With childhood obesity becoming a concern in India, a Chennai-based company has launched a pediatric diet mobile game app to educate children about healthy eating 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, which has an R&D office in San Francisco, reported results from a test that showed it is a fooya! the app was able to promote healthy eating and lifestyle habits among a group of 104 children aged 10 to 11.
Shri Prakash hit up the idea after he became a parent and saw the impact of advertisements on his children’s food habits. “I noticed they were making decisions about food that weren’t in good health,” he says.
“We teach children how to avoid processed foods with our neuroscience approach,” adds Shriprakash. “We need to engage children in a fun way on the subject. It’s important not to feel tired. “
He also says that after eleven years working with John Hopkins University, and several others, his company has reached a milestone that no one has been 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 J.MIR Health and Health, showing that only 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, says: “As a parent, we need to take care of children’s health and the game is very useful for them. I think this is the best game for healthcare. I’m so glad my daughter is playing it. ”