The search for reliable, well-presented information to help us decide what to eat for optimal health can be frustrating. Nutrition textbooks can be dry and overloaded with scientific jargon, while consumer-oriented books generally have an agenda, touting a particular diet or the latest "superfood."

A new book with a local pedigree offers an attractive alternative: simple, straightforward, reliable, science-based information in an easily readable style. It's called "Eating the Rainbow" (Bent Tree Press), inspired by Hawai'i's iconic symbol, and it's available at www.Amazon.com.

"Eating the Rainbow" is written by Dave Chong, a former Honolulu resident, and Nicole Kerr, a Kailua nutritionist (see box).

Chong got the idea for the book while teaching at Kapi'olani Community College. His class discussions on the plate lunch provided the inspiration.

"I brought in a plate lunch from a local restaurant, and it was staggering how much food was in that thing," Chong said. The class compared the nutrients and calories and learned that even a Big Mac was healthier than a plate lunch, which often has 3,000 calories, more than an entire day's needs.

Chong and Kerr decided the world needed a book about nutrition from a wellness point of view. They are not selling a product or diet.

"So many of the other books are focused only on short-term dietary recommendations and/or outward physical appearance," Chong said.

The authors' goal? To sort out available information and present it in a simple format.

The book offers a visual eating system. It's a useful approach when shopping in the supermarket because it's easy to remember: Buy food with the most color — and that means the food itself, not the packages.

There has been quite a bit of publicity recently about so-called "best foods" or "superfoods" that are rich in nutrients and antioxidants. These include blueberries, acai, spinach, dark chocolate, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and broccoli. "Eating the Rainbow" also endorses foods such as these, but without setting up a rigid system of menus and taboo foods.

"A diet sets up a system of restrictions and deprivation, which we, as human beings, don't like," Kerr said. "The normal reaction is to binge when you go back to 'normal' eating and you choose pizza and the whole thing backfires."

Instead, Kerr said, why not load up your plate with veggies and fiber and fill yourself up, then have a single slice of pizza?

The book states: "Many diets involve a specific (often rigid) food plan that conflicts with their food preferences. ... The end result from using these products is rarely permanent pounds lost, yet the industry keeps thriving."

Kerr decries the idea of "good" foods and "bad" foods. "When you define your foods as 'good' or 'bad' you set up a relationship that makes you feel good or bad about yourself based on what you eat," she said.

You can eat the same foods you have always enjoyed, she suggests — but in different proportions. That mac salad in your plate lunch, for example, could be a green salad, while those two scoops white rice could be one scoop brown rice. Even a Spam musubi can be lightened up with brown rice and Spam Lite.

The differences between physical and emotional eating are described: "When life is unfulfilling, food often takes center stage as the primary source of gratification."

Kerr has a background in counseling people with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. That's probably why there is a strong emphasis in the book on the emotional aspects of eating.

People use food for emotional reasons, Kerr said — to cope with stress, boredom or loneliness or to reward themselves.

"A lot of people are not happy, and food is a huge source of gratification. It's a pleasure — and often a shared pleasure," she said. The book's appendix outlines warning signs of common eating disorders.

Of course, healthful eating requires some planning, and that starts at the shopping stage. The key, the authors write, is to plan to buy healthful foods, plan to eat healthful foods, plan to eat realistic portions and plan to eat (and not overeat) when you're distracted by other things.