HAPIfork – A Fork That Helps You Stay Healthy

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Everywhere you turn these days, diet and fitness are all the rave. We see buzz words like gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, clean diet, organic and raw, and that doesn’t even count the fitness fads that are quickly building a bandwagon that health-conscious folks want to jump on as warmer weather approaches. As technology continues to make unending advancements, there has also been a shift to using mobile devices as a way to stay fit and healthy; everything from calorie counters to tracking workouts to mapping routes for runs. So it’s no surprise that creative minds are coming up with new ideas on how to offer innovative and simple ways to keep people on track with their health goals.

You know that feeling you get when you’re so hungry that you sit down, take a deep breath and then inhale your food in record-breaking time? The feeling afterward is usually one of two responses: a) ugh…I ate too fast; or b) I feel sick. Neither of these ever leaves you feeling great about yourself or your health. Well, now there is a device that can help. The HAPIfork is a new idea on regulating the speed at which you eat. The idea of eating slower is by no means a novel one. Researchers have spent years looking at the effects of eating too fast, and according to Men’s Health, eating fast does not allow for the nerve endings in the stomach (called stretch receptors) to detect when the stomach is full. Therefore, you overeat and risk weight gain.

Here’s where the HAPIfork helps. Once you start eating, if you take a bite less than ten seconds before your last bite, you receive a mild vibration to your lips/mouth, thereby indicating that you need to slow down. How does it do this? Well, similar to how your mobile device detects your phone being near your ear, the HAPIfork is installed with technology that detects the fork to your mouth. There is even an app that can track the number of bites you’ve taken during a meal. This device also comes with a USB cord for charging and downloading your information to track your eating speed.

It’s hard to tell just yet how effective the overall outcome will be from slowing down your eating speed. There are, obviously, many factors to losing weight and staying healthy. To put this idea to the test, it would need to be isolated from the other dynamics. However, one thing it would be very helpful in moderating would be helping children learn to eat slower, as was highlighted by a mother who knows all too well how difficult it can be to get children to slow down when they eat. It may not be able to stop you from overeating, but at least it will prohibit you from stuffing your face in record time and leaving your pants with the button undone to relieve the pressure! And the overall thought I’m left with is … a healthy body and mind come from many affecting factors, so it’s not one solution that solves it all; it’s a combination of all the right choices that bring you to contentment.

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Shani Rucker

Shani Rucker


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