Nutritionist Kate Freeman’s app is finally here to help you eat well for the rest of your life
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Registered nutritionist, founder of The Healthy Eating Clinic, and OG HerCanberra contributor Kate Freeman is about to transform the nutrition and wellness market in Australia.
And it will all begin with the launch of her app.
Seven years in the making, the Ayla Health app will finally be released on Friday 15 November, marking a milestone moment in Kate’s career.
Known for her passion for helping people feel empowered in their food choices, Kate is hoping to change the conversation around healthy eating, creating the app as an answer to the analysis paralysis people often face when it comes to nutrition and food choices.
Because instead of telling people what to eat (and when) Ayla Health is all about helping people build healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.
“The simple problem I was trying to solve is that starting a diet or being a healthy eater is very ‘all or nothing’. People binge on their food on Sunday night so it’s not in the house or they have their last hurrah before they start their diet on Monday,” she says.
‘There’s this idea you have to get everything perfect and that you have to change everything about your food all at once, which is not sustainable…There’s this very black-and-white approach to nutrition.”
Her solution? A platform where people could find healthy recipes, but also learn how to eat for their body, build habits that stick, and build confidence within themselves.
From there, Ayla Health was born.
Using her 20 years of experience in the industry, for the last seven years, Kate has been combining micro-learning with meal planning – creating an experience where users can put what they learn about nutrition into practice.
Offering over 30 habit-building modules that cover a huge range of nutrition principles and habits – as well as 400 recipes (created by Kate, the team at the Healthy Eating Hub and submitted by clients) – she says that Ayla Health is unlike any other health-focused app on the market.
“The guts of the apps are the Healthy Eating Pathways, which are broken down into little models and each module teaches one habit at a time…it’s really quick and easy. Most of them are less than five minutes,” she explains.
“The ‘Apply’ section is about helping people make their own food choices rather than just blindly following a meal plan or a list of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods.”
“You can try recipes, you can add them to your meal planner, generate a shopping list…the idea is we’re linking learning with doing.”
Focussing on long-term health and wellness, she says that another significant thing that makes Ayla Health different is it uses evidence-based nutrition information, so users can learn how to trust their bodies and make food decisions that they feel good about.
This means there’s no built-in calorie or macro tracker counter and no focus on weight loss.
“Our meal planner is empty because the idea is to teach the user how to plan their own meals, and we’ve just created a tool that just helps them stay organised…a lot of apps these days are going to track calories and macros but that’s not what this app is about. We take more of a whole foods approach to nutrition,” says Kate.
“It’s more about your diet quality and the foods that you’re choosing. Calorie counting does not take into account the quality of food at all…it’s an inaccurate science. It’s only ever an estimate and it’s full of error.”
“I want to teach people to eat well for the rest of their life and you can’t calorie count for the rest of your life.”
Wanting to kick fad diets to the curb and support people in their healthy eating journey, Kate says that by using the Ayla Health app to make small changes, people can achieve long-term wellness without eliminating food groups or sticking to food rules.
And in a world where diet culture content dominates our social media feeds, it’s a breath of fresh air.
“I want to be able to acknowledge that nutrition plays a key role in our health, but that it doesn’t need to be something that takes over our lives,” says Kate.
“I wanted to try and create a tool that helps nudge people to make progress, make small changes, and feel inspired. But then they can move on with their life and do what makes them happy.”
Putting her heart and soul into this project, Kate says she’s a bundle of nerves and excitement. And with hopes to re-launch her Daily Dollop podcast and re-brand it alongside Ayla Health, she ultimately hopes that her app will help people who may have been struggling with the health journey.
“That’s why I did it. I hope that people resonate with what I’m trying to do.”
For more information about Ayla Health, visit aylahealth.com.au
Feature image: supplied.
