
I agree with the other commenters. How do you know how to identify healthy foods? What is a "healthy" food?
bambax 4y ago
> most folks do not know how to read nutrition labels nor identify healthy foods My approach: healthier products aren't wrapped and don't have nutrition labels on them.
- QuiDortDine 4y ago
  That's a good rule of thumb, but I just don't have time to cook everything from scratch.
  - disgruntledphd2 4y ago
    Slow cookers are pretty great for this, as you can put stuff on in the morning before work, and eat as soon as you finish/return home.
    - satvikpendem 4y ago
      Instant pots as well, plus they're much faster. Meal prepping is also useful, just cook everything on Sunday and eat it throughout the week.
      - disgruntledphd2 4y ago
        They're electric pressure cookers, right? My slow cooker (Ninja 9 in 1) also does that, and it's super helpful for when I forget to put things on in the morning.
        bambax 4y ago
        Yes, and they're fantastic. Couldn't live without one now.

shubb 4y ago

This looks useful, nice mvp. Assuming you have a normal diet are the recipes it generates pretty healthy?

sph 4y ago

As someone that has had high BP from their 20s, I would not trust any app to give me good advice, because I found that mainstream dietary advice, especially surrounding circulatory problems, is utter nonsense. In my deep dive into the world of low carb, I learned that elevated levels of fructose/uric acid reduce the synthesis of nitric oxide, a known vasodilator, among other mechanisms (did you know that the explosive nitroglycerin is an effective vasodilator?). High blood pressure is reversible by reducing the amount of insulin spikes and ingested simple sugars, and low carb is the most effective method. Yet most apps tend to pride themselves in "medically approved science here!", which means the usual story of eating less meat and saturated fat, and exercising more. "Leafy vegetables!" The problem is that medically approved science that your GP offers tends to be about 25 years out of date, so we're at least a generation away before we have apps that tell you to stop eating bread, cereals for breakfast and heaping bowls of fruit, but instead eating real, non-sugary foods and not to shy away from saturated fat. Now I am 50kg overweight than my first hypertensive diagnosis in my early 20s, and I have better blood pressure in about 2 weeks of eating fewer carbs than I did at the time when I was fit as a trout, but with tight arteries. And don't get me started on cholesterol and statins, because I'll be here all day. A link to get you started, if you want to base your app on up-to-date research: https://youtu.be/KlHPmJTihBc https://youtu.be/KlHPmJTihBc

moneywoes 4y ago
What is your diet like, especially protein? What about the type of carbs in oatmeal, those are better right?
stevespang 4y ago
[dead]
stikit 4y ago
I respect your enthusiasm and journey to get healthy. My experience is I went on a low fat, low simple carb, low sugar diet (commonly referred to as vegetarian) and lost over 30 pounds and reduced my LDL by 60 points over 4 months. I think it’s unfortunate that the Keto industry has chosen to brand themselves low carb/high fat. Rarely do they distinguish good fat from bad fat and good carbs from bad carbs. Keto gets its benefit from low simple carbs , not high saturated fats.
- moneywoes 4y ago
  Is it possible to elaborate, what are these bad fats? Meat?
  - stikit 4y ago
    I avoid or minimize saturated and trans fats. When I do eat meat now I eat lean meats. Eat whole non-boxes foods, mostly vegetables,legumes,oat meal, brown rice, some whole wheat and fruits, some chicken , turkey fish, and eggs. Red meat and dairy rarely. Edit on initial reply: “Keto gets its benefit from avoiding low simple carbs , not from avoiding complex carbs or consuming high saturated fats.“
dahart 4y ago
This is an insanely valid point, and I didn’t realize til I just looked it up how many people have high blood pressure. But isn’t the problem with medically approved science assuming that any given metric or recommendation works for everyone? This happens on both ends; apps marketing advice based on some amount of science without specifying or understanding who it does and doesn’t apply to, and us consumers taking the “it’s science” to mean it’s supposed to work for us, and that if it doesn’t it means the science was wrong. Scientists and papers and doctors definitely do not agree on everything dietary, and any given scientist or doctor will give you different dietary advice if you have high vs low blood pressure. (But I guess it’s good to look at the things that all doctors and scientists do agree on.) Lowering saturated fat and meat intake and increasing fiber intake actually is generally good advice for a lot of people, especially if they’re overdoing it, but definitely not everyone and most especially not everyone with specific health issues. I’m a little surprised by the comment that advice to eat low carbs feels a generation away to you. I can’t think of specific apps, I guess, the only dietary apps I’ve used track macros and calories, and don’t make recommendations. But, practically everyone I know is highly carb aware and many have tried the Atkins diet for weight loss and/or high protein for workouts, with varying levels of success. It’s gone far enough that I’m starting to hear people talk about how we’re eating way too much protein, and that people misunderstand carbs (they build muscle as well). While that might be true for many, it’s definitely not considering high blood pressure, nor, for example, celiac or Crohn’s disease. I guess we always need to remember, both when making apps and when buying them, that whether the correlation a scientist found in a study works for someone may depend entirely on how closely this person matches the study cohort, and we have to remember that assuming we can project correlations found in a cohort to a wider audience has historically been one of the best ways to get science wrong, right?

brookside 4y ago

I agree with the other commenters. How do you know how to identify healthy foods? What is a "healthy" food?

bambax 4y ago

> most folks do not know how to read nutrition labels nor identify healthy foods My approach: healthier products aren't wrapped and don't have nutrition labels on them.

QuiDortDine 4y ago
That's a good rule of thumb, but I just don't have time to cook everything from scratch.
- disgruntledphd2 4y ago
  Slow cookers are pretty great for this, as you can put stuff on in the morning before work, and eat as soon as you finish/return home.
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    Instant pots as well, plus they're much faster. Meal prepping is also useful, just cook everything on Sunday and eat it throughout the week.
    - disgruntledphd2 4y ago
      They're electric pressure cookers, right? My slow cooker (Ninja 9 in 1) also does that, and it's super helpful for when I forget to put things on in the morning.
      - bambax 4y ago
        Yes, and they're fantastic. Couldn't live without one now.