Google Gets Healthy

Google's latest voice-interactive Google Search app can now help users get nutritional details for more than 1,000 food items and meals, all by asking Google Search for help.

Nutritional Data Added to Google Search Results

The new feature was unveiled in blog post by Ilya Mezheritsky, the product manager for the app, on the Google Inside Search Blog.

Google Nutritional Data

To conduct such searches, users can tap the microphone icon on the Google Search app and then "simply ask, 'How much protein is in a banana?' or 'How many calories are in an avocado?' and get your answer right away."

The Google Search app will then answer to your nutritional question and provide more details on what you are searching to find. Google have said “This new nutritional information builds on our work on the Knowledge Graph, which brings together all kinds of information from across the web that wasn't easily accessible. The graph helps us connect things that are related, even in cases when those foods have a completely different sounding name from what you asked. For example, when you ask for “summer squash carbs”, we include “courgette” as a relevant food in the dropdown, because it is a type of summer squash.

Here are a few examples:

Tempted by some popcorn at the movies? Ask "how many calories are in popcorn" and you'll get your answer. [Hint: it's 31 calories per cup]
Perplexed by a food label or recipe? Ask "what nutrients are in breadfruit?" or "is there sugar in granadilla?"
Big on a high protein diet? Ask "how many carbs in corn?" or simply search for [corn] and you'll see detailed nutrition info.
It will be interesting to see how comprehensive the information is and how it gets used. weight watchers beware – you can no longer hide from the facts!

Mobile availability

The Google Search apps which are available for Android, iPhone, iPad and Windows 8.