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Today, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (HSA) published the data of the monthly survey related to the Labour Force (15-74 year olds) in Greece for May 2011.

On the infographic from the top left corner to the bottom right one there are charts for:

a) the percentage and number of unemployed, employed and economically inactive people in Greece in May 2011; the unemployment rate (16.6 per cent) was the highest in recent years (at least since January 2005)
b) the unemployment rate for men (14.1%) and women (20.0%); 1 out 5 women was unemployed
c) the unemployment rate by region (map of Greece). The more dark red a region is painted, the higher the unemployment rate was. It was the second consecutive month that the highest unemployment rate was in West Macedonia (24.9%).
d) the number and rate of unemployed people in May for the last six years (this year it was the highest)
e) the unemployment rate by age group; the younger the people the higher the unemployment rate (reached 40.1% – more than 2 out of 5 people – for those aged between 15-24 years)

For more details on the matter you can view the complete Press Release by the Hellenic Statistical Authority. You could also view the equivalent infographic / post for the previous month (April 2011) by clicking here.

On Thursday, 08 September 2011, the Labour Force survey infographic (in Greece) for June 2011 will be published on The Missing Graph.

Sources:
Hellenic Statistical Authority (HSA) Statistics about the Labour Force in Greece

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Inspired by a post in The Guardian’s Datablog I publish an infographic related to the Labour Force (15-74 year olds) in Greece (April 2011).

On the infographic from the top left corner to the bottom right one there are charts for:

a) the percentage and number of unemployed, employed and economically inactive people in Greece in April 2011
b) the unemployment rate for women (19.6%) and men (13.1%)
c) the unemployment rate by region (map of Greece). The more dark red a region is painted, the higher the unemployment rate is. The highest unemployment rate was in West Macedonia (23.1%).
d) the number and rate of unemployed people in April for the last six years (this year it was the highest)
e) the unemployment rate by age group; the younger the people the higher the unemployment rate (reaches 43.1% – more than 2 out of 5 people – for those aged between 15-24 years)

The overall unemployment rate in Greece in April was 15.8, slightly less than the one in March (16.2 %).

However, seasonality must be the main reason for the improvement: it is in April when many occupations related to the tourism sector (mostly in islands) are ‘reactivated’ after the winter ‘hibernation’.

Seasonality affects the graph (map of Greece) which illustrates the unemployment rate by region. While in April West Macedonia had the highest rate (23.1%), a month before (March 2011), South Aegean region was at the top with a staggering 30.4 per cent; in April it fell down to 17.1 per cent.

For more details on the matter you can view the complete Press Release by the Hellenic Statistical Authority.

On Thursday, 11 August 2011, the Labour Force infographic for May 2011 will be published on The Missing Graph.

Sources:
Hellenic Statistical Authority (HSA) Statistics about the Labour Force in Greece

Actually the ‘exhibition’ was an opportunity for buyers/bidders to view the works that were finally auctioned on Tuesday, 21 June 2011 at Christie’s, London. As my friend said, it was a great opportunity for anyone interested to see some great works of art before they would ‘disappear’ in some private collections.

Indeed, we had the opportunity to view works by the likes of Picasso, Léger, Monet, Kandinsky and many others.

Although I would not like to consider and approach the arts as a bunch of numbers, there were so many (numbers) around (e.g. estimated prices, sold prices, number of works of art per artist etc.) that I could not resist, so I designed an infographic that takes all those numbers and tries to reveal a new approach to the auction.

Here is the result:

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There were 92 works of art to be auctioned. More than half of them (54) were paintings (oils on canvas); 15 were works of various pigments (e.g. pastel, charcoal, watercolour, ink ) on paper and there also were 9 sculptures, 4 ceramics, 4 prints, 2 drawings, 2 furniture (tables) and 2 other works of art.

Artists wise Picasso had the most dominant presence with 14 works (5 oils, 4 ceramics and a couple of prints and drawings) followed by Léger and Monet (4 works each). There were also works by Klee, Kandinsky, Magrite, Renoir, Sisley, Jawlensky, Pissarro and many other Impressionists and Modern painters.

Although, the highlight of the auction, Monet’s Nymphéas (estimated between 17 – 24 million pounds) did not find a buyer, 80 works out of 92 were finally sold (87%) for £140 millions (the estimated highest price for them was £115.6 millions).

The most expensive work sold was Picasso’s painting Seated Woman, Blue Robe. It cost £17,961,250 to its new owner; a threefold raise from its average estimated price (4 – 8 million pounds estimated by Christie’s).

In terms of how many times more than the average estimated price a work was finally sold, the highlight of the evening was a table that was neither a work of an Impressionist/Modern artist nor was it a work of art as such! The Ernst Beyeler’s desk, made in the 17th century was sold for £289,250 when its estimated price was 10K pounds (£8K – 12K); that’s 29 times more than the estimated average! Speaking personally and having seen it in front of my eyes, it was a fine table indeed!

It seems that the buyers had a soft spot for tables as the other table of the auction did particularly well too. Diego Giacometti’s Guéridon au bourgeons was sold for £646,050; about 11 times higher than it was estimated (£50K – 70K).

Here are some of the data that we have used in order to design the infographic:

Sources:
Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale (Sale 7974)
BBC World’s most expensive painting goes on show in UK

Credits:
Many thanks to Klairi Angelou for her invaluable advice and for contributing to the research on which the infographic and the post were based.

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With so many “-arians” and “-egans” being used in our everyday vocabulary, here is a visual map of who eats what.

It is a list, in a table format, that shows what some groups of people can eat. Food wise, there are icons for meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, honey, grains, fruits, vegetables (roots and leaves), vegetables (fruits), nuts and pulses.

Carnivore is an organism that eats almost exclusively other species of the animal kingdom; on the infographic meat, poultry and fish are foods depicted for a carnivore organism.

Omnivore is an organism that eats both animals and plants as well as their ‘products’; on the infographic all the foods that have been already mentioned are depicted for an omnivore organism.

Pescetarians or pescatarians or piscetarians eat what an omnivore eats except meat (poultry included). Another definition describes pescetarians as vegetarians who also eat fish. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the word was first used in 1993.

The pescetarians are followed by the group of vegetarians. As a rule of thumb, vegetarians do not eat any food that comes from a killed (dead) animal. So meats, poultry and fish are not something that vegetarians can eat. In the case of cheeses if you want to follow a vegetarian diet check on the label of the cheese you buy that it is suitable for vegetarians.

In the wider group of vegetarians there are three ‘subgroups’:

Lacto-ovo-vegetarians exclude from their diet meat (animal & poultry) and fish.

Ovo-vegetarians are like lacto-ovo-vegetarians but do not eat dairy products (e.g. milk and cheese).

Lacto-vegetarians do eat dairy products (like milk and cheese) but they do not eat eggs.

Vegans do not eat anything that comes from/exploits an animal. So on the infographic that leaves them with grains, fruits, all vegetables, nuts and pulses.

Much more focused on how they obtain their foods (avoiding channels of the conventional economy as much as possible) rather than what they eat, freegans are mainly vegans who will eat non-vegan foods in the case that otherwise the foods would end to the rubbish bin/landfill.

Finally fruitarians can eat what a vegan eats except grains and ‘living’ vegetables like roots and leaves. As a rule of thumb if eating part of a plant kills the plant fruitarians will not eat it. For example eating a tomato (which is considered as the plant’s fruit) will not kill the tomato plant that produced the fruit. But eating a carrot which is the root of the plant, will kill the plant.

Some of the fruitarians do not even eat any vegetables (fruits e.g. tomatoes), nuts and pulses. All of the latter are presented as dimmed on the infographic.

Feel free to print out (Printer-friendly version here) the infographic and perhaps stick it on your fridge or somewhere in your kitchen so you can take care of most of the people out there. It could be useful for kitchens in restaurants, cafes, pubs and anywhere food is served.

Sources:
The Vegetarian Society Definition of a vegetarian
The Vegan Society Definition of vegan food
Freegan.Info What is a freegan
Dictionary.com Definition of fruitarian
Merriam-Webster.com Definition of pescatarian

Credits:
Many thanks to  Tony Primentas, The Peppermint Family and Dinos Konstantinou for their invaluable feedback (through user testing), ideas, suggestions and support during the design process.

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On Sunday (27 March 2011) the World Theatre Day is celebrated in various cities all around the globe. This series of infographics is the ‘contribution’ of The Missing Graph for this year’s celebrations.

The infographics visualise, from my personal point of view, some aspects of Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. It was first played 116 years ago; on the 14th of February 1895.

I have used the Penguin Popular Classics 1995 publication as my reference for the play.

On the top of the infographic there is a distinction of the three acts and the pages that they occupy in the book. The sequence of the pages of the book acts as the timeline of the graphic while the acts are present so that anyone can follow the analysis irrespectively of the publication that they use.

The first act, on Day 1 lasts for about 2 hours: it starts just before tea time (or “five o’ clock” as Algernon says on p. 8 ) and it ends at about “seven o’ clock” (according to Jack on p. 25). Much later, towards the end of the second act (on p. 46), we will be informed by Gwendolen that during the first act (p. 19), when Jack proposed to her, the time was 5.30 in the afternoon.

At the beginning of the second act, which takes place on the day after the first act (so it is Day 2) we are informed (p. 28) that the time that the story takes place is July (“Time of year, July” – description of the scene). However, in the middle of the act (p. 41) Cecily has an amazing story to tell (to her unaware-of-the-engagement ‘fiancé’ Algernon, but also to us!): she claims that they have been engaged for the last three months.

So far, so good. Actually she says that it WILL be “exactly three months on Thursday”. Still, no problem! But then she claims that she and Algernon got engaged on the 14th of February. If you do ‘the maths’ (i.e. 14 February + 3 months = 14 May) you will be surprised to find that “on Thursday” it will be the 14th of May! But then we are already in July!!! Was Cecily too much in love and absent-minded when she was talking? Or is it a ‘hidden egg’ by Oscar Wilde? It’s a mystery anyway, at least for me, that makes the play even more interesting.

The main aspect that the infographic examines is the ‘participation’ of each character on the stage. So, for all the characters of the play I show if they are present on stage for each page of the book. If they are absent from the stage I depict this with a white rectangle. If they are present but they don’t speak at all (during the page) the rectangle becomes light green; and if they speak even a single word during a page the rectangle for the particular page becomes dark green.

As a result, you can roughly get an idea of the participation (and perhaps the ‘importance’) of each of the characters as well as when (Acts/pages) it happens; you could also compare the ‘importance’ of the characters. The greener (dark) a row is the more ‘important’ the character that it represents. Jack (Mr Worthing) followed by Algernon (Mr Moncrieff) are the protagonists, while Gwendolen and Cecily are quite close. Lady Bracknell has her own share of ‘importance’. The absence of ANY light green areas/rectangles on her row perhaps conveys her dominant nature: it means that whenever she is on stage she has to TALK! Miss Prism and Dr Chasuble complete the main cast. Minor roles belong to Lane, Algernon’s manservant (first act only) and to Merriman, Jack’s butler (second act and a quick appearance during the third act).

Although according to the cast (see p. 3 “The Persons of the Play”) it seems that nine actors/actresses are enough to perform the play, the infographic (and of course a read of the play) reveals the need for a tenth person: the footman who merely appears (without speaking at all) briefly during the second act (pp. 47-48).

On top of those conventions, if a character is not on the stage but it is mentioned by any other character who is (during the length of each page) then you can see an orange circle on the centre of the white rectangle; another factor that I felt made a character ‘important’ or not. In this sense, even when Jack is not on stage we can see that he is mentioned quite often by the characters who are.

Additional information that someone can get from the infographic is how ‘busy’ the stage is on each act and when; for example in the beginning of the first and the second act the stage is rather empty while towards the end of the play (end of act three) the stage becomes crowded.

At the bottom of the infographic there is a sequence, which perhaps resembles a storyboard, of the ‘solid’ things consumed during the ‘high tea’ that takes place in Algernon’s flat. At the very beginning of the play (first act) there is almost an obsession with cucumber sandwiches; although they have been requested for Lady Bracknell (Algernon’s aunt) Algernon ‘manages’ to eat all of them before his aunt arrives. The graphic shows the ‘progression’ of how Algernon ate all the cucumber sandwiches ‘during’ pages 7 to 9. While at some point Jack attempts to taste one of the sandwiches he is unsuccessful and all he manages to get is some bread and butter (at the bottom of page 9).

There is more for the foodies in this infographic! Just over the ‘storyboard’ with the salver and the sandwiches there is another one showing the consumption of muffins which occurs at the end of the second act (pp. 51-53). One more obsession perhaps as the word “muffins” is used 14 times during the play (actually from the end of the second act till the end of the play). Again, Algernon eats all of the muffins and ‘poor’ Jack does not even have a chance to taste them.

Finally something rather personal, not of importance and not mentioned on the above infographics. I would like to ‘share’ two little more things that I was impressed by (considering it was written sometime in 1894) during revisiting the play: the use of the word “vegetarian” (end of second act – page 52) and the use of word “statistics” (third act – page 57).

Theatres around the globe that play “The Importance of Being Earnest” this season (sorted by location / country) – Last Updated: 25 April 2011

Sources:
Oscar Wilde “The Importance of Being Earnest”. London: Penguin Popular Classics (1994-1995 publication) [ Webpage @ Amazon.com ]
Oscar Wilde “The Importance of Being Earnest and Related Writings (Routledge English Texts)”, edited by Joseph Bristow. London: Routledge (1992 publication) [ Webpage @ Amazon.com ]

Credits:
Many thanks to Nancy Giannopoulou for her enthusiasm about the subject of this infographic (perhaps I would not have completed it without you!) and the support and help in reassuring me that some of the points I mention do make sense. I also got some useful suggestions and feedback, for which I am grateful, from Dinos Konstantinou and Pavlos Kapralos.

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The other day, I asked my mum for a recipe – ‘any recipe you like’ I said to her, in order to participate in GOOD’s ‘Redesign the Recipe‘ project.

Semolina halva was Maria’s suggestion and she said to me that it is a very easy one to remember at least for the ingredients part. Olive oil, semolina (preferably coarse), sugar (preferably brown) and water in 1, 2, 3 and 4 portions respectively. It can be even more easy if you happen to know the first words of the Beatles’ song ‘All together now‘ (‘One, two, three, four, can I have a little more?’). It is vegetarian and vegan friendly.

So I designed the infographic recipe above and I suggest you to try it out. Semolina halva is a quite simple dessert to cook/prepare and it belongs to the repertory of many national cuisines.

Although the proportions of the ingredients (1-2-3-4) come very handy, you do not have to stick to them. There are many cooks who use less olive oil and less sugar depending on how ‘juicy’ and sweet they want their halva to be. This will reduce significantly the amount of calories you get from the dessert.

Optionally you can add some peeled, chopped almonds (or other nuts) when you start heating the olive oil with the semolina and at the end of the cooking you can also sprinkle cinnamon on the halva.

Although I rarely cook (in most cases I eat raw or minimally prepared foods) I tried this in order to illustrate the recipe as well as I could. Then with the experience of Maria Primenta but also with the experience of other people who cook often halva and the comments and feedback of some friends (see Credits) I ended up with the infographic you see.

It only makes sense that the inclusion of the experience of an ignorant cook like me enhances the possibility that the recipe could be accessible to most people.

Here is a description of my experience from preparing the semolina halva according to the infographic:

To start with in my kitchenette I have only one pan and it is not a large one. As a result I could not follow the recipe exactly as it is on the infographic. I started preparing the syrup (which it seems that it takes much less time than it takes the semolina to fry, so ideally if you have the utensils the infographic suggests, you should start with the semolina and the olive oil.) When the syrup was ready I stored it temporarily in a soup bowl and I covered it with the cover of the pan.

Straight after, I rinsed/washed the pan and I put in it the semolina and the olive oil. As my pan was rather small and I had a cup to measure the quantities of the ingredients I put half a cup (1/2 cup) of olive oil and  1 cup of semolina. So now the portions were Olive oil: 0.5 cup – Semolina 1 cup – Brown Sugar: 1.5 cups – Water: 2 cups. The 1 cup of semolina that I used weighed about 155g.

I put the pan on the hob and I started heating and stirring the mixture. The truth is that the idea of frying is one that I try to avoid as much as I can but I gave in just to try out the recipe. As long as the semolina had darkened (became browny) I decided to empty the still very hot syrup from the soup bowl into the pan with the semolina and the olive oil. To be honest with you I was not feeling at all confident of what would happen. Basically the mixture of the semolina and the olive oil was rather liquid/juicy and I was thinking that if I would add the syrup the whole thing would become a soup that would never give something solid… How little I knew!

I would say that emptying the smaller pan with the syrup (in my case the soup bowl) into the larger one with the semolina/olive oil is the most  (or perhaps the only) dangerous part of the process. Generally speaking it seems that the idea of emptying/mixing water (that mainly the syrup consists of) into frying/piping hot oil is one of the most seek self-harming methods the humankind has conceived so far. If you finally decide to do it I suggest that you wear a full body armour. Anyway I found a large spoon (just to mention here that as I did not have a wooden spoon I used a standard metallic one for stirring all way through) and I emptied in small portions the syrup in the pan. Wearing cooking gloves during this process could be a safe thing to do.

So I started stirring the syrup with the semolina/olive oil mixture and after a while instead of having a soup… MAGIC! The whole mixture started taking a texture similar to mashed potato. It was still though rather liquid. Some (significant) stirring more and it was firmer. I was gradually reducing the heat. I switched off the hob and I left the pan for at least 10 minutes to cool. Then, using the large (plastic) spoon as a mould and the metallic spoon as an assisting utensil I shaped 5 generous portions of halva. Lacking any cinnamon and almonds I sprinkled some sesame seeds on them.

I left the halva to cool for at least half an hour and then I tried it. I dare to say that it tasted good; it could be the luck of the beginner. Or that the infographic works well!

I hope that you will be lucky too! If you want to print out the recipe here is a PDF (printer-friendly) version of it.

Credits:
Many thanks to Maria Primenta for providing me with the recipe. I would also like to thank Tony Primentas & Olga Primenta (it looks like this infographic was a family affair!) for the repetitive feedback that they gave me during the design process. I am also grateful to Nancy Giannopoulou, Titika Maragoula, Kalliopi Vgontza and Yannis Kazantzoglou.

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It was 50 years ago that George Formby died from a heart attack (6 March 1961).

During his career, he recorded 189 songs, including ‘Leaning on a lamp post’, ‘Why don’t women like me?’ and ‘When I’m cleaning windows’.

He starred in 20 films between 1934 and 1946, including ‘No limit’ (1935), ‘Come on George’ (1939), ‘Let George do it’ (1940) and ‘Turned out nice again’ (1941). In his 20 films he has sung about 77 songs and at least in 53 of them he plays his ukulele/banjolele; in 41 of them he plays a solo on his uke.

During the 2nd world war he toured places close to the front line and entertained about 3 million service personnel. In 1946 he was appointed OBE.

His trademarks were his toothy grin and his banjolele (a ukulele with a banjo-like body).

Tomorrow, Monday (07 March 2011) at 22:00. there will be a radio documentary about him on BBC Radio 2.

At the end of the month (March) & in early April there will be various events to pay tribute to George Formby in Wigan, UK, his home town.

Sources:
Jeffrey Richards, ‘Formby, George (1904–1961)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33205, accessed 5 March 2011]
Bret, D. (1999). George Formby: a troubled genius. London: Robson books.
The George Formby Society Website – Home page
Banjo Ukulele Website – Home page

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This is an infographic/timeline for one of my favourite (if not my most favourite) vocal groups: The Real Group. They come to sing in London (they are Swedish and based in Stockholm) on Wednesday (12 January 2011) at the Kings Place. If you want to listen to a sample of their most recent album please click here.

The infographic mainly explores their discography. Since 1984 (the year the group was formed) they have released (at least according to their website; other sources indicate extra compilations/albums for specific regions) 15 albums. Being Swedish, some (in fact roughly 50%) of the lyrics in their recorded songs are in Swedish and almost the rest are in English. The infographic also explores the proportion of their albums that are dominated by cover songs/arrangements (63%) versus albums containing mostly original pieces (37%).

Sources:
The Real Group website

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This infographic shows traffic information (Terminal Passengers) in November 2010 for a selection of UK airports. (Click here to see last month’s graph.)

On a UK map, the six BAA airports (London Heathrow, London Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen) and London Gatwick, London City and Manchester airports are indicated. For each, apart from London City Airport, you can see its number of terminal passengers in November 2010, and a comparison to November 2009 figures.

There are also line graphs showing their November Terminal Passengers figures for the last 5 years (2006-2010).

While Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton had their lowest November for the last 5-year period, Heathrow had its highest November ever; it is the 5th consecutive record month for Heathrow!

I have been designing maps, diagrams, information cards, plans and other graphics-related material for the aviation industry since early 2008, so this graph comes out of personal interest and curiosity.

Sources:
BAA November 2010 traffic figures
Gatwick airport November 2010 traffic performance summary
London City airport Facts and Figures
Manchester airport Traffic Statistics November 2010

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The aim of the project was to develop a new illustrated food guide; an update of the American Food Guide Pyramid according to the federal government updates (2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans).

As I think (just a thought!) that the route for an ideal diet depends on many factors (e.g. Location) I would like to stress that this is an infographic for and about people who live in the U.S. Still, one other, perhaps the most important, factor is every individual’s unique conditions and needs. So, although I tried to be inclusive, if you have an allergy for example, the whole food cube should change from slightly to dramatically depending exactly on your unique conditions and needs. As a conclusion, use the cube on your own risk, and better seek advice from your doctor, nutritionist and study more on the subject to be on the safe side.

Having said that, many suggestions on the cube could be useful no matter where you live.

The DGAC (Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee) suggested guidelines are (rightly) not limited only to What to Eat but also to other aspects of a holistic approach to nutrition and healthy living like How Much to Eat, How Much Alcohol to Drink, How Much to Exercise etc. To layout all this on a single surface would make things rather complicated. That’s how the idea of the cube was born.

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On each of its six sides a single aspect of nutrition is explored.

From left to right the first side (a) refers to ‘How Much to Eat’, the next one (b) to ‘What to Eat’, then there are some ideas on ‘How to Eat & How to Live!’ (c) and on the far right side (d) some ‘Ethical/Ecological Issues’ are mentioned.

Above side (b) there is a side that examines ‘Physical activities’ and below side (b) there is a side with ‘Alcohol Consumption’ guidelines.

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(a) How Much to Eat
With obesity being a rather big issue in the States, a whole side is dedicated to How Much to Eat. This comes in the form of a flowchart. In a few words it says that if you are overweight or obese your total energy intake (food) should be less than your total energy output (exercise/physical activity). Even more simple/simplistic? Eat less – Exercise more!

It also depicts some examples: an intake of a glass of coke (or 376g of it) means that someone has to jog for more than 15 minutes in order to ‘burn’ it (if his weight meets the weight of the average American male (191lb); if he is lighter he has to jog even more time!) Drinking water instead and there will be nothing to ‘burn’ so no additional exercise.

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(b) What to Eat – What to Avoid
The guidelines suggest more vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas, fruits, high-fibre whole grains, low-fat dairy products and seafood. Eat eggs and other animal products in moderation and avoid/reduce SoFAS (added sugars and solid fats) and sodium (found in salt).

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(c) How to Eat – How to Live!
This side contains a series of bullet points related to suggestions/ideas on how to eat (not all of them come from the DGAC) and how to live!

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(d) Ethical/Ecological Issues
Most of the ideas/suggestions depicted on this side are not coming from the DGAC. In fact a couple of them could be my personal ‘invention’; I hope a good one. Apart from the well-being of animals, no use of chemicals (Organic Food) and well-being of people (Fair Trade) there are hints about carbon footprint (Food miles), recycling (Packaging) and the ‘life’ of foods after buying them (Conservation – Cooking – Waste). For the last five issues there is a comparison of bananas coming from thousands of miles away (depending on where you live) to locally produced potatoes. I understand that the two foods compared are very different so it looks like an unjustified comparison (comparing too different things). The purpose though is to emphasise the gamut (spectrum) of the previously mentioned issues.

So the closest a food is produced to you, the better (less energy to transport it, quicker to reach you thus fresher and it could be of lower cost). If you could have your own bag and buy loose products you get extra ‘points’! Sadly, at least in England, buying loose could be more expensive than buying a pack; I guess it is because in the latter case chances are that you buy more! Then think how you are going to preserve your foods until you eat or cook them. Something in a can for example does not have demanding storage requirements. Many fruits and vegetables though do. This, doesn’t mean (by any means), that I suggest you to buy canned foods instead of fresh! I simply suggest to have this issue in mind. Potatoes (in some climates & conditions) could be left in a paper box for a long time and keep all their freshness. Bananas and carrots are more delicate and you normally need to put them in the fridge (which by the way means spending energy).

Adding to ‘energy costs’ is cooking. Prefer to eat raw (most raw fruits and many raw vegetables are edible); not only you limit the carbon footprint and the time you spend but you also (in many cases) get more of the nutrients the food originally had. There are some, important for a healthy eating balance, foods though that you need to cook in order to eat them (e.g. legumes). Prefer the cooking methods that will preserve most of the food’s nutrients and at the same time try to think the most energy-efficient ways to do so. Finally, if you don’t have the means or the will to recycle organic waste, think of the byproducts/waste of each food you consume. The skin makes up 1/3 of a banana’s weight so how much you actually buy is not exactly how much you actually eat, while if you cook your potatoes as jacket they practically leave you with no waste at all (plus that the potato skin has some useful nutrients); don’t forget to wash them thoroughly though.

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(b+) Physical Activity Guidelines (per week)
This side does not refer to food but to physical activity. The suggestions (again in the form of a flowchart) come from the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Very simplistically, if you are up to 18 aim for at least 7 sessions a week of at least one-hour duration each (moderate intensity). If you are an adult go for at least 2.5 hours moderate-intensity or 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise a week. Double the amount of time for additional health benefits. Of course if you have chronic conditions ask advice from your doctor/physician.

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(b-) Suggested Alcohol Consumption (per week)
This side does not refer to food neither but to the consumption of alcohol. One more flowchart for you! If you are less than 18 years old avoid drinking alcohol completely. For 18 and above (according to DGAC) some alcohol a day (e.g. up to 10 ounces of wine if you are a man) could be even beneficial for your health (but this again has to be examined in relation to your overall health status). Drink more than 25 ounces (of wine, still if you are a man) on a single day and you do yourself harm. ‘A number of situations and conditions call for the complete avoidance of alcoholic beverages‘ says the report.

So that’s how the idea of the cube works. Although in its totality nutrition and healthy living looks like a complicated issue (and I guess it is) if you focus on one aspect (side) at a time, integrate it in your daily habits and continue from there, things could be easier and hopefully healthier and better.

If you have reached this point perhaps you find the idea of the cube interesting so here is a little reward for you: a PDF (printer-friendly) version of the cube so that you can try how the cube works in a more tangible way.

On a personal note, I would like to communicate that I do not necessarily endorse in all its aspects the DGAC (Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee) suggestions. However, for this infographic I have followed most of their suggestions in order to create something compatible with them. I have also added some personal ideas for a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

Finally, if you would like to see some other proposals for GOOD’s project please visit GOOD’s website.

Sources:
Good Project: Design a Better Food Pyramid
DGAC Dietary Guidelines for Americans
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
nutritiondata.com Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis
caloriesperhour.com Free Calorie Counter, Weight Loss Calculators, and Weight Loss Tutorials
Burger King® BURGER KING® – Cheeseburger – Nutritional information
Fair Trade USA Fair Trade USA
Agricultural Marketing Service Agricultural Marketing Service – The Organic Seal

Credits:
Many thanks to Adela Pickles, Matthew Hough, Tony Primentas, The Peppermint Family (specially Olga Primenta), Dinos Konstantinou and Kalliopi Vgontza for their invaluable feedback (through user testing), ideas, suggestions and support during the design process.