Cristina Galafate

Updated Wednesday, February 7, 2024-00:38

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Surely you remember those shocking images of the Cola Cao bottle filled with 70% sugar or the can of Red Bull next to 13 lumps. There is no doubt that the crusade of

Antonio Rodríguez

Estrada (Madrid, April 25, 1972) to

uncover the hidden sugar

in industrial foods stirred many consciences.

The image from sinAzucar.org where it is evident that Cola Cao is 70% sugar and much less cocoa.Antonio Rodríguez

This technology consultant, an enthusiast of healthy eating, sports nutrition and CrossFit, dedicated himself to taking well-lit photographs of products with their respective sugar equivalents. And surprise! It became clear and very visual that those

25 grams

of maximum daily consumption recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO),

5% of caloric intake,

were far exceeded in two bites or three drinks. And it was even present in foods intended for children.

At that time, in 2017,

walking around the supermarket scanning

packaging with your phone was not so normal. Today, with a consolidated community of

realfooders

in Spain or Yuka lovers in France, we are much more nutritionally educated. But there is still much to do. Either we do not read the labels where the proportions are indicated, but rather we get carried away by the front marketing, or we do not understand what exactly the quantities correspond to. Is it too much or too little for a yogurt to have 8 grams of protein and 3.5 of sugar? For this reason, the founder of sinAzucar.org has gone one step further with the development of

Carmen AI

, an application that he has been working on for two years.

Antonio Rodríguez, Madrid native behind the sinAzucar.org project and now also the Carmen AI.EM nutrition app

HOW DOES IT WORK

"So that people understand it in a simple way, it is a combination between Yuka, the

app

par excellence for cataloging food with a score, and the innovation of incorporating artificial intelligence in the style of ChatGPT. So a jar of tomato not only is good or bad and has these ingredients, but it incorporates

a comment that is easy to understand

for the user, who can continue asking for recipes or alternatives to that product in a real-time chat," explains the founder.

The idea arose because daily queries came to the sinAzucar.org platform and Rodríguez had to explain over and over again how labels are read: that the ingredients are ordered from greatest quantity in the product to least, and that if what is being purchased It doesn't match the first one on the list, it's bad. "But people want

a more human explanation

, one that speaks from you to you and without technicalities. That's why in Carmen we have worked a lot on humor, and they can tell you that this ultra-processed stuff is like a bad joke in a horror movie." , Explain.

DIFFERENCES WITH OTHER

APPS

One of the causes of the current obesity epidemic is the

abuse of industrial products

in the daily diet, he says, which is why he wants to improve consumption habits. "A score between zero and 10 is very good, but we are left with the idea that the product is good or bad, without taking into account the frequency with which we eat it or blaming the person. Occasionally, one can eat a croissant even if it is not optimal breakfast. The key is not to do it out of habit," he says.

And that is what differentiates this

app

, according to the creator, from asking nutritional questions in ChatGPT itself. The application developed by OpenAI already has some studies, such as that of researcher Yen Nhi Hoang, from the Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, where the tool comes out very well in providing information on the

content of calories and macronutrients

(carbohydrates, fats and proteins). "We have subjected Carmen to a kind of

psychological school

to educate her so that she is not so generalist. A simple comment about being overweight can lead to eating disorders, so our main challenge has been to give answers that do not cross out products or make people feel bad. people".

Screenshot of the chat where Carmen AI is questioned about Hacendado.EM's chocolate protein mousse

IT DOES NOT SUBSTITUTE NUTRITIONISTS

The objective is to reach the maximum number of people, admits Rodríguez, where obviously, "there are not the professionals who already know how to calculate macros, but rather a

general public

that feels somewhat lost when making their purchase because perhaps they are further away from scientific knowledge." It is available for download on iOS and Android.

Why Carmen? "It's

the name of my daughter

, a very curious girl who asks me if 'she can eat this' and I put myself at her level and try to explain to her consciously." Along with him on the team is José Luis Sáez, an expert in the development of food applications, and the team will increase with a visible face on social networks to, for example, detect the five best yogurts on Mercadona.

METHODOLOGY

Artificial intelligence comes to nutrition with Carmen AI.

Trying it, we have found the function of

providing menu ideas

with the food in the refrigerator that night very useful, since many times, we do not get out of jack, knight and king. Another contribution from Rodríguez is that the algorithms used are not based on the controversial Nutri-Score, like Yuka, which the industry already knows how to "cheat", as we have seen in the good evaluation of Chocapic by increasing its amount of fiber.

"We have based ourselves on the nutritional parameters of the WHO, where a yogurt with more than eight grams of sugar can no longer be advertised, and on the

Chilean stamps

, which is one of the most accepted nutritional standards internationally, as it warns of the critical ingredients for good dietary health.

An example of a query that we have carried out in the editorial office with a

hydrolyzed whey protein

gives us a five. Although he qualifies it for quality and flavor, he warns of the presence of secondary ingredients, such as sweeteners, which are not so healthy. We ask him for an alternative and he gives us natural whey protein. Recommended brands? "Naked Whey, Legion Whey+ and Isopure Whey Protein Isolate." Additionally, to give it a touch of flavor and more nutrients, it invites us to add peanut butter and a couple of fruits. In short, a complete answer that leaves us satisfied and wondering about the future of work...

As we always insist at ZEN, it is not the technology, but the use we make of it. The first thing we have to keep in mind with this type of applications or artificial intelligence is that they are not infallible. Furthermore, diet is a set where

other factors come into play, such as the person's lifestyle

(whether they exercise, their basal metabolism or daily caloric burning due to living, rest, activity...).

The functionalities it incorporates can help create a menu by providing ideas, or adapt to needs such as being vegan, but they do not replace in any case the guidelines that a health professional can provide. "Of course,

a diet has to be prescribed by a nutritionist

or endocrinologist, nor can you go to our

app

to lose weight just as you can't ask the internet or a friend," clarifies Rodríguez. Pending improvements that will be introduced over time, it will also be necessary to create certification standards to help consumers and organizations use applications that are based on scientifically rigorous testing. For now, it is an interesting support tool.