Almost Genius: Plates Double as Nutritional Infographics

 Behaviorial economists are gaga for the idea of "nudges"--tiny little hacks that can help people make better decisions. For example: Making 401k's opt-out rather than opt-in can wildly increase savings rates. Simply moving a salad bar can increase veggie consumption by 250%.

So it makes sense that a dinner-plate design could help us eat a far healthier diet.

"Wheel of Nutrition" was designed by two recent design-school grads based in Milan, Rui Pereira and Hafsteinn Juliusson, for HAF, a small company run by Juliusson whose other products include jokey items like the grass knuckles and "chips" made of flavored (zero-calorie) paper.

The porcelain plates are simply lacquered with food groups in the proper proportions for three types of diet: "The Diet," "Super Size," and "Extra Ordinary."

Unfortunately, you'll note that except for the "Extra Ordinary" one, the plates aren't actually designed with much serious intent--the proportions don't actually show the real nutritional guidelines we should all be following. And the pie chart design doesn't exactly help things (when's the last time you had a steak shaped like a triangle?).

But this product is so close to be something with remarkable potential. Why couldn't there be a better infographic on the front, depicting the food proportions as recommended by nutritionists? Moreover, why couldn't these infographics be even more subtle, and richer--portraying, for example, the array of colors you should be getting in your food? (Which themselves are correlated with the presence of nutrients and anti-oxidants.)