the food pyramid??

Have you ever seen this? I recently saw this chart being used on a Japanese food show. Apparently, it has been around in Japan for awhile.

This is a re-vamped version of America's food pyramid. The Japanese version has been flipped upside down to resemble a spinning top.

At the top, there is a man running symbolizing exercise. The core of the top symbolizes water and tea.

The yellow section and the largest represents grains--rice, bread, noodles and pasta. You should get between 5 to 7 servings a day. Your total serving size in a day should equal to about 4 medium servings of rice.

The green section represents vegetables--types of potato, mushrooms and seaweeds. You should get 5 to 6 servings a day.

The brown section represents meat, fish, eggs and soy-bean dishes. You should get about 3 to 5 servings a day.

The last section is broken into two. On the left represents dairy products which you should get about 2 servings per day (although I've seen advertisements for 3 servings per day, so I'm not too sure which is correct). And on the right is fruits. You should also get about 2 servings per day.

And the little string like thing to the left of the top represents sweets, beverages such as alchohol, coffee...which we should all be having in moderation...

I thought it was kind of interesting to see how they broke down their food groups and serving sizes. The portions are smaller than what we are used to in America. The chart is kind of helpful because it tells you what your serving size would be if you ate a certain item. For example in the meat area, a serving of fried chicken (toriniku karaage) would already equal to 3 servings. Whereas, a serving of cold tofu (hiyayako), would equal to only 1 serving.

Changing the subject though, I wanted to share with you another of my favorite snacks from Hawaii. It is a party mix type snack made by Big Island Delights. This is the original version. They also have a furikake version which is a party mix covered with furikake (dry seasonings like seaweed, sesame seeds and a shoyu taste). I like the original version because it has corn chips, cheese puffs, cereal, and pretzels, plus a garlic-y, sweet and salty taste to it. Unfortunately, the contents of this bag that I got were really stale. I've written them to let them know, but I'm sure that I'll be back to buy more the next time I'm home.

Only a couple more hours until the delivery of our new shelves, I can't wait!! :)

Hope you have a great week.