For those of us with smartphones, there are so many apps out there designed to make healthy living easier, and for busy moms, what could be better?! Here is my list of top (free) apps that will help you reduce toxins from just about everything you put in or on your body.
Think Dirty Shop Clean
Uses: Beauty Product Reviews
Think Dirty Shop Clean is one of my favorite apps to check and compare beauty products and their levels of toxins. It’s very easy to use and offers a lot of information about each product. All you have to do is scan the product barcode and the app will rate the product on a scale from 0-10 (zero being the best and 10 being the worst) based on its toxicity level.
What I really love is that it breaks it down and validates why it’s giving that rating based on three main areas: carcinogenicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, and allergies and immunotoxicities. It then gives you information on what ingredients are toxic and why, and offers similar products you can use that are better options based on toxicity level. Even if they don’t have a product in their database, they have a very simple option to scan and add a product for them to analyze.
It also tracks your scanning history so you can keep track of what products you should use and those you should avoid. If you find a healthier product you want to purchase, there is a “shop” button that links the apps to Amazon so that you can easily purchase the item.
Fooducate
Uses: Food and Drink Reviews
Fooducate is a great app that offers more than one feature of healthy living. My favorite tool is their scanning feature that allows you to scan various foods and see how healthy the product is. The app rates the food or drink with a grading system from A-D (just like in school) and then explains why it received that rating. For example, it will explain that the product includes a certain chemical that may not be good for you, or what kind of added flavors are included and how they affect you.
Fooducate also incorporates other features like tracking your height and weight, your meals consumed and your nutrient levels, allowing you to set weight loss goals and track your progress. If you input this data, it will give you a separate rating when you scan foods called Food Points that will rate the products based on your health goals. It offers alternatives to that product as well so you can find other options that might be healthier for you.
GoodGuide
Uses: Cleaning and Household Product Reviews, Food Reviews, Beauty Product Reviews, Baby Product Reviews
GoodGuide is really an all-inclusive app that includes ratings for cleaning products, foods, beauty products and baby products. Similar to the other apps mentioned, it rates each product after scanning the barcode on a scale from 0-10 (zero being the worst, 10 being the best). Even if they don’t have a review for any given product, if they have reviewed a product by the same company, you can read their reviews of the company and still get information about the brand.
You can also browse the various categories to find products that are considered to have a 10 rating. It breaks down the rating and lists the ingredients used, any certifications the company and/or product holds, as well as alternate products that have received their top rating. It also allows users to individually review the products for others to see and reference.
My favorite part of using this app is it’s versatility to offer suggestions of top products, making it easier than ever to build a shopping list of healthy products to buy.
EWG’s Healthy Living
Uses: Food Reviews, Beauty Product Reviews, Cleaning Products Reviews
I love EWG’s line of apps and tools for healthy living. Their Healthy Living app is a relatively new development that combines their Food Scores database and their Skin Deep resource to provide an all-inclusive app you can use to scan barcodes, and search for products that meet their strict health guidelines.
Once you scan a food product, it will give you a breakdown of the level of nutrient concern, ingredient concern and processing concern. These meters give you an understanding of whether there are any questionable nutrients or ingredients and how much the food is processed. It has a special focus against products that are not organic as well as those that are genetically modified, or contain food additives.
With beauty products, the meters and measures are a little different. They scan products for their allergy concern (high-allergy ingredients), cancer concern (carcinogenic ingredients), and developmental concern (ingredients that affect hormone and reproductive capability). It also breaks down the ingredients and individually rates each one for their potential harm.
Dirty Dozen
Uses: Produce Toxin Reviews
If you’ve ever heard about the “Dirty Dozen” and the “Clean Fifteen” lists that come out every year, you’re already familiar with this app. It’s a guide to knowing the cleanest and dirtiest produce based on the pesticides and toxins used to grow and harvest these fruits and veggies. It also includes an extended version of the lists that shows virtually every fruit and vegetable and where they fall on the spectrum of toxicity.
The app supports it’s ratings with articles that outline the studies used and how many samples were used to obtain their information and to make the determinations. They also update their information as farming trends change and give you new information as it becomes available.
Detox Me
Uses: Household Product Reviews, Food Reviews, Cleaning Product Reviews, Beauty Product Reviews
Detox Me is a very useful app that doesn’t scan products like the other apps mentioned, but instead, it breaks down six categories including foods, children’s products, clothing, cleaning products, household products and beauty products and gives tips on what to look for as far as what kinds of toxins they may contain.
There are also options to choose goals you are working on and positive changes you want to make and the app will remind you every two weeks (or however often you would like) to help you achieve those goals.
Non-GMO Project Shopping Guide
Uses: Foods and Beverages, Beauty Products, Baby Products
The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization that acts as a third-party company to evaluate and label companies and products that do not use genetically-modified foods and products and labels them accordingly. The Shopping Guide app is a great reference tool to know whether or not the brands or products you are purchasing are Non-GMO. Essentially, genetically-modified foods are foods that have been taken from their original form and changed through processing, altering the very chemical make up of the food and therefore adversely affecting those who consume or use them. In other words, you’re not eating corn or wheat or whatever food or product in its natural form.
The Shopping Guide app is so easy to use because it has a list of products you can search through by category, or brand. For example, if you wanted to search for baby food that is non-gmo, you would just use the categories option, click the “Baby Food and Infant Formula” option and see a list of non-gmo brands that carry either baby food or infant formula. Then, you can click on the individual companies and see what specific products they offer that are non-gmo.
You can also search by brand with an alphabetical directory of non-gmo brands and see what products they offer. Once you gain a good understanding of common brands you use and see often in your grocery store, you can make better decisions about buying non-gmo for your family.
If you want a faster route, you can also scan the barcode of various products and if it is found in their database, the product will appear and indicate whether it carries the non-gmo label or not.
Well, there you have it! My list of top apps to make healthy living just a little easier for you and your family. Though it may seem a little daunting at first to understand all of this information, once you get the hang of it, you can start to develop your own “safe list” of healthy foods and products your family likes and uses often, so you don’t have to do research every time you go to the grocery store. I’ve been doing this for years and I can pretty quickly tell what I’m looking for when I go to the store. The most you have to research at that point is when you want to try something new and then you’re usually only looking up one thing at a time. It makes life much easier and your family much healthier in the long run! Enjoy!
Disclaimer…This article contains products and brands that I use personally and support, but it in no way reflects the opinions or views of the companies mentioned. All opinions and statements are my own.