Producer Image Pic: Wikimedia
With growing numbers of obese and obese children becoming a concern in India, a Chennai-based company has launched a pediatric diet mobile game app to educate children about healthy food choices. “We have been working on this mobile application for the past 11 years. We decided to introduce children in a fun way in this important subject,” said Bhargav Shri Prakash, who founded FriendsLearn, which developed the mobile app.
The company that has a R&D office in San Francisco recently reported the results of a test that showed its fooya! the app was able to promote healthy eating and lifestyle habits among a group of 104 children aged 10 to 11. Shri Prakash said he caught up with the idea after becoming a parent and saw food habits his children under advertisements. “I noticed that they are making decisions about foods that are not in good health,” he said. “We are teaching children how to avoid processed foods. We do it with our neuro-science approach, “Shriprakash said, adding” we need to introduce children in a fun way about the very important subject without them feeling tired. “
He also said that after eleven years working with John Hopkins University, and several other universities, his company had reached a milestone that no one was able to achieve. “We have published our findings in a prestigious medical journal that show evidence that children can be healthy by playing with this application,” said the founder and chief executive of FriendsLearn, Bhargav.
The clinical study, published in the journal JMIR mHealth and uHealth, showed that just 20 minutes of play time per week had a positive effect on children’s food choices when they were punctured immediately after the game.
In fooya !, an avatar fights against robots that represent unhealthy / bad food, with the goal of maintaining good body shape for the avatar and earning enough coins to earn the level and solve the next level. Avatars perform better if they eat healthy food and move a lot, and are slower and heavier as they eat more calories. Arathi, the mother of a girl who used the FriendsLearn mobile application, said: “As a parent, we need to take care of children’s health and the Fooya game is very useful for them. I think this is the best game for children’s healthcare I’m so glad my daughter is playing it. “
