Marathon Family Health Team is excited to announce the launch of the nutrition app, RxFood. This innovative tool is designed to help patients reach their nutritional goals and improve their overall health. For the next year, the use of RxFood will be available to a limited number of patients aged 18 years and older, free of charge.
What is RxFood?
New to MFHT, RxFood is a tool that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to evaluate nutrition. Instead of manually recording dietary intake, such as keeping a food journal, users can simply take pictures of their meals through the RxFood app. Then, the AI identifies each food item and offers feedback on diet quality. RxFood is personalized and the feedback it provides is geared to each individual and their dietary preferences or restrictions.
How does RxFood work?
Patients can use this free app on their phones to take pictures of the food they eat for at least 3 days. The app uses AI to analyze these photos and it creates a user-friendly report based on scientific evidence. This report gives information about diet quality, especially related to specific health conditions (i.e. diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.). The goal is to help individuals make meaningful and personalized improvements to their diet. The app also continues to offer support and tips for ongoing dietary improvements. The information that is put in the RxFood app is kept safe according to health information protection rules (PHIPA/HIPPA) and won’t be shared with others.
Why is MFHT implementing this tool?
There is so much nutrition information out there and it can be really tricky to determine what information is accurate and also what information is right for each individual. Our hope is that, in addition to an appointment with a healthcare provider, RxFood can provide personalized nutrition information and advice to users. 94% of users say RxFood helped them make meaningful nutrition changes, and 97% of users say RxFood is the easiest tracking platform to use. RxFood makes it fun and easy to track meals and meet nutrition goals!
How will healthcare providers use the information?
During appointments, healthcare providers may review the RxFood report (if available) based on the purpose of the visit. For instance, during a blood pressure check, our nursing team could look at the patient’s RxFood report and encourage them to make heart-healthy diet changes, like lowering their sodium intake. Other providers may use this information to determine areas of improvement that align with a patient’s health and nutrition goals and priorities.
How can you sign up or find more information?
If you are interested in signing up for RxFood, please give the Marathon Family Health Team a call at 807-229-3243 or send an email to [email protected]. More information can also be found on our Facebook & Instagram pages, as well as our website www.mfht.org.
RxFood Workshops
MFHT will be offering two workshops in our new group space, located to the right of the Marathon Library (formerly the COVID Assessment Centre), to help interested patients register for RxFood.
- Wednesday January 10th, 2024 at 12:15pm
- Wednesday January 24th, 2024 at 4:15pm
The first 15 minutes will include a brief presentation on RxFood, followed by time for us to show you how to download the app, help you register and teach you some tips and tricks for uploading your meals. These are drop-in events, so no registration is necessary!
Lindsay Nutbrown R.Kin
Lifestyle Medicine Coach
