ジュースに含まれている糖分を角砂糖に変換してくれるアプリ🥤 pic.twitter.com/aQ0aazkL46
— Daiki Shimizu (@432daiki) July 15, 2019
Most, if not all, of us love sweet food and beverages. However, it is worth noting that too much sugar can cause weight gain, increase risks of various diseases such as cancer and diabetes, speed up the aging process, and can contribute to tooth decay.
If there was one thing that people can agree upon, it would be trying to decrease sugar consumption. Sodas, juices, sports drinks, and pre-bottled coffees are some of the drinks out there in the market that are known to have high levels of sugar. However, it would be difficult to visualize how much sugar is in a drink, even for a careful consumer. Fortunately, there’s an app that just shows that.
Twitter user Daiki Shimizu (@432daiki) developed an app that scans the bar code of a soft drink and gives you a visual representation of how much sugar is in it. In the video above, which he posted on Twitter, he scans the bar code of a popular Japanese soda called Mitsuya Cider. Then after a brief moment, an image of a bottle pops up, and the gauge that shows how much of the drink is sugar climbs higher and higher.
The final product also says how many cubes of sugar is in one bottle of Mitsuya Cider: 13.8, which is quite a hefty amount. When he taps “kakutei/確定 (confirm), 13 cubes of sugar drop from the top of the screen, and, with every movement of his phone, tumble around like they’re inside of a jar. The app then displays “13.8 cubes” in larger numbers, and further specifies that 13.8 cubes of sugar is 229.2 percent of the recommend[ed] daily value. Sort of makes you want to put back the soda bottle, doesn’t it?
Many netizens clamored for the name of the app and where they can get it, but Shimizu says that it was actually an app that he made a year ago and shelved for various reasons, so it’s not currently available for download. But due to popular demand, he decided to upload it to the iPhone App store, where it is currently waiting for approval, and he will likely Tweet when it’s ready to be downloaded.
The app seems to only have Japanese language accessibility, and may not work on beverages that weren’t purchased in Japan. However, since the app itself can read Japanese, it can still tell you how much sugar is in a Japanese drink even if you can’t read the language, and can help you watch your sugar intake while traveling or living in Japan.
What are your thoughts on this one?
(Video Credit: Daiki Shimizu/ Twitter)