Irregular eating with adverse consequences is becoming more common although temporal aspects of eating are an integral part of healthy eating. Regular eating has been associated with good diet quality and more successful weight control. VTT developed a mobile App ‘Button’ for consumers to self-monitor their eating behaviour.

Thirty-day field experiment with 74 participants run by VTT and University of Eastern Finland explored the influence of self-monitoring of daily eating pattern on eating rhythm, eating behaviour tendencies, and the underlying motives and attitudes related to eating.

The results showed that the average interval between meals increased and the number of daily eating occasions decreased. The results indicate that a simple self-monitoring tool is able to draw user’s attention to eating and is a potential tool to aid people to change their eating rhythm and gain vitality through healthier eating. The study was conducted as part of Vital Selfie project funded by Business Finland.

Reference:
Pentikäinen S, Tanner H, Karhunen L, Kolehmainen M, Poutanen K, Pennanen K. Mobile Phone App for Self-Monitoring of Eating Rhythm: Field Experiment. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2019;7(3):e11490 https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/3/e11490/

For more information:
saara.pentikainen@vtt.fi