Yellow, Red and Green Foods: The Japanese Food Pyramid

Do you recognize this picture?

The Western Food Pyramid

Public Domain Image from Wikimedia

We've all been there on the school banks, look at that weird triangle with bread at the bottom and candy at the top – maybe you were like me, hoping that candy would find its way to the base of the pyramid. At least the one in my textbook still mentioned candy. The food pyramids I found on Wikimedia completely ignore this significant part of my diet.

The food pyramid is used all over the world – also in Japan. All they did here was replacing the types of food. Let's play spot the difference with this food pyramid picture.

Candy courtesy of Iris Hoppenbrouwers

  Guess what we got instead of bread? Yup, that's right, rice! All the categories show different kind of foods to better reflect the Japanese diet. Traditional Japanese food has a large emphasis on rice and fish. Even the vegetables are slightly different. Did you know that the Japanese radish is huge?

Seriously, it should be on the list of dangerous weapons.

There is one more difference. A single creative addition to our standard food pyramid... They added colours! Yay, now the pyramid has nice green, red and yellow colours. What do you think, does it look nice? 

 

Wait, why did they do this? Was the standard pyramid boring? Oh, there is a purpose to pimping the pyramid.
In order to simplify healthy eating guidelines, the different food types were divided into three categories.

Red: stuff that makes you grow and keeps you strong

Green: stuff that keeps you healthy

Yellow: stuff that makes your body move

Makes sense?

The next part is a quick rehash of basic nutrition and biology. Skip it to read more about Japanese eating guidelines ^_^

Your body cells use glycogen as energy, which is derived from the food you eat.

Carbohydrates are the easiest source for your body to produce glycogen from. Protein and fat can be used to, but require longer for the body to process.

This is why food types with a lot of carbohydrates, like rice and bread, are put in the yellow category “makes your body move”.

Image from Wikimedia

For building muscle, making red blood cells and generally maintaining your body, you mainly need proteins. Iron and calcium are important too.

You find the perfect combination of these nutrients in animal product such as meat, fish and eggs. Vegans and vegetarians can combine specific plant sources to create a meal that provides the right nutrients. This takes some research and meal planning, but is doable. Tofu is an example of a plant product in the red category, so it gets much love from vegans.

For the green category, just think about vitamins and minerals, which you find lots of in vegetables and fruits.

So how does this apply to a healthy diet? The food guide in three colours let's you pick the right amount from each category.

For this, points were devised. 80 calories are one point and your goal is to acquire 16 points from yellow food, 6 points from red food and 3 points from green food. This will put you at a total of 2000 calories, with just the right balance of nutrients. If you don't cheat and count hamburgers as good food, that is...

As a guy you might want to shoot for 2500 calories, or 6-7 points extra. (note: some Japanese sources quote 2200-2600 for men and 1600-2000 for women. In the low bracket, women would consume 11 yellow food points.)
Using this easy to understand point system, it greatly simplifies creating your own healthy eating plan. So you can follow a healthy diet just counting colours!

Let's look at the system in practice.

In the cafeteria of Tottori University, the total calories and the food point of your meal are printed on your ticket.

Here's an example of mine:

Yellow points, red points, green points and a belly
filled with delicious school food.

The only option not included is the salad bar, since that dish varies a whole lot depending on whether you load up on pasta salad or broccoli.

However, outside the cafeteria the system falls apart.
Points are not written on packages. So when you eat something, you first have to determine what category the food belongs too. Yellow, red or green? It ain't mentioned anywhere. How do you know? Sure, there are a lot of examples in the food pyramid pictures, so you can kinda guess that all rice products will belong to the yellow category. But what about sushi? It has both rice and fish ingredients...

It doesn't end there. Next, you also need to calculate how many points your food is worth by dividing the total calories by 80.

So this chocolate chip cookie would be 3.8 points, if I would feel the need to pull out a calculator and do the math. I'd still be clueless about the colour category.

Let's get this straight: no one does this. It is impossible to spend so much mental energy on converting food package information to a food guide point system... for every single meal and snack... and then check the totals of the day...

Heck, we even have difficulties keeping track whether we get our five servings of veggies and fruit a day. This is insane!

Look, this system could provide for healthy eating habits. But the theory and the application are far apart. As a result, the whole method is ineffective.

I love the idea, but there is literally only one place where I can use it. If you want this system to work, the yellow, red and green points should be printed on all food packaging. If this was a standard on food packages, it would make a great tool for getting healthy eating habits.

In short: Great Idea, Poor Execution.

What do you think of this system? Would mentioning points on packages help to eat healthier?

Many thanks to professor Takeda of Tottori University, for answering all my questions about Japanese food education.