Helping Kids Eat Healthy? There's an App for That

Ioana Patringenaru | Oct. 11, 2010

Jesica Oratowski-Coleman and her husband, Aaron Coleman, show off their credentials for a USDA
award ceremony in Washington, D.C., in front of the White House.

Want to know if you, and your children, are eating the right amount of calories, and the right kind of foods, for breakfast, lunch or dinner? There's an app for that.

It's called "Food Buster" and it was developed by Aaron Coleman and Jesica Oratowski-Coleman, a married couple who both work at Calit2 on the UC San Diego campus. The app won a prize in the Apps for Healthy Kids Challenge, sponsored by first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign. The two UCSD employees got to go to Washington, D.C. to collect their award.

“It was really cool,” Aaron said of their trip to the nation’s capital. “We were staying down the block from the White House.”

Last month, they found out they had won the Popular Vote Award in the challenge’s “game” category for Food Buster, which they developed together. Jesica is a health educator working with teens and their parents as part of weight loss research studies. Aaron is a programmer who works on an initiative to help college students lose weight by using their cell phones.

U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra tries
out the Coleman's game, Food Buster.

Related link:
Play a round of the Food Buster game.
http://www.foodbustergame.com/

“I told Aaron ‘we have to do this, because it brings both our backgrounds together’,” Jesica said.

The couple said they were excited when they got the news of their win—and also felt liberated. They had closely watched the popular vote before the competition ended and knew they were close to a win. Every call had them on pin and needles.

The two spent about three months perfecting Food Buster, working evenings and weekends. The game’s challenge is simple: fill you plate with six items for breakfast, lunch or dinner without going over a certain amount of calories (500 for breakfast and 750 for lunch and dinner).

The catch: each meal must include a calorie-rich item, such as a buttermilk biscuit for breakfast, pasta or a burrito for lunch, fried chicken or even fried steak for dinner. After each round, players can see the caloric value of each item, how much saturated fat it contains and how much exercise it would take to burn it off.

Jesica jokes she had the fun part of the job. She sorted though the USDA’s list of about 2,000 food items and labeled them as healthy and unhealthy and as breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. Meanwhile, Aaron programmed the game and perfected its game-show like environment, with a host welcoming the players and commenting on their results.

During the award ceremony Sept. 29 in Washington, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra gave the game a spin. He did really well, Aaron said. “He thought it was fun,” Aaron said. “He encouraged us to keep going with this.”

He and Jesica got to hobnob with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Let's Move! Executive Director Robin Schepper.  Everyone dined on healthy options including veggie wraps, salad and fresh fruit.

The Colemans poze with their award and Health
and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,
center.

The two UCSD staff members said they were touched that high-level politicians in the nation’s capital shared their concerns about healthy eating. They didn’t get to meet Michelle Obama. But they said they understood: she was lobbying that day for a school lunch bill, which ultimately failed to pass.

“It’s her legacy,” Jesica said.

“It’s one of the most challenging things, what she took on,” Aaron said.

Later, the couple treated themselves to dinner in a fancy restaurant. Jesica maintains she stayed within her 750-calorie allowance by eating salmon and cooked spinach. She teased Aaron for eating vegetable ravioli, which she said wouldn’t meet “Food Buster” standards.

The two have known each other since age 8. They grew up in Long Beach, met at summer camp and attended the same Hebrew school. “He liked me and I didn’t know,” Jesica explained. They had their first kiss at 13 and dated in high school. They went their separate ways for college. She went to UCLA; he went to UCSD. They got together again when Jesica came back to San Diego to pursue a master’s in public health at San Diego State University. They recently celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary.

Jesica said she became passionate about healthy eating as an undergraduate women’s studies major. Aaron said he always wanted to create technology that would improve lives. Jesica’s interest in health issues gave him direction, he said.

When they’re not working together to cook up a game, the couple tends a vegetable garden in Hillcrest. They convinced the owner of a vacant lot adjacent to their house to let them plant tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peppers, salad, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin and basil. They generally produce more than they can eat, so their neighbors never lack for veggies. Many stop by and ask them about their garden.

The Colemand and former NFL star Brian Mitchell.

The couple also are expert cooks. Aaron likes anything that has basil in it. Jesica is partial to roasted vegetables. You put them in the oven with garlic, basil and olive oil and after 30 to 40 minutes “it’s the best thing in world,” she said.

Aaron and Jesica have pledged half of their winnings to the San Diego Victory Gardens for an outdoor education planter box at the Roots at Susie’s Organic Farm, which will teach school and community groups about food origins and how to grow food. The other half of their prize money goes to Long Beach’s Centro Shalom, which distributes fresh, local and organic produce to the poor. The center also provides healthy staples to hundreds of families in need and offers classes on nutrition in Spanish for immigrant populations.

Food Buster is now available to play for free online. Aaron said the couple is thinking about designing an iPhone app based on the game. They’re also thinking about adding more characters and more features designed to get players to exercise.

“We’re definitely learning a lot,” Jesica said.