In the ever-evolving landscape of nutrition, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a potential ally in the pursuit of our health and nutrition goals. However, it's crucial to approach this technology with a healthy dose of skepticism. From my (admittedly biased) viewpoint, AI's capabilities, while promising, cannot completely replace the nuanced guidance provided by a human nutrition coach.

While writing this blog post, I asked ChatGPT about its limitations. It responded, “AI systems are generally task-specific and may not possess a broad understanding of the world or common-sense reasoning.” First off, what a boring sentence. Second, good nutrition goes way beyond task-specific data. 

For instance, AI can easily calculate macros based on task specific data like height, age, and body weight, but that data doesn’t help you hit those macro targets when you come home late from a stressful day of work, you’re hangry,  and you need to quickly whip up a meal for yourself and your kids using whatever food you have in the pantry. 

AI also does not understand that our specific nutritional needs are about far more than our weight, height, and age; our eating preferences, dieting history, relationship with food, and lifestyle all play a huge role in our needs!

However, these limitations don’t mean that AI is useless, but how can we use AI to help us?

Here are three ways I think we can use AI to help us with our nutrition goals:

1. use ai to generate macro-friendly meal ideas

Tired of trying to come up with dinner ideas or stuck in a food rut? AI can help. 

Tell AI the answer the following questions;

• What are your taste preferences? 

• Dietary restrictions? 

• What types of macros do you want for dinner? 

• Do you need a high-protein meal? Low carb and high fat? Or maybe something plant-based and high in fiber? 

• Do you have any other specific preferences?

Set these parameters and then let AI do its thing. AI can sift through a pretty vast database (hello internet), and offer a variety of meal suggestions based on the personalized information that you give it, thus alleviating the perpetual struggle of answering the question “what’s for dinner?”

2. use ai to generate a personalized grocery list

What’s the one thing worse than figuring out what to cook for dinner? For me, it’s buying groceries for dinner. 

AI can help here too though! If you input your meal and snack ideas,  AI can easily create a grocery list using that information. (Unfortunately, AI can’t go to the grocery store for you 🙁…. yet).  

A well stocked kitchen and pantry makes it much easier to reach for a satiating whole food snack rather than a cookie (or three) when hunger strikes, and using AI to generate a shopping list makes it easier to go to the grocery store and buy what is needed for that well stocked pantry. 

3. use ai to categorize foods into easy to understand lists:

Clients often ask me questions like, “What foods have good carbs?” or “What are some good protein sources besides chicken?” 

AI can quickly answer these questions and create a list that you can use to help with meal ideas and grocery lists.

For example, say you follow a plant-based diet and are looking for plant based protein sources; instead of manually sifting through a food tracking app searching for plant foods high in protein, you could use ask AI to make a list of plant-based protein options. Almost instantly, AI can scan nutritional databases and suggest items like lentils, chickpeas, and tofu, saving you some scrolling time.

While AI CAN streamline aspects of nutrition, it is NOT a cure-all or a replacement for good coaching. Recognizing its strengths and limitations allows us to use AI as a supportive tool, not a replacement for personalized guidance from a human who understands our physiology, our food relationship, and our dieting history.

We are committed coaches who work with committed clients and love nothing more than helping our clients find a sustainable approach to nutrition that allows them to work towards their goals without white-knuckling their way through yo-yo diets. Learn more about our KLN team here!

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