No time to read food labels? Check out this cellphone app

I tested it on some "healthy" items I eat regularly. Hmm, my vegan beverage mix got a C+ for containing xanthan gum and maltodextrin. And my hot cranberry muesli rated only a B for having “a tiny amount of real fruit.” Some products (like my favorite butternut squash soup) aren’t rated, but the app advised me to photograph the bar code and e-mail it to Fooducate to add to its database.

Bottom line: I like the quick rating – even if some of my favorites didn't get high marks. But no need to run out and buy an iPhone; you can find out everything you need to know by reading nutritional labels. Here’s a Food and Drug Administration tutorial that will show you how.

So work on those reading skills. Really, you’ll get faster.