The food consumed in Hawaii is as diverse as its people, which can make it difficult to calculate the nutritional value of these foods using conventional databases. That process has been made a little bit easier.

A Web site called Hawaii Foods was created to make sure nutritional information was available for the many different local and ethnic foods being eaten in the community. It can be accessed through the Web at www.hawaiifoods.hawaii.edu.

"If you eat a lot of local foods regularly, then this Web site would benefit you," said Kristine Cuthrell, senior coordinator of Hawaii Foods.

Local favorites as well as nationally consumed foods are accounted for. The popular "loco moco" can even be found showing that one serving size is 565 calories with 29 grams of protein, according to local recipes.

The Web site's mission is to "help you make better food choices and improve your diet." The Web site is run by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) with help from the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.

When asked whether this Web site was designed for those with serious health concerns or simply for those curious about the quality of their diet, Cuthrell answered "both."

"Those with health issues should always check with their health care team, but the Web site helps them to assess local foods for potassium, sodium, cholesterol, fat, and other nutrients pertinent to their condition."

If you are simply curious as to what the ingredients are in local foods or to see a picture of what they look like, this Web site would benefit you as well. It is alphabetically organized so that the items you are looking for can easily be found.

Lika Smolina, a junior attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa said that she eats a lot of local foods and doesn't know the nutrition facts of these foods. "It would be nice to know how many calories are in spam musabi, or a plate lunch, or anything at Zippy's," she said.

She said that it would be useful to find out this information because "local foods are a staple to us, and they're a part of our daily diet, so we should know exactly how good or bad they are for us."

The Hawaii Foods organization provides an approachable way of calculating ones diet. There is a link called "My Diet" that allows registered users to track the nutrient content of foods eaten throughout the day. A user can log on anytime throughout the day to input foods that were eaten and get an analysis of their diet for any given day. After all the foods are inputted for the day, a score is issued informing the user of the quality of their diet.

It is an easy registration process. Users answer questions about their backgrounds, and the answers they provide will enable the computer to analyze their diet.

As the Web site continues to grow, and more recipes get analyzed, a wider variety of foods will be able to be included.

Having foods suggested for analysis can be done so through the "contact us" link. "We are open to suggestions," Cuthrell said.

Nutritional information for the foods is calculated by the USDA Standard Reference as well as through laboratory analysis done at many different locations. CTAHR has a food analysis laboratory where more locally cooked and grown foods can be analyzed. Some local foods can only be roughly estimated, since the recipe may change depending on the personal preferences of the chef cooking.