iPad game lets kids virtually pulverize food to learn about nutrition

An award-winning mobile game called Smash Your Food is making strides among kids by allowing them to virtually smash junk food into oblivion, aiming for both fun and gross-out appeal, all while learning about nutrition.

Created by Washington-based nutritionist Marta De Wulf, the game was released in late March as an iPad app and is a winner in US First Lady Michelle Obama's "Apps for Health Kids" Competition, part of her Let's Move! initiative. The app is available in free and paid versions and for the web, and versions for iPhone and iPod Touch are coming this summer.

The idea of the game is to let kids guess the amount of sugar, salt, and oil in their favorite foods -- such as burgers, fries, and sodas -- then smash them to learn the totals. As players advance in the game, they'll have a chance to guess what is in more complex foods, and eventually entire meals.

"It's kind of playful and it's fun, and it doesn't hit you over the head," Adam Drewnowski, Ph.D., director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research, told The Seattle Times this week. "It helps families make small, incremental changes so that they eat a little bit better."

The free version includes five foods; the $2.99 version includes 40 foods and meals. "So far, more than 140,000 foods have been smashed around the world," according to The Seattle Times.

Meanwhile, another app game recently launched that hopes to inspire overweight teens to get active. Dubbed Zamzee, the game comes equipped with a hip-worn sensor that tracks kids' movements and awards physical activity with points that they can upload to the Zamzee web portal.

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