Can Your Fork Tell You When it’s Time to Stop Eating?

There hasn’t really been a new utensil worth mentioning since the spork, but now an unveiling at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has promised to help with your weight loss efforts, albeit against the background of much criticism and ridicule.

Produced by Hong Kong company HapiLabs, the HapiFork both looks and works like a fork, but it also shares a similarity with your mobile phone: it vibrates. However, the media has responded with one big eye roll after hearing the reason for this, as the HapiFork’s mission is to get you to stop eating like a pig, by buzzing and reminding you to slow down. The fork tracks the number of bites you take, how much time has passes between them and how long it takes you to finish the meal. It works on the principle that the slower you eat, the fewer calories you consume, and you can measure the progress the device makes to your overall wellbeing by storing all the data on your smart phone.

Critics have described the HapiFork as nothing more than another ‘smart’ gadget enforcer of data-driven moderation, but seeing as nothing else has slowed the obesity epidemic, maybe your fork could be the wellness tool you need. More and more weight loss programmes are turning to technology, such as apps and social media, to generate better results, and the HapiFork works in the same way. Employers and insurance companies are increasingly encouraging employees to be a lot more proactive when it comes to taking care of their wellness, and this is partially due to technology making it easier to track every move you make.

Therefore, isn’t it best to use technology’s wellness powers for good? Even if you are simply indulging in a little bit of a novelty, if it does something once or twice to remind you to slow down, it could kick start a habit of eating slowly, and therefore eating less. More often than not, people make decisions to do more to lose weight, but forget when the time comes, so couldn’t you benefit from having something in your hand that gives you a nudge in the right direction?