Two Indian-American scientists have designed a new smartphone app that will keep record of whatever you eat throughout the day. The app will help to not only get away with some bad habits but will also prevent ‘metabolic jetlag’, said its makers.

The app myCircadianClock app, which is developed by Satchidananda Panda and Shubhroz Gill from the Salk Institute collects pictures of whatever a person consumes and thereafter analyses and interprets the food patterns of food intake of person.

Panda, associate professor in Salk Institute’s regulatory biology laboratory, said in a statement that the study is all about developing methods and also some preliminary insight into what and when people eat.

The app designed by the duo is quite simple, it just requires its users to send pictures of everything they have eaten or drunk. The app keeps track of everything from an entire water bottle or a few bites of a cookie.

The duo during their research tracked healthy males and females between the ages of 21 and 55 who were not actively managing their diet.

“One pleasant surprise was how many participants got used to taking a picture of anything they ate or drank; it almost became their second nature,” noted Gill, a post-doctoral associate in Panda’s group.

Apart from helping to avoid bad eating habits, authors also feel that the app can prevent ‘metabolic jetlag’. The app could be a powerful tool for personalized medicine, they said.

According to a Salk Institute press release, the smartphone app is available for anyone willing to contribute his or her data to a Salk Institute IRB-approved study. To participate one can visit mycircadianclock.mycircadianclock.org and then download the app ‘myCircadianclock’ from the iOS App Store or Google Play.

“This is an example of a new class of research studies that have become possible due to the massive adoption of smartphones,” Gill added.