is a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 13 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
If I were to believe the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, I don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables.
Normally, smartwatches don’t make judgments about your nutritional intake. But this year, Samsung introduced a new experimental feature called Antioxidant Index. Using blue, yellow, and infrared LEDs, the watch’s sensor can pick up carotenoid levels in your skin. (Carotenoids are a type of antioxidant that give fruits and veg their yellow, orange, or red hues.) You stick your thumb on the sensor, press, and in 10 seconds, you get an estimate of whether you’re meeting the recommended amount of 400g of fruits and veggies per day.
I wasn’t expecting the Galaxy Watch 8 to say I was the Queen of Plants. I’ve been known to pooh-pooh a side salad in favor of fries with my burgers. But it was kind of rude when two weeks ago at Unpacked, I demoed the feature and got a dismal score of 37. This was after I’d just had a vegetarian July 4th, replete with zucchini, radishes, corn, cabbage, tomatoes, salad, and more peaches than I knew how to digest.
It was even ruder when this morning; it said I had a “very low” antioxidant score of 48. This, after eating my customary breakfast that includes a serving of fruit, coffee, and a green juice protein smoothie — all rich in antioxidants.
The old me would’ve tossed the Galaxy Watch 8 with an indignant huff. The new, evolved me decided to test this sensor on as many brightly colored things as I could get my thumbs on.
I colored my thumb with a yellow-orange Tombow marker. It gave me a score of 100.
First was a tangerine peel. As expected, it got a score of 100. The same was true of a peach slice, a tangerine section, and a strawberry from my lunch and breakfast, respectively. I had less success with a blackberry. Despite having the highest carotenoid levels of any berry, the berry scored a dismal 37. At this point, I thought I was on to something. All the red, yellow, and orange fruits had passed with flying colors, yet a carotenoid-rich blackberry failed? Perhaps the Galaxy Watch 8 was more colorist than accurate.
I colored my thumb with a yellow-orange marker. Wouldn’t you know it? My Antioxidant Index shot up to 100. Next, I colored it with a blue marker. My score dropped to zero. Unfortunately, my color-based hypothesis was foiled by a piece of roasted broccoli. It, too, scored 100 and is, in fact, rich in carotenoids.
Perhaps the blackberry had failed because, when pressed against the sensor, it exploded in a mess of purple juice that was subsequently difficult to clean from the watch. Perhaps I was deficient in my antioxidant consumption. Or so I thought, until the Cheez-It.
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