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. 

Spiders, bugs... why not mice and rattlesnakes too?

Let it be... It catches bugs!
I see... You want an indoor ecosystem!

Say whatever you want, keeping spiders inside doesn't make your house look any cleaner.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Me

1. I take a cold shower once or twice a day, right after my regular shower.
2. If I say "yeah, it was expensive...", then the correct response is "Ouch, I'm so sorry for you."
3. My favourite food is the pomegranate, but I haven't eaten one in two years.
4. I've dreamed to be a freerunner since I was a kid, but I've never practiced.
5. I make New Year resolutions every Monday.
6. My lowest weight ever (i.e. at current height of 178cm) and my highest weight ever happened happened within the course of six months.
7. I regularly forget my own age.
8. To this day, I feel guilty about killing an innocent worm at age 4.
9. One of the most amazing things about humans is that we don' topple over when we do stuff. You know, like moving an arm. I marvel at our ability to keep our balance.
10. The most important quality to me is Honesty. I believe honesty is interlinked with courage.

As a closing note, air is pretty disgusting. You know that greasy chap you dislike so much? The air you are breathing has passed through his lungs already. Enjoy your oxygen.

Reasons Why I Shouldn't Travel By Plane

Tomorrow I finally leave for Japan... 

1. I try to board the wrong plane

"Look, a plane!"
"I have to be on a plane..."
"Must. Get. On. Plane."

Luckily, there's always a lady at the gate to stop me.

2. I lose my stuff

Credit to hotblack, MorgueFile license

3. I forget about boarding rules

4. I like airplane food

...and that just can't be a good thing!

CHILDHOOD STORIES: Why I Ate My Boogers

As I child, I ate my boogers. Openly. Incessantly. Proudly.
My parents must have been desperate. They couldn't make me stop in any way. My parents failed to figure out why I did this. Or why I even encouraged other children to do it. 

If they had known why, maybe they could have stopped me. It all started with a penguin.

On a family trip to the zoo, we met this guy:

I asked why this new penguin had yellow thingies on his head.

"That's spaghetti," my father said.
"Yes," added my mother. "When he's starving, he can eat it."


Woa. How mesmerizing, the wonders of nature! A built-in food factory? Amazing!
It didn't take me long to realize that we, humans, also had such a food factory.

Finally I understood why my nose made icky boogers all the time! I was lacking food!
So I started eating my boogers. As nature had intended.

Day in, day out, my nose continued to provide boogers, signaling my lack of sufficient nutrition. I noticed boogers in other children's noses. Eager to save them from starvation, I convinced many, many fellow toddlers to join me eating the fruits of my immune system.


Too bad they didn't taste like spaghetti.

~Closing Note~
Yes, I did eventually realize that the penguin didn't carry spaghetti around. Moral of the story: don't listen to your parents.

How About Doing Something? Challenges: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly.

A lot of people have something to do. They know what they want to be - or already are. They have a job, a family or a passion to work for. They can do so day by day, letting it grow.

Yet, there are so many possibilities, that choosing is often impossible. How many of you have merely one interest? Sooner or later you'll have to choose, still not knowing what interest overpowers all the others. Not knowing whether the choice you've made is better than the choices you didn't make. Choosing a study, a job, a career.

Even picking a hobby can be challenging.

I found out how to pick a route and yet keep all roads open:

After hours challenges.

As long as you don't lock yourself inside the house, you'll end up in some not-so-great-yet-not-horrible job. That's your security. Usually, people pick a hobby to fill their spare time.

Others pick challenges.

Daily challenges, weekly challenges, monthly challenges, yearly challenges. 100 day challenges, one time challenges, three week challenges.

What kind of challenges? Anything, really.

Benjamin Franklin had a rotating cycle of thirteen virtues. Every week, he'd focus on battling one of those. He argued that by practicing them all, one at a time, someday they'd be ingrained in his nature.

He never managed a clean slate.

Yet, he said that practicing this helped him grow to personal success. That's an important clue. It's about doing the challenge, not about the results. Put up a little fight. If anything, it's a exercise of will power.

Then you have Matt Cutts, who also claims that taking on challenges improved his life wholly:

Matt Cutts who takes on a new challenge every month:

He mentioned NaNoWriMo, the challenge where you write a complete book in one month. That must be the prime example of how challenges bring out the best in people. How many people do you know that have a story in them, yet never finished writing it?

When I asked around, nearly everyone had started a book. A few were still writing new books every now and then. At least, the beginning of those books.

And then you've got those who brag about the amazing book they'll publish, but they haven't got one chapter yet.

Out of all the dozens of people I asked, only one had finished writing. (not me, sadly ;_;)

But on NaNoWriMo, people actually finish.

Out of all those people pretending to be writers, over 30,000 NaNoWriMo writers finish their book.

Some people take it even further, biting into one year challenges. Not just your average New Year resolution, but jumping onto something new and exiting.

My two favourites are "1000 Self Portraits" by Andrew Jones and "Dance in a Year" by Karen Cheng

Andrew Jones made a self portrait each day of the year. For three years. This is the result:

Full size image: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/andrew_jones_1000.jpg

The amount alone is impressive. His endless creativity is too: so much variation, so many different styles!

Then Karen Cheng, whose "I learned to dance in one year" video went viral:

Her idea was simple too: practice dancing every day. She's still going, after that year.

In September she launches a new website: Project 100, which will focus on practicing a skill for 100 days.

We sure like round numbers, don't we? Why not 52 days? 33 days. 126 days, maybe?

I found that hobbies don't work out for me. A few years ago, I bought a camera, but I'm still not taking pictures in my spare time. I have two sets of soft pastels, both unused. Never mind the forgotten stack of computer games.

I don't have full time career to focus on either. I gave up my childhood dream of becoming a caveman, so for now I'm just doing some university stuff.

Actually, I'm familiar with one particular challenge: lent. And that's it. (I always attempt  "no junk food for one day", but rarely persist past lunch.)

So yeah, looks like I need to take on these challenges, if I ever want to put my spare time to use.

Three questions to answer:

- what

- how

- when

The first two are easy, because I kinda selected beforehand. What: any hobby I attempted and didn't forget about yet. How: internet guidance.

When: ...

Eh. Will I pick a weekly, monthly or yearly challenge? I tried determining the ideal way to practice. A week is nice, because it's easy to carry through a mere seven days. But a year will yield the best results. Is a month the logical in-between? What about all the other options?

Maybe I better choose based on subjective preference. Well... I don't know which one I like best.

In that case, I ought to try them all and sift out my favourite.

Karen Cheng needs testers for her upcoming Project 100. That's my starting point.

(psst, you can apply too, till August)

A 100 day challenge. It isn't midnight yet. I can start today.

Then I'd finish the 100th day right when November starts, set to go for a monthly challenge. Maybe NaNoWriMo?

And when December comes around, I have all the time to set up a weekly challenge, before January marks the start of a one-year adventure.

It'll take me a while, but I can try them all and figure out whether it works or not. After all, I've already spend years on trying to acquire a hobby.

And then I'll be ready to figure out an adventure schedule.

Oooh, I know what I'm going to do for 100 days. I'm going to paint portraits. Horrible, hideous portraits at first. May they improve tenfold!

If you want to join, do so! Pick something - anything, really. You can start a thread on some forum, a blog, join a site like lift.do or just keep it private.

I haven't started yet, but I'm already promising you it'll be great.

Turning a Cookie Habit into a Walking Habit

                               romanticized version of walking                     

Yes, I like to walk. But I'm also a busy, responsible person. I can't walk around aimlessly!

I have to be productive. I have to be a good student and work work work. Walking doesn't fit into that.

I forbid myself to walk. And that's when my brain starts to trick me.

I should go to the store.

I really need a coke right now. And cookies.

C'mon, I can't concentrate when feeling this craving.

Hey, and there's caffeine and sugar in it, that'd help me study.

Going to the store right now is necessary for being productive.

So yeah, my brain finds a reason to go outside. Some purpose.

No, I'm not someone who goes on silly, useless walks. I go out to buy something. I'm super efficient, just going to the nearby store for some essential supplements to my studies!

The brain has succesfully tricked me.

To be even more productive and efficient, I ride the bicycle to the store.

SUPEREFFICIENCY

...

And in the end, I haven't had a walk at all.

In Need Of Change

This got so bad, that I hadn't gone out for a walk in months, yet I went to the story on a daily basis, to buy things I didn't need.

I could foresee my future as a hyperefficient person...

Something had to be done.

It was time for an intervention.

I told myself:

You will go outside every night, whether you like it or not!

It worked. My whole attitude towards walking changed.
This was one of my duties, just like studying.
So during the day I'd eagerly wait till the evening, when I could go out and have my walk. I didn't have to go to the store anymore. I knew that I'd have my walk. No choice. Even if I didn't want to, I would still go outside and wander aimlessly.
Such a relaxing idea! I turned walking from a treat into an obligation, but I am enjoying it more than ever. :)