App lets friends rate meals

A free iPhone app called Pic Healthy lets users take pictures of their meals, rate them as healthful or tasty or both, then share this information with friends and strangers. Users are also encouraged to rate the healthfulness of other people’s meals on a scale of one to five apples. “The ability to review the pictures of what you eat challenges you to become a healthier eater, and the social aspect of posting your photos for your friends and other followers to see and comment on adds that extra pressure to choose healthy foods,” says John de Souza, president and chief executive of the social network MedHelp, which helped create Pic Healthy. The photos are small and can be blurry, and people’s written descriptions aren’t always detailed, so you can end up rating an amorphous blob that may or may not be a baked potato. Pic Healthy also works with the iPad and iPod Touch.