The Interactive Food Wheel©

The Interactive Food Wheel^© complements the messages contained within the
  Australian Guide to Healthy Eating.

Click on image for a closer view  

Introduction:  The total area of the circle (above, below) represents the total volume of food an individual would eat in a given period (for example, a day, or a week) to satisfy appetite.

People who are physically active need to eat a larger volume of healthy food to meet their body's energy and nutrient needs.  Inactive people need smaller volumes of healthy foods to meet their body's energy and nutrient needs. Whatever the volume of food eaten, the quality and balance of the food choices made are important for long term health.

Using the Interactive Food Wheel^©

Take a minute to think about all the foods you eat or drink in, say, a week.  Imagine you were to place all of these foods on one large plate.  If you were to push all of the Fuel Foods to one area of the plate, all the Protective Foods next to them, all the Growth Foods next to those and all the Useless Foods in the remaining space, then how much area on the plate would be taken up by each of these Food Groups?

Now try this concept out on the Interactive Food Wheel^© above.  Increase or decrease the size of each food group so that the size of the relevant group illustrates your food choice and eating habits.  You can do this by either of two following methods:

	1.  using your mouse, adjusting the "slider" bars in the column to the left of the Interactive Food Wheel©, or
	2.  placing the mouse on one of the "handles" () on the outside of the Interactive Food Wheel© and moving it to the left or right.

The bars to the right of the Interactive Food Wheel^© indicate whether your requirements for carbohydrate, protein, fat and total energy needs are either exceeded (more than 100%), met (100%), or not met (less than 100%).

In the case of the Interactive Food Wheel^©, a healthy balanced diet exists when carbohydrate, protein, fat and total energy needs are all at 100%. You will notice that this is achieved when Fuel Foods and Protective Foods contribute about 80% of the total volume of the food eaten and when "Useless Foods" are kept at a minimum.

Food Groups of The Interactive Food Wheel^©

The Interactive Food Wheel^© is divided into four "Food Groups"; three are visible at default.  The food groups are:

Diet Characteristics

Did you find the tool above useful?

Information For Nutritionists and Nutrition Educators 

The Interactive Food Wheel^© is a nutrition education concept designed by Roy Price, Nutritionist and Dietitian,  using food exchange information (Dietitian's Handbook, Curtin University, 1988). 

To determine the macronutrient characteristics of the "Food Groups", in many cases food exchanges have been weighted and then averaged.

For example the macronutrient profile of "Growth Foods" has been calculated from the average macronutrient profile of:

• 3 medium fat meat exchanges (1 serve)
• 2 half fat milk exchanges
• 1 legume exchange

Similarly, the macronutrient profile of "Protective Foods" has been calculated from the average macronutrient profile of:

• 3 vegetable exchanges
• 2 "free" vegetable exchanges
• 2 fruit exchanges

This method has been used to help keep the Interactive Food Wheel^© simplified while also attempting to reflect healthy eating principles.

The food group "Useless Foods" has been determined from averaging the macronutrient profile of:

• 1 doughnut (40g)
• 4 plain sweet biscuits (35g)
• 1 slice cake (40g)
• 1/2 small bar chocolate (25g)
• 2 tablespoons cream, mayonnaise (40g)
• 1 tablespoon butter, margarine, oil (20g)
• 1 can soft drink (375mls)
• 1 small packet potato crisps (30g)
• 1/3 meat pie or pasty (60g)
• 12 hot chips (60g)
• 2 scoops ice-cream (64g)

For more detail refer to the table below.  If you have any comments (positive or negative) to make about the methodology I would be interested to read them.  Email your comments to dietinfo@ozemail.com.au