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Canada's New Food Guide

food-guide.canada.ca

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Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#71

Post by sonnyblarney »

benzor wrote: post #5

This is great. A no-nonsense, modern take on healthy nutrition. It's simple (no more food groups, portions, etc.), and actually healthy (e.g. not catering to the dairy industry with a daily glass of milk recommendation, pizza is not a vegetable, etc.). Compare it to this: https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/archived_proje...

"This is great. A no-nonsense, modern take on healthy nutrition. "

Even though it's technically 'no nonsense' - it actually is effectively 'nonsense' from a communications perspective.

It's almost meaningless, and un-actionable, and I don't think it will have any effect, on any group. I wonder if this should simply be a single page of points urging us to 'eat healthy' and that should be it.

Consider the main takeaway points:

'Enjoy your food' 'Eat protein' 'Eat lots of vegetables' 'Chose whole grain foods'

Seriously?

This is essentially very traditional approach to food, with noticeably less focus on carbs (we don't work on farms anymore), and also the absence milk, cheese and almost absence of meat which I believe is likely a shade ideological as opposed to nutritional.

It surely is good advice, but it's not specific at all, and essentially boils down to 'eat healthy, don't each junk food'.

Seriously consider this:

https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/healthy-eating-recommendatio...

It's the page on 'how to enjoy your food'.

"tasting the flavours" "being open to trying new foods" "developing a healthy attitude about food"

Seriously - a page devoted to instructing us to 'taste the flavours' of food.

Here the section on your 'eating environment':

Influences on eating and drinking. These can include:

distractions where you eat who you eat with what you are doing while you are eating

Eating environments can affect:

what you eat and drink the amount you eat and drink ow much you enjoy eating

It's really an eerie thing to read.

I should add: the recipes look really good however.

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#72

Post by nickelcitymario »

New guide, same as the old guide, minus dairy as its own category, and carbs are de-emphasized.

This seems pretty non-controversial.

The old food pyramid suggested having as many carbs as you could handle, and made it seem like milk and meat were absolutely vital.

The new take just lumps those into protein and suggests proteins as a whole should be about 25% of your diet.

While no guide could possibly please everyone (there's a diet trend for every possible food combo out there), this seems like a reasonable baseline to me.

As for the recipes they list... omg no.

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#73

Post by 14 »

I haven't looked over this food guide and probably will not put too much thought into it as a Canadian. Everyone knows that last food guide was completely out of touch with reality and was actually influenced by some of the big food companies. So now they want to try again and they didn't have it right for the last few decades why should I listen now? If they want to get me to listen now they need to highlight the old food guide and the changes they made and why. I notice they now recommend water as the drink of choice when the last one companies like Minute Maid fought to have a glass of juice placed on it. So my generation was sold out on the food guide. My trust now is strained. I will take this one with caution as well and continue to question if there is some alternative motive for the foods recommended.

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#74

Post by cknoxrun »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #71
benzor wrote: post #5

This is great. A no-nonsense, modern take on healthy nutrition. It's simple (no more food groups, portions, etc.), and actually healthy (e.g. not catering to the dairy industry with a daily glass of milk recommendation, pizza is not a vegetable, etc.). Compare it to this: https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/archived_proje...

"This is great. A no-nonsense, modern take on healthy nutrition. " Even though it's technically 'no nonsense' - it actually is effectively 'nonsense' from a communications perspective. It's almost meaningless, and un-actionable, and I don't think it will have any effect, on any group. I wonder if this should simply be a single page of points urging us to 'eat healthy' and that should be it. Consider the main takeaway…

It’s important to note that this is taught in schools starting from as early as grade 1. I do believe that teaching children about the joys of eating food and sharing meals could have a positive impact. Consider France, arguably one of the healthiest nations when it comes to food, where this is culturally ingrained from an early age.

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#75

Post by benj111 »

village-idiot wrote: post #65
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Milk is a huge deal in the US, the dairy farmers association has it engrained in every American that they need milk and only milk for calcium - never mind broccoli, almonds, figs, sardines, etc., in fact they go through great pains to not mention alternate sources of calcium. It only works because so much of the US population is lactose tolerant.

Calcium in milk is also not bio-available once it’s been homogenized, because it’s stripped out of its protective fat layer and expose to lactose which binds to it in a way that humans can’t undo on our own. Milk is a fantastic source of calcium, when you don’t mess with it too much. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s evolved specifically to grow mammals up to full size as quickly as possible, which includes growing a lot of b…

Do you have any links?

It's not a claim I've ever heard before.

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#76

Post by EForEndeavour »

kszxgz wrote: post #67

For comparison: Harvard Healthy Eating Plate https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-... At least among the Harvard faculty, there appears to be a consensus that healthy fats are important, which the Canadian guide doesn't seem to stress that much. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you... === Comments on the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate ( https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front…

I prefer the visualization on the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate website: it conveys more information in a smaller space than the plate graphic you first see on Canada's Food Guide.

That said, the Canada Food Guide page certainly has fat covered. It doesn't mention it straight from the landing page, but if you explore the guide, you find it pretty quick.

The first link in the sidebar of the Canada Food Guide, "Food Choices," takes you to

https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/healthy-food-choices/

which states in the second line of text "Choose foods with healthy fats instead of saturated fat." That text is (non-obviously) a link to

https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/healthy-eating-recommendatio...

which provides about the same amount of detail about healthy versus saturated fats. It also mentions that "the type of fat you eat over time is more important for health than the total amount of fat you eat."

Finally, the "Further Reading" section links to

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/nutrients/fa...

which goes into much more detail, and even provides links intended for industry and health professionals for anyone looking for yet more information.

While the Canadian guide's layout is different from the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate, I'd say the Canadian guide has fat covered pretty well!

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#77

Post by cknoxrun »

humanrebar wrote: post #44
moltar wrote: post #16

Jesus, who invented that??? Mac and cheese with a veggie twist * 375 mL (1 ½ cups) whole grain macaroni or fusilli * 10 mL (2 tsp) soft non-hydrogenated margarine

Yeah. That recipe looks pretty rough. I hate it when people try to transform unhealthy dishes into healthy "treats". Just serve pasta with olive oil, some sort of acid (lemon juice, rotating cast of vinegars, tomatoes), and maybe a little grated sharp cheese if you really need that. Honestly, I'd rather just eat barley, farro, or bulgur in a bowl than try to force whole grains into crumbly pasta. But I guess that's a…

I would imagine several of the recipes are directed at families with young children?

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#78

Post by decasteve »

cknoxrun wrote: post #74
sonnyblarney wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This is great. A no-nonsense, modern take on healthy nutrition. " Even though it's technically 'no nonsense' - it actually is effectively 'nonsense' from a communications perspective. It's almost meaningless, and un-actionable, and I don't think it will have any effect, on any group. I wonder if this should simply be a single page of points urging us to 'eat healthy' and that should be it. Consider the main takeaway…

It’s important to note that this is taught in schools starting from as early as grade 1. I do believe that teaching children about the joys of eating food and sharing meals could have a positive impact. Consider France, arguably one of the healthiest nations when it comes to food, where this is culturally ingrained from an early age.

> It’s important to note that this is taught in schools starting from as early as grade 1.

My kids come home with hungry with half-eaten lunches complaining how they didn’t have enough time to eat. They get rushed to finish within 10-15 minutes and go outside. This is a universal complaint among parents.

We’re culturally ingraining eating as something you rush through on the way to something else.

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#79

Post by Aengeuad »

decasteve wrote: post #78
cknoxrun wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s important to note that this is taught in schools starting from as early as grade 1. I do believe that teaching children about the joys of eating food and sharing meals could have a positive impact. Consider France, arguably one of the healthiest nations when it comes to food, where this is culturally ingrained from an early age.

> It’s important to note that this is taught in schools starting from as early as grade 1. My kids come home with hungry with half-eaten lunches complaining how they didn’t have enough time to eat. They get rushed to finish within 10-15 minutes and go outside. This is a universal complaint among parents. We’re culturally ingraining eating as something you rush through on the way to something else.

They have a page about taking time to eat [0] under the eating habits section. It might take a long time before any cultural or policy change happens but they at least acknowledge that being rushed or distracted isn't helpful.

[0] https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/healthy-eating-recommendatio...

Re: Canada's New Food Guide

#80

Post by maxlybbert »

kszxgz wrote: post #67

For comparison: Harvard Healthy Eating Plate https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-... At least among the Harvard faculty, there appears to be a consensus that healthy fats are important, which the Canadian guide doesn't seem to stress that much. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you... === Comments on the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate ( https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front…

There are even more guides at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nutrition_guides .
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