cassandraleong Feb 9, 2012

We’ve gotten lots of compliments on our snazzy Massive Health jackets.

It’s our identifying trait; that helps you spot us from afar at conferences, or on the streets of San Francisco! I love how they’re so warm and comfy. So we thought we’d share our little secret.

The jackets are actually from Patagonia: The Better Sweater BLK-155 Jacket. Pro-tip, nice savings if you order the jackets directly from Corporate Sales and not the local retail locations.

Want to get in touch? Drop us a note/tweet and we’ll pass you their contact.

 Our beautiful embroidered logos are done by Jaron Logo (at 4th and Harrison in San Francisco, near our office). They’re open from 9am -5pm Mon- Fri. They’re great people, with really quick turnaround time. We’ve never had a problem. There’s a one-time set up fee for the embroidery at Jaron, in addition to the per-item fee. You can email them at infodesk@jaronlogo.com

Now you can show us your awesome jackets. You’re welcome ;)

You may have seen some of our loyal users and friends wearing Massive Health t-shirts… but the only way to get a jawdropping Massive Health jacket is if you come work here. Interested in joining the team?

Check out our open positions: Front-end engineers, back-end engineers and visual designers.

cassandraleong Feb 7, 2012

The Eatery’s all about showing the big-picture breakdown of our eating habits and identifying where you can start making changes.

Have you ever had conversations through The Eatery with other users?  I certainly have!

I love it when I get involved in a fascinating conversation about healthy food with other Eatery users. Or get an inspiring wholesome idea or recipe from the meals appearing in my Feed or in Fit or Fat. I especially like how its just so easy to reach out to any Eatery user and ask about a delicious meal!

I’ve always been interested in the raw food movement. It’s intriguing how you can make great meals without any heating whatsoever. A few days back I saw that Vanessa (one of The Eatery users whom I follow) had posted a really pretty picture of a raw homemade ‘tart’ with coconut oil, vanilla, almond with organic fresh berries. How can you not resist that? Of course, I immediately commented and asked how she made it. She was so sweet about it, and gave me the recipe:

Super super easy! Take a few cups of raw walnuts and pecans, take about four raw dates and put into a food processor. Stop at the consistency you want the “dough” to be in (crunchy or smoother). Then form in a tart pan, refrigerate for an hour or so, add the filling and enjoy.

By the way, Vanessa’s one of my favorite users on The Eatery and I’m always looking forward to seeing her meals in my feed because she does really creative variations of all kinds of health foods. She blogs here too, and incidentally just did a great post on this same dish (with raw fudge cacao fudge too).

An excerpt below:

Here is what you need:

• 1 cup of raw pecans
• 1 cup of raw walnuts
• 1 teaspoon of ground vanilla (click to see where I get mine) or vanilla extract
• 1 heaping tablespoon of raw coconut oil 
• 1 pinch of pink sea salt
• 4-5 organic dates (honey or medjool)
• Fresh berries, apples, coconut or whatever else that you would like to have for the filling

Thought I’d share the recipe here, enjoy!

Interested in coming onboard The Eatery? You can download it for free at the App Store. We also set up our FAQ page recently!

azaaza Jan 27, 2012

The politics of eating is a funny thing.

At Massive Health, we talk about the power of feedback loops to change behavior. The answer to why they work is nuanced. Boiled down, though, it’s simple: our brains are wired to reward us for learning patterns. When there isn’t a good feedback loop, we still draw conclusions, but they are much less likely to be the right ones. One of the reasons there are so many diets (yep, over 100 named ones) is that it’s hard to figure out what works. The lag between eating a certain way and the way it affects your body is long.

There’s a lot of research on eating both questionable and valid. One of the reasons we love building The Eatery is that, for the first time, it gives insight into the way people eat at massive scale. We hope to be able to start answering some of these questions with that big-data buzz word.

Yesterday, we released an infographic that got people talking. A lot. It has a bold claim: eating fat doesn’t make you fat. With all the questionable data on eating, where did we get ours? A lot of it came from a book “Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes, which is a shorter version of his much longer literature-review book “Good Calories, Bad Calories”. Both are great books (the first has 18 pages of sources) and we definitely recommend people read it. Those weren’t the only sources, however. Here are the primary sources we used behind the infographic.

Sources and Resources

• Gardner, C.D., A. Liazand, S. Alhassan, et al. 2007. “Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women: The A TO Z Weight Loss Study, a Randomized Trial.” Journal of the American Medical Association. Mar 7;297(9):969-77.
• Ernst, N. D., and R. I. Levy. 1984. “Diet and Cardiovascular Disease.” In Present Knowledge in Nutrition, 5th ed., ed. R. E. Olson, H. P. Broquist, C. O. Chichester, et al., pp. 724-39. Washington, D.C.: Nutrition Foundation.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2000. “Major Trends in U.S. Food Supply, 1909-99.” Food Review. Jan.-April; 23(1):8-15.
• Jenkins, D. J., C. W. Kendall, L. S. Augustin, et al. 2002. “Glycemic Index: Overview of Implications in Health and Disease.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Jul; 76(1):266S-73S.
• Johnson, R.K., L. J. Appel, M Brands, et al. 2009. “Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association.” Circulation. Sep 15;120(11):1011-20.”
• Astwood, E.B. 1962. “The Heritage of Corpulence.” Endocrinology. Aug;71:337-41.
• Wertheimer, E and Shapiro, B. 1948. The Physiology of Adipose Tissue. Physiological Reviews. Oct;28(4):451-64.
• Mayer, J. 1968. Overweight: Causes, Cost, and Control. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
• Wilder, R. M., and W.L. Wilbur. 1938. “Diseases of Metabolism and Nutrition.” Archives of Internal Medicine. Feb; 61:297-65.
• Frayn, K. N., F. Karpe, B. A. Fielding, I. A. Macdonald, and S. W. Coppack. 2003. “Integrative Physiology of Human Adipose Tissue.” International Journal of Obesity. Aug;27(8):875-88.
• Berson, S.A., and R.S. Yalow. 1970. “Insulin ‘Antagonists’ and Insulin Resistance.” In Diabetes Mellitus: Theory and Practice, ed. M. Ellenberg and H. Rifkin, pp. 388-423. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Lustig R. 2006. The ‘skinny’ on childhood obesity: how our western environment starves kids’ brains. Pediatric Annals. Dec;35(12):898-902, 905-7.
• Lustig R., Sen S., and Soberman J.E. et al. 2004. Obesity, leptin resistance, and the effects of insulin reduction. International Journal of Obesity And Related Metabolic Disorders. Oct;28(10):1344-8.

andrewjrosenthal Jan 26, 2012

A few conclusions:

• Eating fat doesn’t actually make us fat.  It’s the insulin cycle, triggered by eating carbohydrates. 
• The easily-digestible carbs like refined flour, soda, and potatoes are the worst offenders.
• For weight-loss, a low-carb diet is a lot more effective than a low-fat, high-carb one.

Using The Eatery app is one of the best ways to track and manage your carb intake.

Eating right is hard. We make it easier.

Lots of apps tell you what you ate. Only the Eatery can tell you how you eat.

Download the latest version of The Eatery here!

cassandraleong Jan 24, 2012

One of the awesome things about Massive Health is that we get a whole carton of fresh, organic fruit from TheFruitGuys delivered every Monday! Imagine walking into the office with a delectable array of seasonal fruit at our desks, it’s a lovely start to the week.

I love fruit, but sometimes I grab a fruit bar instead for a quick and convenient snack. The ones that we like in the office are from Gorge Delights; we first discovered them at a ski lodge in Oregon, near where they’re made. I love these.  Afterall, they’re quick, portable and I don’t get the problem of eating around the core or dripping juice all over my desk. They taste good too, so they’re a really good alternative to fruit. Even better, the label screams

ALL NATURAL
No added sugars
Wheat, dairy, nut & gluten free
Fat-free
Low sodium
Good source of fiber
No cholesterol

What’s not to love? However I’ve been having a nagging suspicion lately about fruit bars (especially after someone on The Eatery said they contain lots of sugar). I mean,  yes, it’s just fruit, so it has to be healthy with all these perks (plus a 78% rating is not bad). But it really does sound too good to be true.

The ingredients of my Apple Blueberry bar read apple puree, apple concentrate, blueberry concentrate.

Turns out that puree and concentrate contain a lot more sugar than that found naturally in fruit. A strawberry fruit bar has a sugar content of 72% while a fresh strawberry has about 5%.  Although looking back, that makes perfect sense, but it just never crossed my mind.

In addition, with pulp taken out during the fruit product process, fiber is lost. For example, 1 cup of whole strawberries has 46 calories and 2.9 g fiber, just 6 more calories but about six times the fiber as values in 1/4 cup of puree.

Ugh, what about dried fruit? Yes, they’re chock-full of all the good antioxidants, nutrients and fiber (especially raisins, prunes, figs and dates) of fresh fruit. Pre-treatment of dried fruit with ingredients like sulfur dioxide help protect the vitamin A content too.

Furthermore, while sulfur dioxide preserves antioxidants, it can destroy the vitamin thiamin, which is important for the metabolism of carbohydrates. Boiling or steaming that occurs before fruits are dried may also destroy vitamin C, an immune-system booster.

Conversely, fresh fruit keep those hunger pangs at bay, with less calories, due to a higher water content. Do take note that under-ripe or over-ripe fruit compromise on nutrients and the use of pesticides further decrease the amount of antioxidants in the fruit.

cassandraleong Jan 23, 2012

The entire team at Massive Health loves hearing from our users.  I spend the first part of every day going through the emails, tweets, Facebook messages, and other feedback we get from people.  It’s my favorite part of the day!

Thanks for all the feedback on what you’re loving about The Eatery, and for the questions about potential features and suggestions on what would help you eat healthier. 

It’s been really constructive.  And to those of you who have shared more in-depth user testimonials, thanks!  Earlier this week, I sat down with our entire team and shared stories, pictures, and feedback from three of our users Julian (Ozone, NY), Claire (Lafayette, Louisiana) and Vanessa (Boulder, Colorado). (Want to tell us about how you use The Eatery?  Just let me know.)

I use The Eatery every day.  And sometimes I forget to photograph a meal until after I eat it. Or my iPhone battery runs down.  And I’m not the only one.  It turns out that a lot of people were having a similar problem, and some creatively found a solution for when they forget to photograph a meal:

 And the best for the last

Its frustrating when I wipe my plate clean after a delicious meal only to realize there’s nothing left to snap. Ahh, there goes my perfect food recording streak! And I’m sure you’ve faced the same problem too. You don’t have time to summon your inner Picasso or scrawl food love notes all the time, plus it gets a tad messy.

So in our latest update  we introduced a neat little feature which allows you to type the details of a meal, if you forget to photograph the plate.

Now you can choose if you want to snap a picture or add text instead.

Let us know how it’s working out for you. As always, we love hearing from users! It’s our little Thank you for your marvelous feedback.

We also set up our FAQ page recently, which you may find useful.

The Eatery provides a big-picture breakdown of your habits including your strengths, weaknesses, and the best places to start making a change. You can download it for free at the App Store.

tjparker Jan 9, 2012

If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably wondered at one time or another how eating patterns vary across the globe. For our first post on the matter, we’ve decided to contrast how Londoners begin their day compared with those who make San Francisco their home. 

If you look at the following chart, you can see a couple of relevant trends. The first is that Londoners start off their day with an unhealthier breakfast, but quickly surpass their SF counterparts and remain healthier throughout the course of the day, until a substantial dip around dinner. At that point both cities stay neck and neck for the remainder of the night. 

Another interesting comparison is an anecdotal look at the individual food items snapped. An item that we only saw from our London users was hot cross buns. In this particular instance, our users rated this meal a paltry 42.5%. 

Hot Cross Bun - London, England

The two cultures also have differing definitions of particular foods. As an example, some meals in London tagged as “porridge” would be considered oatmeal in San Francisco (of course not all porridge is the same as oatmeal). Also, the two cultures seem to have a very different idea of what exactly constitutes a muffin.

Homemade Blueberry Muffin - San Francisco, CA

Fruit Muffin with Honey - London, England

Over the last week, fruit was 29% more prevalent in breakfast foods in London than San Francisco, but prevalence of eggs was nearly identical. 

Grapefruit - London, England

Scrambled Eggs, Chorizo, Feta, Squash - San Francisco, CA

In general, we were expecting to find a quantifiable difference in the way people in these two cities, 5000 miles apart, approached eating breakfast. What we found was there was actually more similarities than differences. 

You can download the latest version of our app, The Eatery, here. 

cassandraleong Jan 6, 2012

There’s nothing like a good coffee to perk us up in the middle of a draining meeting or a groggy afternoon. 

My favorite’s the mocha breve from the Creamery. 

Thanks to my co-workers, the barista adorned my coffee cup with a heart and fancy writing that day. It’s an occasional treat when someone does a coffee run, as I usually eschew it for some nice tea. 

Tea has that perk me up effect with the added benefit of being healthy and slimming, or so I’d like to believe.

credits:tea.co.uk 

Well I finally decided to do an inves(tea)gation (ha ha) to see whether I’m really making the right choices. Plus, I’m sure you want to know, and you’ll have something to weigh in on the next time you find yourself in a ‘So, are you a coffee or tea drinker?’ conversation.

In the United States, it seems like coffee is the drink of choice, with Americans consuming 400 million cups of coffee daily. Among coffee drinkers, the average consumption is 3.2 cups a day.

With its invigorating properties, the caffeine in coffee promotes blood circulation, mental stimulation and cognitive functionality. We all know that. But I was surprised to discover that coffee also has other health benefits. Certain components of caffeine ameliorate oxidative stress because of its ability to induce mRNA and protein expression. Coffee also contains cafestol and kahweol which act as a safeguard against some malignant cells by modulating the detoxifying enzymes. As such, numerous research has revealed an inverse correlation between coffee and diabetes, various cancers, Parkinsonism and Alzheimer’s disease. 

In addition, with a high concentration of flavonoids, caffeine also inhibits cardiovascular disease by reducing the oxidation of low-density lipid (LDL) cholesterol. It thus protects against heart attack and stroke. Other anti-oxidant rich ingredients in coffee such as chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid further slow down inflammation, providing protection from the hazardous effect of free radicals and against endothelial damage. However, some studies have also found that taking coffee in large amounts can increase cholesterol.

Which has more antioxidants then? There’s no clearcut answer. Studies have found that coffee contains more antioxidants than tea, while others express the opposite result. What’s really important is the actual absorption and hence availability of these compounds, and unfortunately that’s poorly understood.  

 Okay, so is coffee really more fattening than tea? No. They’re both zero calorie beverages. So theoretically, it seems that either one consumed plain is fine, as long as they’re savored in moderation.

 But in reality, that’s not as well-loved as our Starbucks drink with creamer, milk and sugar and yes, that’s where we’re piling on the calories.