Does not knowing the fat content of your morning breakfast keep you awake at night? Looking for a source you can trust to answer your calorie-control questions? Finally, Google is here to solve your dilemma.
The online giant has added another handy tool to its search engine: detailed nutritional information for a large variety of popular foods and beverages, available for both desktop and mobile.
The tool will list nutritional information for over 1000 types of food and drink – everything from basic staples such as fruit and vegetables, to more complex meals (as well as alcoholic beverages) - from the USDA National Nutrient Database.
Searching is a piece of cake
It can compare types of food, and list differences between, for example, types of avocado. The feature uses Knowledge Graph to connect foods that are related, even if it isn't obvious from their names or the search query.
Users can ask questions by either typing directly into the engine, or through voice commands via the Google search app or Google Chrome browser.
Answers to questions such as “How many calories in an apple?” or “How many grams of protein in an egg?” will be displayed in a panel above the linked search results.
Users can hear or view the answer to a specific question, see all nutrition information under an expansion, and be able to click through to related foods or scroll to different serving sizes and preparation methods.
The feature will be rolled out to US users over the next ten days, although the company intends to expand it to search engines in other regions. Google plans to add more foods and features over time, and will be making the nutrition search available in additional languages in the future.
Google described the development of the tool as an 'incredibly hard' challenge, and part of its initiative to encourage users to make smarter food and lifestyle choices. As last year's most popular nutrition-related search term was 'McDonald's calories', we can't say wanting to educate the masses about better dietary decisions is a bad thing.
The best thing since sliced bread?
Still, the accuracy of the feature for more intricate foods remains to be seen. Although claiming to work effectively for search terms such as 'burritos' or 'chow mein', we're curious as to how the tool can take into account the different and varying ingredients used in fully prepared meals.
The new service is unlikely to encourage Internet-addicted basement dwellers to overhaul their lifestyles, but for users wanting a quick and accurate assessment of what that slice of cake is really going to cost them, it's a great new feature.
Finally, it's important to remember that there are still commercial websites - such as CalorieKing and NutritionData - that have been offering this same information for years. Until Google rolls out its new search feature outside the US, users worldwide have plenty of resources to help guilt themselves into saying no to that extra slice of pizza.
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