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March 21, 2006
Edible Spheres: Elissa's Food Venn Diagram
Elissa's Food Venn Diagram is one -- better -- way for people to understand how to eat healthy happily. Two overlapping circles and three different colors represent the three food groups. Here's what the colors stand for:
* blue - sweet foods
* brown - salty or savory foods
* green - heavenly manna
Mmmm... let's be frank. The USDA Food Pyramid does a fine job of helping you create meals that are healthfully balanced. But in the world where my stomach rules, food does not naturally fall into Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, Dairy, Meats & Protein, and Fats & Oils. No, all food worth discussing fits into one of three categories.
There are sweet foods. There are salty or savory foods. And there, in that place of rejoicing tongues and truly satisfied stomachs, there is the contemporary equivalent of manna. We'll call those "w00t" foods.
For the most part, these distinctions are fairly self-explanatory. Chocolate cake is clearly a sweet food. French fries are salty. Caramel Crunch Chex Mix is most definitely a w00t food.
The goal, then, is to feed myself with as much food as fits into the w00t category as possible. I plan meals around this diagram. I marinate meat in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and sugar -- salty, savory, and sweet all in one glorious sauce. I add a little bit of sugar and sweet basil to my spaghetti sauce. I serve stir-fried sugar snap peas with spicy grilled chicken. Sometimes, only a small change is needed to propel a food into the golden mean. Cinnamon sugar on whole wheat toast, for example, is far better than on white bread. Or brown sugar ham -- rather than plain ham -- adds an extra dimension to egg, cheese, and toast breakfasts. It's like the yin yang of cooking, folks.
Sure, I may not be eating healthier because of my handy venn diagram, but my stomach sure is happy. And that's good for everyone.
Grub | By elissa | 12:37 PM
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Comments
I got a kick out of this, as I love the salty sweet combo, too. Have you ever tried chocolate covered potato chips? Sounds gross to some, but if you like chocolate covered pretzels then they're sure to be a hit.
Posted by: Scott at March 22, 2006 04:02 PM
I did try those once, and, once I got over the oddity of it all, I did like them. Oh, and peanut butter m&m's or the mini Reese's Pieces... those are other sublime examples of sweet/salty.
Posted by: elissa at March 23, 2006 01:22 PM
