Weight loss in your... ear!

There are loads of gadgets on the market to monitor your movements and control what you eat... I recently wrote about one that gives you electric shocks to help you acquire healthy habits.  My personal favorite for the moment is the Jawbone UP, but this type of gadget is very personal and everyone has a favorite.

However, in June 2015 a new gadget is coming...  But instead of wearing this one on your wrist or concealing it in your pocket... you wear it in your EAR!

The BitBite is a tiny device made from plastic and aluminum that fits snuggly inside your ear, tracking the rate at which you chew and documenting the foods you eat.

How can something in your ear document the foods you eat?  Well, it's quite simple... you have to talk to it!  Not only will people be sitting in restaurants and taking photos of their food but they will be munching away while squeaking:

"Chicken salad."

"Steak."

"Beans."

I can hear the laughter already!

But as food, exercise and healthy living finally become more and more important, this little gadget might just be on to something.  It has an estimated retail price of $159 when it launches and also offers real-time suggestions about nutrition and health while you eat.

According to it's website, the BitBite works by recording incoming sounds through a microphone and sensors that detect pattern recognition.  Through sound analysis, it can detect what and how much you have eaten, tracking the number of calories as well.  Alternatively, it can document what you eat when you say the food out loud.

As you wear it when you eat (it has a wrist band where you can store it when you aren't eating) it also learns you eating habits to determine whether you could benefit from eating more or less often, and also where and when you eat the most.

It is connected to an app which transfers the data into an automatic diet diary helping you to monitor your eating habits and daily calorie intake.  The BitBite's aim is to improve your nutrition by motivating you to chew more, eat more slowly and eat at regular intervals.

This gadget was founded by Etai Granit, who came up with the idea after he found it difficult to keep a food diary on the advice of his dietitian.

"I tried using all those wearable bands and stickers for counting my bites, but they were incredibly inaccurate, and not very comfortable," he explains, "That's when I thought of creating a user-friendly automated dietary recording system (ADRS).  As it turns out, this device is the most comfortable and produces the most accurate results of all dietary wearables... I finally feel like I have my own personal dietitian with me wherever I go."

Nutrition adviser Dr. David L. Katz, believes the BitBite may well revolutionize how we eat and may even help in fighting the obesity epidemic.

"It provides a novel and empowering way to address healthful eating and weight control," he said, "By focusing on how as opposed to the what of healthful eating, BitBite has the potential to help replace short-term dieting with lasting improvements in eating, lifestyle and health."

There is a huge obesity epidemic which is costing health providers huge amounts of money and there is so much we can do ourselves to avoid the problem, maybe this tiny device will help.

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com