TOKYO: Wondering how much of a diet-buster that banana cream pie on your plate is? Some Japanese have a novel way to find out: Photograph it with your cellphone and send the image to an expert.

With cellphones ubiquitous in Japan and rising concern over expanding waistlines, healthcare providers have put two and two together to allow the calorie-conscious to send photos of their meals to nutritionists for analysis and recommendations.

Public health insurance offices in Osaka prefecture (state) in western Japan have launched the service on a trial basis. About 100 cardiac patients signed up in the first year, followed by diabetes and obesity patients in the second.

“Japanese have been getting fatter, especially men in their 20s and 30s, and there is concern over what they learned about nutrition when they were younger,” Osaka official Satomi Onishi said. “We’re hoping that this programme can help us to get a handle on the problem.”

Osaka is using a system developed by Asahi Kasei Corp., a Tokyo-based chemical and medical equipment manufacturer. The system is operating at about 150 health care providers and local governments around the country, company official Naoki Yoshimura said.Nutritionists can work with photos from one day’s meals to several weeks' worth, he said. Results come back in three days. Participants also can log onto a website to get further dietary information and upload photos from digital cameras.—AP