What is Smart Choice?

Smart Choice is the food wellness program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Developed by the Department of Nutrition & Food Services, the program is designed to have a single set of standards to designate "healthy" menu items at retail food outlets across UCSF. These standards have been developed after careful review of the latest research, national healthy eating guidelines, and comparable programs. This program was implemented in March 2009 in all Nutrition and Food Service outlets.

The Smart Choice Smart U program is the next evolution of Smart Choice which combines personalized nutritional information via MyFitnessPal's application and portal including original items prepared by Nutrition and Food Services and individual physical activity monitored by Fitbit activity trackers. Launched in January 2013, this unique partnership between UCSF Nutrition and Food Services with MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, two San Francisco-based companies, makes this solution possible. In addition to the initial launch, Nutrition and Food Services will be regularly updating the recipes and nutritional values of its original recipes with MyFitnessPal to add to the more than 2 million food items in their database. Unique industry standard bar codes for NFS food items have been created so nutritional values can be quickly integrated into the MyFitnessPal portal. Users also can search for foods and add their own personal foods to their profile.