The future of eating is here. Inspired by his own adventures in trying to eat right, Cowichan Valley businessman and selfdescribed "tech geek" Damir Wallener has created the Smart-Fork, a utensil that can tell you what's in your food and how good it is for you.
It all started when Wallener realized he was falling victim to middle age.
"Two or two and a half years ago, I looked at myself in the mirror and discovered I was becoming a bit of a man-mountain," he recalled.
Wallener managed to shed 90 pounds by tracking everything he ate. The problem was that he had to enter everything into a massive spreadsheet.
"There had to be an easier way," he said.
Inspired by scales that can calculate a person's body fat, Wallener set about inventing a fork that can figure out calories by measuring carbohydrates, fats and proteins. The SmartFork - or its companion, the SmartSpoon - logs all the details by wirelessly communicating with a smartphone app.
Wallener is currently conducting a campaign on Kickstarter to raise money to get his invention to the next level.
"We have a solid prototype that's working quite well," he said. "Now it's about figuring out how to do it in large quantities."
Wallener's campaign at Kickstarter.com (search for "Smart-Fork") runs until April 16. Whether it is successful or not, he's excited about the potential for the fork. "It will help a lot of people," he said. "It certainly would have helped me."