Counting calories and not sure how many you are consuming? Now worried calorie-counters can really know what they are eating by simply taking a picture of the food in question with the help of a new iPhone app called MealSnap.

The way MealSnap works is that the user takes a picture of the desired meal with the iPhone, after which the app provides a quick caloric read-out within minutes. The app matches the photo to a database, which contains more than 500,000 food items and sends the concerned user an alert that features that meal’s caloric range.

MealSnap was developed by a fitness social network known as DailyBurn and is available on the iTunes store for $2.99. The company boasts of other innovative and effective applications that relate to fitness and diet as well.

Whatever facts a user may seek about the food they are about to ingest, the MealSnap database easily provides. Besides how many calories, this information includes but is not limited to: the number of proteins, fat, carbs and vitamins. The app also provides a secondary function as a visual food journal whose entries are detailed not with words but with photos.

The world is becoming more and more health conscious and this iPhone app is one tool that makes tracking calories a very easy task. It also curbs impulsive eating as it forces you to first get the information and then make a decision.

If all else fails, you can consider eating the iPhone application itself, but no one can say how many calories that might entail!