Expert Insight: Cathal O’Hara on Digital Technology in Nutrition and Dietetics
Digital technology is reshaping the field of nutrition and dietetics, opening up new possibilities for how people understand, monitor, and improve their eating habits. To learn more about the potential of digital innovations in this sector, we spoke with Dr. Cathal O’Hara, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Population Health, Ireland.
With extensive experience in the use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, in nutrition, dietetics, and healthcare more broadly, Dr. O’Hara reflects on his career path, current research, and developments in the field. He also shares insights into how people can use these technologies responsibly to support healthier eating habits and long-term well-being.
Cathal O'Hara Answers Key Questions on Digital Technology in Nutrition and Dietetics
Could you share a bit about your professional journey and what drew you to the fields of nutrition, health research, and digital health?
I had an interest in all aspects of food growing up, such as growing it (or at least trying to), cooking it, eating it, sharing it (sometimes), and learning about science and nutrition in school and as part of sports teams. These interests led me to pursue a degree in dietetics and to qualify as a dietitian. Since then, I have worked in clinical nutrition, public health nutrition, and nutrition research. While studying for my undergraduate degree, I was drawn to the systematic nature of research as a way to add to our knowledge and help improve health through nutrition.
During my professional career since then, I have also gained an appreciation for the potential of digital technology to increase the efficiency of our work in nutrition and dietetics by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks and possibly allowing more time for those important human interactions in healthcare. This drew me to completing a PhD focused on developing digital technologies for people to record what they eat and drink using their phones or the web, as well as creating new strategies to analyse that data.
My current work as a postdoctoral research fellow is a natural extension of that, where my research revolves around understanding the use of digital technology, including artificial intelligence for nutrition and dietetics and more broadly for health and healthcare.
What have nutrition researchers learned in recent years about how people eat, especially in today’s fast-paced world?
While there has been a wealth of progress in our knowledge of nutrition in the past number of years, one of the areas that has interested me is the different factors that influence our food choices. Many countries have food-based dietary guidelines that provide recommendations for healthy dietary intakes, but only a minority of people consume diets that align with these guidelines.
However, understanding why people choose to eat certain foods can be a complex endeavour. These choices are influenced by the surroundings in which we make food choices, i.e., the food environment. This is of course is very broad and could relate to our physical, economic, policy, or cultural surroundings.
In today’s fast-paced world, researchers are increasingly finding that the digital environment is influencing how we eat. For example, online ads and public health campaigns, social media posts, information provided by nutrition apps, the layout and food availability in food delivery apps and online shopping can all influence what we choose to eat and drink.
It is important for researchers to continue to investigate the online food environment to identify where potential harms may arise and what strategies can be used to make the healthy choice the easiest and most convenient one.
Could you share a key finding from one of your recent research projects that you find especially important, and explain why it matters for everyday eating habits?
We recently conducted a study evaluating the ability of ChatGPT to estimate the nutritional content of meals from photographs. It performed quite well in correctly identifying the various foods that were in the meals; however, from a nutrition point of view, it was inaccurate for most meals in estimating the nutritional content.
It is important for people to be aware that these technologies were not specifically designed for nutrition, and as we have demonstrated, can provide misleading answers. These technologies will improve as time goes on, and of course, new technologies will be developed specifically for nutrition, such as the work underway in the WiseFood project. However, people should always be vigilant when seeking information online to ensure it is from a reputable source and is relevant for their own personal circumstances, and if there are any doubts, it is best to seek the advice of a health professional.
Why is technology becoming increasingly important in the field of nutrition today?
As society in general is increasingly using digital technology, this is also influencing the field of nutrition. Digital technologies have been developed for a whole range of tasks in nutrition, such as telehealth consultations, physical activity and weight monitoring, and nutrition apps. The general public is increasingly using the internet to access information about nutrition and food companies, public health bodies, and health services.
At the same time, health professionals are communicating more and more with people via digital means. This means that digital technology is playing a larger role in influencing the food choices that we make. It is important, therefore, that we continue to research this area and to communicate our findings to ensure that technology can be a means of promoting health rather than detracting from it.
There’s so much conflicting food and nutrition advice online. How can people avoid feeling overwhelmed?
Yes, this can be a challenge with the sheer volume of information that is available today. If you are hoping to change your diet, one way to avoid becoming overwhelmed is to pick two or three specific goals or changes at a time rather than trying to change your whole diet at once.
Once you have managed to implement the initial change, you can move on to other changes that you want to make. In terms of evaluating nutrition information, the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) provide some good advice about how to spot reliable or unreliable nutrition information online. For example, some tips include
- Checking the qualifications of the author;
- Being aware that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is;
- Being wary of content that vilifies or idolises individual foods or nutrients (we need a variety of different foods and nutrients for a healthy diet);
- Content from well-established bodies such as government departments or public health bodies is more likely to be reliable.
Are food and nutrition apps actually helpful, or can they sometimes be misleading or even discouraging? How can some new projects, such as WiseFood, help mitigate this?
Food and nutrition apps certainly have a role to play, but like any technology, they won’t be for everyone. There are a number of ways in which nutrition apps can be helpful. For example, monitoring a behaviour that we want to change will make it more likely that we will change that behaviour; this can take the form of tracking what we eat in nutrition apps.
We also know that dietary advice is more effective when it is personalised to be relevant for the person receiving that advice, based on their existing food likes and dislikes, for example. This again is something that can be achieved with nutrition apps.
On the other hand, however, too much tracking and focus on numbers is unlikely to be helpful. Tracking our diets for between three to seven days gives a reasonably good idea of our typical intakes. Recording for any longer is unlikely to provide a useful amount of additional information relative to the time and effort required.
This should provide enough information to choose two or three positive changes that can be maintained. If we wish to make further changes, this process of tracking can be repeated periodically. Ideally, we should use nutrition apps in a way that allows us to achieve long-term and positive changes without becoming dependent on an app for daily use over prolonged periods.
Despite the potential for nutrition apps for improving health, there is a lack of transparency about accuracy and efficacy among many existing apps.
The WiseFood project will take a scientific approach to developing nutrition apps to try to mitigate this. It will draw on the knowledge and experience of nutrition and computer science experts as well as including views from other key stakeholders including members of the general public, and professionals from the health service, public health bodies, industry, and agriculture. The feasibility of the developed apps will then be evaluated in a scientific study. The findings from the project will be shared publicly to inform the ongoing development and improvement of products and services in this area.
Can you tell us about your role in the WiseFood project? What are your main responsibilities and areas of focus?
I am currently working as part of the team in the School of Population Health in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). As part of this team I am involved in reviewing the scientific literature on this topic to inform the WiseFood project, seeking the views of key stakeholders for the project, providing nutrition expertise to ensure any nutrition recommendations remain evidence-based, and conducting a feasibility study that will allow us to examine the performance of the WiseFood apps in the real-world setting.
As a nutrition expert and researcher, what value do you think WiseFood apps FoodChat, RecipeWrangler, and FoodScholar can bring to people’s everyday lives, or to the field of nutrition more broadly?
I think that the value provided by the WiseFood apps will be the provision of evidence-based and personalised nutrition information in an intuitive and easy to use way. This will make nutrition information available in an interactive way so that people can make use of in real time when they are making decisions about food and interacting with the food environment.
The incorporation of knowledge graphs and large language models is a relatively new approach for nutrition apps, so I think that this project will allow us to learn about what works well and what doesn’t work so well with these technologies for nutrition. This will inform our own work in developing these apps, but more broadly, it will provide information to others who can use our learnings in their own product development or research work in the field of nutrition.
Conclusion
It is evident that digital technology is becoming a primary way people access nutrition information and make food choices. However, as Dr. Cathal O’Hara points out, it’s essential to have reliable, evidence-based tools to help users navigate the overwhelming amount of digital nutrition content responsibly. That’s exactly the goal of projects like WiseFood, combining research and technology to create trustworthy tools that support healthier and more sustainable eating habits.
Learn more about WiseFood at our Newsroom and connect with us on LinkedIn for more updates.