Every Monday, our resident gurus identify groundbreaking, trendy, hip products that elevate your life from bourgeois to brilliant.
Smart phones are more common than Justin Bieber songs on the radio, and the iPhone is one of the most popular phones of them all. If you’ve got one of Steve Job’s babies in your pocket, take advantage of its mobile power with our four favorite health-friendly iPhone apps (which also work on the iPad).
HappyCow Restaurant Finder ($2.99 USD)
Your coworker is like, “Hey, wanna grab lunch?” And all of a sudden you’re scouring Yelp to find a place nearby that’s good. But if you’re like me, you then look up the restaurant’s menu to figure out if there is anything there that you can actually eat with a good conscious. Health-conscious restaurant lovers, rejoice! HappyCow’s mobile app lets you see all the nearby restaurants, and lets you filter them by health categories such as vegetarian or vegan.
Roaming Hunger (Free)
Food trucks are all the rage. But they are also impossibly hard to find when you’re hungry, and no one is especially nostalgic for the hunter-and-gatherer age. This iPhone app tracks more than 800 food trucks across the United States and tells you exactly where the truck is located at that moment. Even better, it also gives you menu details and sorting options, like searching for nearby vegetarian-friendly food trucks.
Go Vegan! ($6.99)
By now, most people have read or heard of Sarah Kramer’s How It All Vegan cookbook. This app is a condensed version; a mobile cookbook with recipes for everything from breakfast to dessert, plus video cooking tips. A bit pricey, apps-wise, but much cheaper than buying an actual cookbook. And now no one will look at you awkward when you try stuffing the full-sized cookbook in your pocket. Are you just happy to see me?
BnB ($2.99)
Be nice to bunnies! And other animals, too, with this app that helps you identify whether a product contains animal-based ingredients or has been tested on animals. You can search for specific product names or sort by company or product category, and it includes all common items like laundry detergent and shampoo.
