FODMAP Scanner App

Aside from the Calorie Journal, I also decided to experiment with a food scanner (which will be useful for the journal) and create another handy app that helps determine whether a particular food is FODMAP-friendly or not.

What is FODMAP?

FODMAP refers to a group of short-chain carbohydrates — naturally occurring sugar molecules that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine.

For people with Crohn’s disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), or other gut-related issues, a low-FODMAP diet is often recommended to reduce symptoms.

More details here: FODMAP diet and everything you need to know

I don’t have a diagnosed condition like that (yet), but experimenting with food has been super interesting and has genuinely helped me feel better.

Prioritizing the FODMAP app

I think I’ll release this app before the Calorie Journal since I’m once again realizing I’ve taken on too many projects at once — progressing bit by bit in all of them, and even LLMs aren’t saving me.

But this one is a smaller project, so I can ship it faster. Plus, I’m using some cool tech:

• Local AI model for food recognition: TFLite Flutter + Keras MobileNet
• I tested a bunch of pre-trained models, but local processing seems to work just fine.

This is my first time building an AI-powered app like this, so I’m learning a lot in the process! 😎

P.S.

I’m still testing how reliable this actually is — because, you know, sometimes the scanner spits out complete nonsense. 😅