HEALTH ADVISOR

• US 20090164466A1
• Filed: 02/04/2008
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Badyal, Tushar
• Granted Patent: US 7,882,150 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing health and diet advice. A user may establish a user profile that may include information relating to the user'"'"'s health and nutritional needs. The user may visit a restaurant or other food service location and may be presented with a menu that includes a variety of menu options. The user may access the user profile at the restaurant or food service location and may be provided advice and suggestions regarding the available menu options. The diet advisor may perform a comparison of the health and nutritional needs of the user with the available menu options. The diet advisor may assist a user in selecting a menu option at a restaurant or food service location that is healthy and will provide the user with the proper balance of nutrients.

Claims

1. A method of automating a diet advisor, comprising:

identifying a user and associate the user with a user profile related to a user profile data file, the user profile having at least one dietary element;

storing the user profile in a memory on a computer network;

relating a plurality of menu options to a menu options data file, each of the menu options having a nutritional value;

determining user nutrition data for one of the dietary elements for a user and storing the user nutrition data in the user profile;

comparing the user nutrition data and the nutritional value of the menu options; and

creating a user menu based at least in part on the comparing of the user nutrition data and the nutritional values of the menu options, the user menu including at least one of the menu options.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising prompting the user to select a user menu selection from the user menu and updating the user profile to reflect the user menu selection.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking each of the menu options based at least in part on the comparing the user nutrition data and the nutritional values of the menu options.

4. The method of claim 3, where ranking each of the menu options includes assigning a score to each of the menu options based at least in part on the nutritional values of the menu options.

5. The method of claim 1, where the user profile includes a medical profile of the user for providing information related to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a range of user nutrition data.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising eliminating the menu options that have a nutritional value that is not within the range.

8. The method of claim 7, where a menu option that does not have a nutritional value within the range is deleted from the menu options for the user.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising restricting the menu options to menu options having a nutritional value that is within the range.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a quantity limit for at least one of the dietary elements.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising restricting the menu options if a user consumes more than the quantity limit.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a time period and a limit for the dietary element, the user being restricted to select the menu option that does not exceed the limit of the dietary element.

13. The method of claim 1, where the total nutritional value further comprising selecting a second dietary element based at least in part on the total nutritional value of the menu option.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising rewarding the user for making a healthy menu choice.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising alerting the user that the nutritional value of the menu option is not within a healthy range.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising suggesting a replacement menu option so that a total nutritional value of the menu options selected by a user is determined to be within the user'"'"'s nutrition data.

17. A central system for diet advising, comprising:

a computing device for executing software for creating a data file associated with a user and user profile containing information about the user, the computing device being positioned at a restaurant;

a receiver for receiving user data including user nutrition information on a computer network;

a server comprising memory for storing computer-executable instructions; and

a processor for executing the computer-executable instructions to perform a method, comprising;

receiving data from the computing device at a restaurant over a computer network;

storing the user data in the data file associated with the user profile;

creating a user menu that indicates menu options that include acceptable ingredients for the user;

prompting the user to select an acceptable ingredients from the user menu; and

updating the user profile when the user selects the acceptable ingredient.

wherein the computing device, the receiver, and the server form an automated diet advisor.

18. The system of claim 17, where the computer executable instructions perform a method that further comprises sending an update to the user profile to reflect the menu option that is selected by the user.

19. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions to perform a method, comprising:

establishing a user associated with a user profile related to a user profile data file and having at least one dietary element and storing the user profile in a memory on a computer network, the memory associated with a unique identifier;

relating a plurality of menu options having a nutritional value to the menu options data file;

determining user nutrition data for a user and receiving the user nutrition data on the computer network;

saving the user nutrition data to the user profile;

comparing the user nutrition data and the nutritional value of the menu options;

creating a user menu based at least in part on the comparing of the user nutrition data and the nutritional values of the menu options, the user menu including at least one of the menu options;

prompting the user to select a user selection from the user menu; and

updating the user profile based at least in part on the user selection.

20. A method of selecting a menu option, comprising:

creating a user having a user profile, the user profile that stores information about the user in a memory located on a computer network;

determining acceptable dietary options for a user and relating the acceptable dietary options with the user profile;

creating a first data file that includes nutritional information for a first menu option at the restaurant, the first menu option containing unacceptable ingredients;

creating a second data file that includes nutritional information for a second menu option at the restaurant, the second menu option containing acceptable ingredients;

accessing the user profile from a computing device coupled to the computer network, the computing device positioned at a restaurant;

comparing the first menu option to the acceptable dietary options;

comparing the second menu option to the acceptable dietary options;

determining whether the first menu option is one of the acceptable dietary options;

determining whether the second menu option is one of the acceptable dietary options;

preventing the user from selecting a first menu option based at least in part on the first menu option containing unacceptable ingredients;

permitting the user to select a second menu option based at least in part on the second menu option containing acceptable ingredients;

selecting the second menu option for the user; and

updating the user profile to reflect the second option.