Functions of Nutrition Apps
The topic of nutrition permeates our entire lives. Everyone develops eating habits from childhood onward. Advertising constantly promotes new products. In the supermarket, we browse the endless variety on the shelves while shopping. And in a restaurant or in our own kitchen, our purchases ultimately become breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack. It's easy to make bad decisions.
Numerous nutrition apps promise to make food handling easier in the long term. This starts with choosing food in the supermarket. Hidden ingredients can quickly make a seemingly good product problematic. Or the nutritional information of a food isn't clearly labeled. Apps with barcode scanners can help with both of these problems.
It's also easy to underestimate the calorie count of food. With digital solutions, this doesn't have to be the case. Others quickly lose track of the foods they've already consumed and therefore eat an unbalanced and maybe even unhealthy diet. Digital food diaries offer a simple alternative.
Apps are tailored to specific users and offer different functions accordingly: Whether you want to lose weight, are pregnant, or simply want to live a healthier lifestyle – there's an app for everyone. But it's important to remember that these digital tools are no substitute for professional nutritional advice.
What Nutrition Apps are available?
There's a huge range of apps available in the areas of food, nutrition, and fitness. Here you can learn more about the different uses and see examples of frequently used apps:
For Shopping
A good diet starts with the right shopping list. If you plan healthy meals at home and then stick to your shopping list in the supermarket or online shop, you're already on the right track. Proven apps for this include Bring! and Migro. If you also want to shop sustainably, use EcoCheck, for example.
It's also important to know the ingredients. The Yuka app can help here. Simply scan the barcode with your smartphone in the supermarket, and all the ingredients will be listed. This also makes it easy to check whether a product is vegan, vegetarian, lactose-free, or contains gluten. Palm oil, microplastics, nanoparticles, and added sugar can also be identified.
Other useful apps include barcoo, NABU Siegel-Check, and WWF-Fischratgeber. The latter shows which fish stocks are best avoided when purchasing sustainable fish, as they are currently endangered. The NABU Siegel-Check app explains food labels and certifications and offers alternatives.
For a healthy Diet
There are numerous apps that offer cooking recommendations and recipes. How healthy the whole thing is, of course, depends on the individual recipe and the person's other eating habits. Recipes can help you eat fewer processed foods. And that's definitely a benefit, given the often problematic ingredients. The most popular recipe apps include Eat Smarter, FitTasteTic, KptnCook, Chefkoch, and Lecker.
Digital food diaries are also exciting. One example is What I Eat, the free app from the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food. It allows you to document your diet. At the end of the day, you can easily check how balanced your diet was—in other words, whether you ate foods from all categories of the food pyramid.
The app Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen supports people who want to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. Here, too, food choices throughout the day are documented by group, also to prevent malnutrition. Furthermore, the associated website contains a wealth of scientific information on individual foods.
In addition, there are numerous online services supported by health insurance companies that promote a healthier diet. You can find an overview of the corresponding health insurance benefits here.
For more Fitness
Nutrition and fitness go hand in hand. Therefore, many nutrition apps combine their functions with those of fitness monitoring and tracking. Yazio, for example, offers comprehensive nutrition and fitness tracking. Many predefined entries for athletic achievements can be integrated into a nutrition diary to build muscle and maintain or lose weight. The Lifesum app also helps combine personalized nutrition and fitness plans.
FDDB, one of the most popular nutrition apps in Germany, is particularly suitable for fitness beginners: The app helps you monitor your diet easily and effectively, provides detailed reports, and offers macronutrient analysis. This is especially important for athletes who want to control their protein intake.
For Weight Loss
Diets are a much-discussed topic of everyday life – including their supposed promises of healing and the frustration that comes with not losing weight. There's also the risk of achieving the opposite of the desired positive health effect. If you quickly regain the lost weight after a successful diet, the so-called yo-yo effect is blamed. In the worst case, you end up weighing more than you did before the diet. Long-term dietary changes toward a balanced diet and the avoidance of processed foods are crucial for weight loss success.
Apps can also provide guidance here. The most promising apps – those that have already proven their benefits – are even supported by health insurance companies and can be prescribed by doctors. After all, disease prevention is more effective than any therapy.
For example, the Zanadio app has been added to the directory of digital health applications and can now be prescribed by a doctor. The app is used to treat severe obesity—that is, anyone with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher. A medical diagnosis is required.
Which BMI corresponds to which weight class?
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The app MyNetDiary was named the best weight loss app of 2025 by US magazine Forbes. Lose It! is also very successful. The app allows users to effectively monitor their diet and fitness. The app is designed to support those affected in their daily lives and gradually guide them toward healthier habits. There are no restrictions; instead, users can set individual goals.
For Calorie counting/tracking
Of course, you can also use an app to count your daily calories and get a sense of your energy intake. Popular apps for this include FatSecret, Noom, and MyFitnessPal.
The three apps offer distinct features: FatSecret scores highly with precise tracking of diet progress. The Noom app, on the other hand, focuses not only on nutrition tracking but also on behavioral changes, combining nutrition and fitness tracking with psychological tips to promote long-term habits.
The most popular app is MyFitnessPal. It not only helps with calorie counting but also with tracking macronutrients such as fat, protein, and carbohydrates, and offers detailed analyses. MyFitnessPal is ideal for anyone who wants to easily and efficiently keep track of their nutrition and fitness.
Nutrition Apps and Health Insurance Companies
Statutory health insurance companies in Germany are increasingly investing in digital health applications, especially nutrition apps. With the introduction of the Digital Health Care Act (DVG), certain nutrition apps can be prescribed by doctors as digital health applications (DiGA). These prescription apps are fully covered by health insurance companies. For more information, speak to your health insurance company or medical professional.
Security and Data Protection
There are still a number of issues to consider when it comes to security and data protection. A 2016 study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) (CHARISMHA) examined the opportunities and risks of health apps.
How secure is the Data?
While the study recognized the great potential of health apps, maintaining data protection and the potential for data transfer to third parties pose major challenges. This also applies to nutrition apps.
As a rough guide, we recommend asking yourself the following questions before using the app: Who is behind the app? Is the privacy policy easy to find and transparent? It's a good sign if the app serves a charitable purpose rather than pursuing commercial goals.
How safe are the Health Tips?
The topic of safety also directly relates to your own health. Before using an app, it's important to be clear about what you expect from it and where its limitations lie. Is it part of a medical treatment or is it more of a lifestyle application? Apps can help you lead a healthier life with their targeted features, but no app can or should make all your decisions for you.
Industry associations can also provide additional information. Examples include the websites Appcheck, Afgis, and HealthOn. The following should already be included in the app description:
What to look for in health apps
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Review Apps critically – consider commercial Interests
The market for nutrition apps is growing rapidly. New applications, some with impressive promises, appear every day. It's important to remain critical: Not every app pursues exclusively health goals – often, commercial interests are paramount. Pay attention to who publishes the app, whether commercial products are being promoted, and how transparent the data processing is. A look at the imprint and privacy policy can reveal a lot about the reliability of an app. If possible, use apps recommended by independent bodies or supported by health insurance companies.
Scientifically proven Benefits – How do Nutrition Apps perform in Tests?
Similar to medications, the benefits of health apps should ideally be proven through studies. In 2019, the University of Konstanz conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of app-supported interventions on dietary behavior and overall health. Meta-analyses generally combine data from multiple individual studies on a specific topic—in this case, 41 individual studies with a total of 6,300 participants.
All 30 nutrition apps examined were found to have a positive effect. On average, the interventions led to improved eating behavior, weight loss, lower blood pressure, and improved blood lipid levels.
Of the 11 studies with the greatest effect, four included the use of the nutrition app as the sole intervention. The remaining seven also used other strategies such as group sessions, online tools, or coaching calls. The effect of both models—app alone or combined—was comparably large.
This is good news, but this conclusion should still be taken with a grain of salt. The later the follow-up examination of the study participants took place, the smaller the effect was. The initial successes ebbed over time and eventually became statistically insignificant. However, this pattern is evident not only with nutrition apps, but also with other strategies.
A snack, a restaurant, or even our own refrigerator beckons us around every corner. The challenge, therefore, lies in overcoming our "inner demons" not only in the short term, but also in the long term. It's definitely worth a try!
Conclusion: Nutrition apps offer an easy way to monitor your diet and set fitness goals. They are a useful tool, but success ultimately depends on your own discipline and motivation. It's important that the app fits your personal goals and needs. Furthermore, you should critically examine each app before using it.
The contents of this article reflect the current scientific status at the time of publication and were written to the best of our knowledge. Nevertheless, the article does not replace medical advice and diagnosis. If you have any questions, consult your general practitioner.
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