Hawaii Foods website: Find nutrition facts on your favorite local foods
Ever wonder how much fat is in a loco moco, how many calories there are in laulau or how much sodium is in crackseed?* I'm guessing for some, the answer is "no" and you've stopped reading already. For the rest—for those trying to be more health-conscious, or for those who are just curious—UH has put together a Hawaii Foods website that compiles nutrition facts on our local, only in Hawaii foods, like musubi and hurricane popcorn as well as the Chinese, Filipino, Japanese and Korean foods that we eat.
Says Kristine Wallerius, at one time the coordinator of the Hawaii Foods website, "We do this because our mission as part of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) is to help local families make better food choices and improve their diets. With the increase in obesity, and rising diabetes and renal disease in our state, we want to grow our audience so that more people with chronic diseases will know where to turn when they need to know what's in that pinacbet or bi bim kook soo before they eat it."
*answers: loco moco—22 grams of fat, laulau—413 calories, li hing mui—150 mg of sodium
