“Most people want to eat healthy but find it almost impossible to do that in our modern food environment,” says Lindsey Smith Taillie, professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s nutrition department.
“We live in a very, very complex food environment, where we have hundreds and thousands of products on the shelves of the grocery store.” But, she says, “most consumers only spend about 12 to 15 seconds making those choices. Some consumers, like me, have little kids who are pulling on them, screaming at them, wanting to throw desserts into the basket.”
In short, it’s information overload.
To cut through the overload, Taillie is developing a personalized AI-powered food shopper called Lola.
Technology exists, Taillie says, to promote healthy choices, but it’s not personalized to individuals.
“For example, I might be your AI bot, and you go to the store, and I tell you, ‘You should eat more apples,’ but you hate apples, so that’s not really going to work for you,” she says during the latest episode of the video series “North Carolina Innovators You Should Know,” guest-hosted by Bob Dieterle, managing director of Eshelman Innovation’s Digital Health Venture Studio.
“The technology we’re developing here is to understand somebody’s food preferences, their family, their culture — what they like to eat and also, very importantly, what their budget is — and then provide personalized recommendations that are actually tailored to the individual.”
Once Lola gets to know you, the chatbot might even shop for you, Taillie says.
Most nutrition advice, Taillie says, comes from general dietary guidelines. If someone sees a registered dietitian, they might receive more individualized nutrition guidance.
“I like to think bigger than that. I want to affect millions of people at once,” Taillie says. Until now, she has tried to achieve that goal by shaping government policy. “This is kind of bypassing some of the policy and regulatory hurdles and making a product that is scalable. Lola would be like having a little registered dietitian that lives in your pocket.”
Through its monthly video series, Eshelman Innovation introduces viewers to UNC-Chapel Hill innovators, like Taillie, and those at other institutions and companies.
Thank you to the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media for filming this interview at the Curtis Media Center.
