Yuka is an independent health app built to analyze ingredients in grocery, hygiene, and cosmetic products. It’s been my favorite grocery buddy since 2022, helping me select the safest, best products for my health and MTHFR mutation.
In 2022, I saw a TikTok video about Yuka, an app capable of scanning any food or beauty product in the grocery store for healthfulness and additive safety. My first thought: “This is going to revolutionize grocery shopping and possibly all of American health.”
Well it did! For me, and for other Yuka users. But its greatest impact is yet to be realized — especially for MTHFRs.
Why Trust Yuka?
Food companies these days are sus. I was jerked into that reality a few years back when I became suddenly, hopelessly sick in my early twenties. Like many people, I’d always assumed if a product was on a grocery store shelf, it may not be good for me but it couldn’t be downright poisonous. Right?
Unfortunately, that’s not what the research says.
The More You Know…
In this “Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer: Directions for Research” paper, written in 1983 by the National Research Council (US) Committee on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer and published by National Academies Press, concerns were raised about the cancer risks of 2,000 FDA-approved food chemicals, including BHA and BHT. According to this Environmental Working Group article, BHA is continually used as a preservative in 2024, though it’s a suspected endocrine disruptor and carcinogen. Additionally, both BHA and BHT were called out in EWG’s 2024 Dirty Dozen Food Chemicals.
Which is why Yuka is such an incredible resource. To score products, Yuka heeds the latest nutritional information from organizations such as the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), SCCS (European Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety), and EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) while paying close attention to findings from independent studies.
Do Companies Pay Yuka to Alter Their Scores?
On September 24th, 2024, this video was sent to all of us Yuka users and published on YouTube. Julie Chapon, one of the cofounders of Yuka, answers several common questions about the platform, including the one that instantly pops into cynical minds like mine…
Do companies pay Yuka to score their products?
Julie’s resounding answer was NO. She explained that Yuka absolutely does not accept money from corporations to rate their products. All scores and recommendations are completely decided by the app’s algorithm. Yuka is instead funded directly by their audience: Yuka subscribers. With this altruistic approach, they are beholden to the people they’ve committed to serve.
How Does Yuka Work?
Yuka’s beauty is in its simplicity. In the same video I referenced above, Julie explains that Yuka was born from a dad’s desire to protect his kids from unsafe, unnecessary ingredients. Its ease makes it a perfect reflection of that mission; its design appeals to all types from lost dads and frazzled moms to freshly independent young adults.
Products are generally scored with 60% emphasis on nutritional quality, 30% emphasis on additive safety, and 10% emphasis on organic ingredients.
How to use Yuka:
- Download the Yuka app (available for Android and Apple devices.)
- Set up your account with an email and choose to become a free user or premium member.
- At the bottom of the screen, tap the Scan feature in the navigation bar.
- Scan a barcode. Product information will appear, including:
- A 0 – 100 rating.
- A bad, poor, good, or excellent label.
- A list of ingredients categorized by low, moderate, or high risk levels. Click through for education on each.
- A breakdown of healthfulness on food products based on worldwide recommendations for intakes of sugar, protein, fat, sodium, etc.
- A recommendation accompanying a poor or bad product for a better or similar option, if there is one.
- Make an educated choice and give your money to the company that best considers the health of you and your family.
With all that, you’re only using the most basic function of Yuka! There are plenty more features to explore.
Other Yuka Features
History: Revisit anything you’ve ever scanned.
Recs: Discover tons of alternatives to any of your scanned products.
Top: The top products in every commonly scanned category from ice cream and mac and cheese to sunscreens and shampoos. Go premium to peruse all categories.
Search: A premium member perk, the search page allows you to browse Yuka’s product catalog even when you don’t have a barcode in front of you. Search by name, brand, or category.
Why Pay for Premium?
Don’t worry — anyone can use Yuka for free! But if you love what they’re doing and want even more awesome features, becoming a premium member is super affordable. It costs $8.99 (or $9.64 with tax) ANNUALLY — yes, that’s less than $10 per year for peace of mind, healthy food, cosmetics, and hygiene, all while supporting a company that actually cares about you and your family.
I effing love Yuka!
Going premium also includes three major benefits:
- Offline accessibility. You can still use Yuka even when grocery stores block your internet.
- Open search. You don’t have to wait until you have a product in your hands to see its ingredients. You can browse Yuka’s entire product catalog at will.
- Dietary preferences. Gluten-free? Lactose intolerant? Kosher? Get personalized recommendations.
My Recs from My Favorite Grocery Buddy
Yuka is the best grocery buddy anyone could want. It steers me clear of products with proven endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, and allergens. Using this app for the past two years has opened my eyes to the wild amount of toxic crap in products we use daily. As a MTHFR, I’m especially wary of chemical ingredients because I know I struggle to protect against and detox from them.
A few of my favorite Yuka-inspired products:
Skincare
I was trained as an esthetician, so it broke my heart to find egregious chemicals in all of my skincare products. But Yuka giveth, too. With the recommendation of Good Molecules, I never looked back.
Toothpaste
Another lesson from Yuka is that many toothpastes — which most of us use twice a day — are toxic garbage. It exposed brands like Colgate and Crest and recommended better options like the Hello brand Antiplaque + Whitening Fluoride Free Toothpaste and the Simple Truth brand Plaque Removing and Whitening Toothpaste.
Dairy
I ditched cow’s milk years ago, but it took finally breaking things off with cheese for me to realize how much dairy affects me. Yuka turned me onto healthier products like Good Culture cottage cheese, Painterland Sisters organic yogurt, and organic Thai coconut milk to fill the void.
The Bottom Line
Companies like Yuka give me hope that’s in little supply as a young person these days. That so many corporations care more for profits than the well-being of their customers is a hard realization.
That’s why what Yuka is doing is so important and why I encourage my people to use it. For MTHFRs, it’s doing us a huge favor in identifying products with toxic ingredients. Download it, use it, work on trading out those bad and poor products for good and excellent options. Become a premium member if you can, and use Yuka to find the good that’s still out there.
Sources
- https://help.yuka.io/l/en
- https://youtu.be/1gywrgOaJ_M?si=vBJ4aWJftjU8JGsb
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK216714/
- https://www.ewg.org/
Your Turn
Drop your favorite Yuka recs in the comments!
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