Frequently asked questions

Timiya estimates what your body takes in from each meal, not only what is on the plate. You log a meal like ugali, sukuma wiki, beans and chai, by photo or in your own words, and confirm what Timiya found. For each nutrient you see what you ate and what it counts as, adjusted for what you ate it with, how it was cooked and when. When a meal has a gap and a matching tip, you get a nudge: one simple change to try, free ideas first. You also get meal ideas for your next meal, each showing how much it could add to your day.

Timiya shows 39 nutrients in four groups. Macronutrients: energy, protein, fat, carbs, fiber, sugar and added sugar. Fats: saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and trans fat, cholesterol, omega-3 and omega-6. Minerals: iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, selenium, iodine, copper, manganese and chromium. Vitamins: A, D, E, K, C, thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), B6, folate, B12 and biotin. For each one, Timiya estimates both what you ate and what it counts as once the meal's combinations and cooking are taken into account.

It is how much of a nutrient your body actually takes in, and nutrition scientists call it bioavailability. It isn't fixed: it changes with what else is on the plate, how the food was cooked and when you eat it. The same plate of beans may give you more iron if the beans were soaked, if there is a tomato or lemon on the plate, and if the chai comes an hour later. Timiya's figures are estimates that adjust for habits like these.

A nudge is tied to the meal you just logged, not a general tip. Generic advice says "eat more iron-rich foods." Timiya might say "have your chai an hour after lunch, not with it," or "squeeze a lemon over the beans." A nudge appears when a meal has a gap and a matching tip, and free ideas come first. Separately, meal ideas for your next meal show how much each could add to your day.

It knows Kenyan dishes by name. A set of common Kenyan foods have checked nutrient values, and Timiya uses AI to estimate the rest from the dish and the portion. You confirm or fix what Timiya found before it counts. Absorption adjustments follow published nutrition science on things like tea and iron, vitamin C, soaking and fermenting, and cooking greens in oil.

Your meal data belongs to you. We don't sell it, and we don't share your health details with employers or insurers. To recognize the food in a photo or description, and to suggest meals, the app uses Google's Gemini AI. You can download or delete your data at any time. The privacy policy lists every service that handles your data.

Timiya isn't a diet app, and it doesn't promote calorie restriction or any named diet. It isn't a medical device, and it doesn't diagnose conditions or replace your clinic's advice. It isn't a recipe app, because it works with the food you already eat. And it is built around Kenyan meals: the dishes it knows by name, the cooking questions it asks and the nudges it gives.

Phytates are natural compounds in beans, grains and seeds that may hold on to iron and zinc in the gut so less is taken in. Some old kitchen habits lower them. Soaking beans overnight and throwing away the water, sprouting, and fermenting (as in soured uji) may all reduce phytates and help your body take in more of the minerals. Timiya includes phytates in its iron and zinc estimates, and asks whether your uji or flour was soured.

Tea contains tannins that may bind to the iron in plant foods, so less of it is taken in when chai comes with the meal. Timing is the simple fix: chai an hour after the meal may get in the way much less. Timiya asks when you had your tea and adjusts the iron estimate for that meal.

Vitamin C may help your body take in more of the iron from plant foods eaten in the same meal. A tomato, a squeeze of lemon, kachumbari or a guava with beans or greens all add it. Heat breaks vitamin C down, so raw additions may help more than cooked ones. Timiya counts vitamin C foods on the same plate when it estimates iron.

Vitamins A, D, E and K dissolve in fat, not water, so a little fat in the meal may help your body take them in. Greens boiled without any oil may give you much less vitamin A than the same greens cooked with a little oil. Timiya asks how your greens were cooked, and the answer changes its vitamin A estimate.

A little meat, fish or chicken in a meal may help your body take in more of the iron from the plant foods eaten with it. So a small portion of omena alongside ugali and beans may add more than its own iron. Timiya looks for these combinations and includes them in its iron estimate.

Fermenting grains and milk may break down phytates, which may help your body take in more iron and zinc from the food. Kenyan kitchens have done this for generations: soured uji, esitoi (fermented millet porridge) and mursik (fermented milk). Quick-cook unfermented versions may give you less. Timiya counts soured or fermented grain when it estimates iron.

Yes. Protein from eggs, meat, fish and milk is used by the body more fully than protein from a single grain or a single legume. Maize and beans each lack something the other has, so together, as in githeri, they make better protein than either alone. Timiya gives protein a boost when a meal pairs a cereal with a legume.

A lot of calcium in the same meal may reduce how much iron you take in. That doesn't mean avoiding calcium, since you need both. Timing is the fix: have mala, milk or yogurt between meals, or with a meal that isn't your main iron source. Timiya includes this when it estimates the iron in a meal.

Timiya estimates both the iron on your plate and how much of it counts, which can be very different. Chai with the meal, unsoaked beans and a lot of calcium may all get in the way, while vitamin C and a little meat or fish may help. The nutrient page shows which of these affected each meal, so you can see what to change.

Your body uses zinc for immune function, healing and taste. The same phytates that hold on to iron may hold on to zinc, so soaking, sprouting and fermenting may help with both. Meat, eggs and omena give zinc in a form that is easier to take in. Timiya adjusts its zinc estimate for phytates and animal protein in the meal.

Timiya tracks calcium from milk, mala, omena eaten with the bones, greens and grains like finger millet. Some greens, such as spinach, are high in oxalates that may hold on to their calcium, so less of it counts. Sukuma wiki has far fewer oxalates. Timiya adjusts the calcium from high-oxalate greens in its estimate.

Timiya tracks sodium against a daily limit for salt. Much of the salt in a Kenyan kitchen hides in stock cubes and seasoning mixes, instant noodle flavor sachets, and smokies and sausages, not only in the salt shaker. If your clinic gave you a salt limit, add it and Timiya uses that instead.

Timiya tracks vitamin D from food, but your skin makes most of your vitamin D from sunlight, so the food figure is only part of the picture. Few Kenyan foods have much of it: egg yolks and oily fish like sardines are among the best. If you are worried about your vitamin D, your clinic can check it.

Yes. Timiya counts the sugar added to food and drinks, including the spoons in your chai and the sugar in sodas and juices, against a daily limit based on WHO advice. Cholesterol is one of the 39 nutrients Timiya shows, so you can see how much your meals contain.

Timiya tracks fiber against a target that depends on your gender. Fiber is part of what makes whole grains, beans and vegetables filling. Good Kenyan sources include beans, ndengu, lentils, githeri, whole-grain uji and avocado, while instant noodles and white bread have little.

They are among the 12 minerals Timiya shows, though they rarely come up as concerns in a varied diet. Meat, fish and eggs give selenium; liver and lentils give copper; sweet potatoes, brown rice and legumes give manganese. After a week of logging, the Nutrition page groups every nutrient as Watch, Improving or Comfortable, so the ones that need attention stand out.

Omena is hard to beat. Because you eat the whole fish, bones included, it gives protein, calcium, omega-3, iron, zinc and vitamin B12 in one small portion. How you cook it may matter: a quick stir-fry may keep more of the omega-3 than deep-frying.

Githeri is one of Kenya's most complete everyday dishes, and one of the cheapest. Maize and beans each lack something the other has, so together they make better protein than either alone, and the beans add fiber, folate, iron and potassium. In muthokoi, the maize hull is pounded off before cooking, which may lower phytates and help your body take in more of the minerals.

Several traditional foods have been pushed aside by newer ones. Finger millet (wimbi) has much more calcium than maize flour. Fermented uji, such as esitoi, may be easier on minerals than quick-cook uji. Indigenous greens such as terere (amaranth), saga (spider plant), mrenda (jute mallow), managu (African nightshade) and pumpkin leaves are rich in iron, calcium and vitamin A. Njahi (black beans from Meru) are rich in protein, iron and folate.

Each region has its own strengths. Lake region cooking uses omena and indigenous greens often. Coastal cooking pairs coconut fat, which may help with vitamin A, with fish, tamarind and turmeric. Rift Valley cooking includes fermented milk like mursik. Central Kenya's mukimo puts potatoes, which carry vitamin C, alongside pumpkin leaves and maize. Eastern cooking is rich in legumes, with muthokoi and pumpkin dishes.

Ugali, omena and sukuma wiki cooked in oil gives protein, calcium, omega-3 and vitamin A, and the fish may help with the iron. Githeri with soaked beans, sukuma in oil and a squeeze of lemon pairs maize and beans with vitamin C. Rice, ndengu and kachumbari adds raw vitamin C to a legume. Fermented millet uji with a banana, or eggs with chapati and sukuma wiki, are good choices too.

What is cheap and plentiful changes through the year. Mango season brings vitamin A and C, avocado season brings healthy fats, folate and potassium, and when a season ends, those nutrients can quietly fall away. As you log over a full year, Timiya is designed to spot these seasonal dips in your own data and suggest a food to fill the gap before it opens.

Sukuma wiki gives much more vitamin A than cabbage, along with more vitamin C, calcium and iron, for about the same price at the market. It also has few oxalates, so its calcium is easier to take in. Swapping cabbage for sukuma wiki is a simple change that costs nothing extra.

They vary a lot. Chips, chicken and a soda give protein but little in the way of vegetables, fiber or vitamin A, and the soda adds sugar. Kibanda ugali, sukuma and beans is often the better plate, and adding kachumbari brings vitamin C for the iron. Instant noodles are salty and low in vitamins, and tearing a handful of sukuma wiki into the pot adds vitamins A and C, calcium and fiber.

Timiya lets you look back by day, week, month and year. Today you get a weekly report, streaks, a yearly heatmap, nutrient trends over 7 days, 28 days, 3 months and a year, the richest foods you eat for each nutrient, and each month your nutrient trajectories and patterns (such as how chai affects your iron). As you log over months, Timiya is designed to go further: spotting seasonal patterns and slow drift in your eating, learning which food pairings work best for you, showing whether a nudge actually helped, and comparing foods by cost per nutrient.

It is the direction a nutrient is moving across the month. Each month, Timiya shows your key nutrients as improving, stable, declining or in sharp decline, based on what your meals gave you week by week. As you log over more months, Timiya is designed to project where a nutrient is heading and to let you know early when one is slipping.

Drift is a slow change you don't notice day to day, like a few fewer meals with greens each week, or chai creeping back toward mealtimes. Timiya is designed to compare your recent weeks with your longer-term pattern and tell you when something has quietly changed, along with the nutrients it affects.

After a full year of logging, Timiya is designed to spot patterns that repeat with the seasons, such as vitamin A dipping when mango season ends. In the second year, it is designed to suggest a food to fill the gap before it opens, such as orange-fleshed sweet potato.

It is a personal map of which food pairings help or get in the way for you, built from your own meals. The science says tea with a meal may reduce the iron you take in, but how much depends on your chai, your portions and the rest of your plate. As you log over months, Timiya is designed to rank the pairings that help you most, like lemon with lentils, and the ones that cost you most, like chai with the meal.

Timiya is designed to treat each nudge you take up as a small experiment. If you start having your chai an hour after meals, it is designed to compare the iron estimates from meals before and after the change and tell you what changed. It is also designed to say so plainly when a change made little difference, so you can put your effort where it counts.

Each of the 39 nutrients has its own page. It shows a trend of what you ate and what it counts as, over 7 days, 28 days, 3 months or a year; where you are against your target; the foods you eat that are richest in it, with how often you ate them; and which combinations or cooking helped or got in the way. Timiya is also designed to add a personal path to your target, built from foods you already eat.

Your targets follow your profile. They change with each trimester of pregnancy, while you breastfeed, with your age band and with your activity level, and the app shows why each one is set. Timiya is designed to let you know when a birthday moves you into a new age band with different targets.

Timiya is designed to combine local market prices with its nutrient estimates to show which foods give you the most for each shilling. Many people assume eating well costs more, and foods like omena, sukuma wiki, beans and eggs often show otherwise. As you log over months, it is designed to point out your best-value meals.

After a week of logging, the weekly report (History, then Weekly) shows your average score and several insights. "What improved" shows nutrients that went up compared with the week before, and "What slipped" shows ones that went down. "Where to focus" highlights nutrients still below your targets. Food frequency shows which foods you ate most that week, and your streak shows how consistently you logged.

For each of the 39 nutrients, the detail page shows: a trend chart over 7 days, 28 days, 3 months or a year; what you ate and what it counts as against your target; the foods you eat that are richest in it (per 100 g, with how often you ate them); and which combinations or cooking helped or got in the way.

The yearly heatmap is a grid of the weeks in your year, shaded by your average score, so you can see your logging and your scores at a glance. Selecting a week opens its weekly report, with your average score, days and meals logged, food frequency, and what improved and what slipped.

When you tell Timiya you are pregnant, your targets change with each trimester, and again while you breastfeed. Your scores then use the new targets, and Timiya adds food-safety notes for pregnancy. Keep taking the supplements your clinic gave you, and check with your clinic before changing how you eat.

Several cooking and timing habits cost nothing. Have your chai an hour after the meal, not with it. Ask for kachumbari instead of cabbage at the kibanda. Drink mala between meals rather than with ugali and beans. Stir-fry omena instead of deep-frying it. Soak beans overnight and throw away the water. Let uji sour before cooking it. Steam greens or cook them briefly rather than boiling them for a long time. Each may help your body take in more from the same food.

A spoon of oil on boiled sukuma wiki may help with vitamin A. A tomato or half a lemon over beans adds vitamin C, which may help with iron. A guava with your morning bread does the same. A handful of sukuma wiki torn into instant noodles adds vitamins A and C, calcium and fiber. A little fat on boiled sweet potato may help with its vitamin A, and an egg adds good-quality protein to a plate of noodles or spaghetti.

No. Timiya works with the food you already eat, and many nudges are free: chai after the meal, lemon on the beans, greens cooked with a little oil. Affordable foods like omena, sukuma wiki, beans, ndengu, eggs, mala and fermented uji go a long way.

Cabbage to sukuma wiki: about the same price, with more vitamin A, calcium, iron and folate. Soda to mala: a similar price, with calcium, protein and vitamin B12 instead of sugar water. Unsoaked to soaked beans: free, and may help with iron and zinc. Regular to fermented uji: free, it only takes time. White bread to whole wheat chapati: more fiber, zinc and magnesium. Smokies or sausages to eggs or omena: more protein and less salt.

Build meals around affordable foods that give a lot: omena, eggs, sukuma wiki, beans and ndengu, mala, and orange-fleshed sweet potato. Use the free habits too: soak beans, sour your uji, have chai between meals, and cook greens with a little oil. Buy seasonal produce when it is plentiful and cheap. A parent or guardian can also add their children in Timiya, log the family pot once, and see what each child's week of food gave them.

Pregnancy raises your needs for several nutrients, especially iron, folate and calcium. Beans with lemon or kachumbari, greens cooked briefly in a little oil, omena, eggs, mala and orange-fleshed sweet potato are all good choices, and chai an hour after meals may help with iron. In Timiya, your targets change with each trimester and while you breastfeed, and you get food-safety notes for pregnancy. Keep taking the supplements your clinic gave you, and check with your clinic before changing how you eat.

Growing children need plenty of iron, zinc, calcium and iodine. Finger millet uji, omena, eggs, beans and greens are good everyday sources, and chai with every meal may get in the way of the iron. In Timiya, a parent or guardian can add children aged 2 to 17, log the family pot once, and see what each child's week of food gave them. This is an early version, still being checked, and your child's clinic comes first.

Some needs change with age, including calcium, vitamin B12, vitamin D and protein, and the body may take in some of them less easily. Timiya's targets change with your age band, and the app shows why each one is set. Timiya is designed to let you know when a birthday moves you into a new age band.

More activity raises your energy needs and may raise your needs for protein, iron, B vitamins and magnesium. Add your activity level (sedentary, moderate or active), height and weight, and Timiya sets your energy and protein targets for you. Omena is an underrated training food, with protein, calcium, omega-3 and iron in one portion.

Iron, folate and calcium matter most. Everyday habits change how much you get: chai with the meal may reduce the iron you take in, and boiling greens for a long time and throwing away the water may lose folate. Lemon or kachumbari with beans, chai an hour later, greens cooked briefly, and mala between meals may all help. If your clinic gave you supplements, ask them how and when to take them.

Add it as a goal. Timiya helps you keep an eye on salt. If your clinic gave you limits, add them and Timiya uses those.

You can pick up to three goals, such as eating for steadier blood sugar or healthy blood pressure, or getting more iron from your food. Your targets and meal ideas follow them. Timiya gives general nutrition information, and your clinic's advice comes first.

Yes. Add a condition or medicine your clinic told you about, and Timiya uses it to leave out food ideas that may not suit you, such as very salty dishes. Timiya only uses your health details with your permission. It isn't medical advice, and your clinic's advice comes first.

No. Timiya doesn't diagnose any condition. It estimates how much iron your meals likely give you, and which habits may be getting in the way. If you are worried about your iron, your clinic can test it.

Timiya doesn't recommend fasting. If you already fast, tell Timiya your days and times, and Home follows your fast. In pregnancy, while breastfeeding and with some conditions, Timiya asks you to talk to your clinic first and limits the options. Check with your clinic before changing how you eat.

Many traditional habits turn out to help the body take in more. Soaking beans overnight may lower the phytates that hold on to iron and zinc. Souring uji, as in esitoi, may do the same. Mashing potatoes, peas and pumpkin leaves together in mukimo puts vitamin C next to iron in the same bite. Eating omena whole, bones and all, gives calcium. Coastal cooking with coconut milk adds fat that may help with vitamin A.

Traditional diets were often more varied. They used many indigenous vegetables where city plates use a few, millet and sorghum alongside maize, fermented foods like esitoi, mursik and soured uji, and omena and a range of legume stews. The everyday city plate of ugali, sukuma wiki and beans with chai is narrower, and bringing back some of these foods is an easy way to add variety.