I listen also to the Dr. Susan Mitchell, Nutrition Expert podcast, which is weekly and brief. There are sometimes some good tips in there.

I liked this week’s: if you’re in a fast food or casual dining restaurant chain, and they don’t have a nutrition guide handy, you can enter the restaurant and menu item as a text message in your cell phone and send to 34381 (Diet-1). It should return an automated message giving the calories, as well as grams of fat, carbs, and protein. She used a Panera sandwich as her example.

http://diet.com/mobile/ is the web site, where you can see other examples. Not a bad idea in a pinch, though you may pay for texting depending on your cell plan.

Cool!  Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
Julie

Is there a charge from the service? Are you signed up for the service automatically as soon as you text, be careful.

Cool idea. When Hubby is with me we look it up with his iPhone.

Bree

shawn - 24 February 2008 02:10 PM

Is there a charge from the service? Are you signed up for the service automatically as soon as you text, be careful.

The terms and conditions are posted:

http://www.diet.com/mobile/terms.php

The charges would come from one’s own cell phone provider if text message costs are additional. I currently purchase a small bundle as I’ve begun to use my cell phone as my Email/message center away from home when I travel. But, Shawn is right, check your phone’s plan.

This is what the info says pertaining to subscription. It doesn’t *sound* like they would send messages other than in response to a query, but they do give instructions on how to opt-out or stop as well. I have no affiliation with them, but thought it was an interesting idea in a pinch. I dined out several times this weekend, and twice was able to check out the calories/menus beforehand by using my friend’s PC, so I didn’t use the text service yet.

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Nutrition on the Go Terms and Conditions

How to Use Diet.com SMS:

Enter your query as a text message
Send message to the 5-digit US shortcode 34381 (DIET1 on most phones)
Receive text message(s) with results (takes about a minute). You may receive multiple messages labeled “1 of 2”, “3 of 5”, etc.
For a help text message, send the word HELP to 34381 or email mobile@diet dot com.

This service is free to all users. Standard text message rates apply.

Nutritional Information for Restaurant Menu Items:
Enter restaurant name and menu item separating words with a space.
Examples: “Starbucks Java Chip” or “Subway BLT”

Terms and Conditions
How to Opt-in:
To opt-in to Diet.com Nutrition Information, simply text the name of a restaurant and a menu item to DIET1 (34381) from your mobile phone. Within a minute of sending this text you will receive a text message containing number of calories, fat (g), carbs (g) and protein (g).

By texting 34381, you are agreeing to the Terms and Agreements.

How to Opt-out: To opt-out from our SMS service, you can text “STOP” to DIET1 (34381) from your mobile phone and we will unsubscribe you from our SMS text messaging service immediately. You will not receive any additional messages.

Customer Support To get help, email us at mobile@diet dot com, or visit http://www.diet.com. From your mobile phone, you may request our contact information at any time by texting HELP to DIET1 (34381).

It really does seem like a good service. For those who eat out regularly, and need the help in making choices. Some of those “healthy” looking salads are worse than the steak dinner! Gotta love options! Thanks Ann!

Bree