New Canada Food Guide 2019!

Hi Tasters!

Super excited to announce the release of the new Health Canada’s Food Guide released this week Jan 2019! At the launch was Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor, and CEO Nathalie Savoie of Dietitians of Canada.

What is striking about the new Canada’s Food Guide is the shift to a broader approach – talking not only about what Canadians should eat, but also how they should eat,” said Savoie.

DC applauds new Food Guide, calling it relevant, modern and evidence based

In which case we see there are two groups of recommendations:

Group A: “What to Eat” and
Group B: “How to eat” or “The Food Experience”

So let’s take a look at Group A “What to Eat” of the recommendations for Canada’s Food Guide’s biggest transformation! I’m going to start with the pluses and go a bit deeper as we move on to stay with me!

What I personally like about using the “plate method” is:

By focusing on half the plate of fruits and vegetables it allows freedom for the us, as consumers, to choose how much to eat if we are following our: energy needs, hunger cues, but in balance with other foods. This ‘broad’ approach helps to focus on the big picture instead of potentially getting lost in a myriad of misinformation that exists with all of the little details.

The only part of ‘what to eat’ which might need some explanation is protein foods. The new food guide recommends more plant proteins than animal proteins. Plant proteins include legumes, pulses, nuts/seeds, tofu, and animal proteins include lower fat dairy products, lean red meat including wild game and fish.

Since I always look at the other side – one argument is the lack of portion sizes. In my opinion the portion sizes confused most people and if we approximate that half of most plates is 2 cups (for the fruits and veggies) that works for me. But I am ok with the fact that some people may eat more or less based on personal needs. Perhaps people will decide that portion size conversations may be required in particular settings such as managing chronic disease but overall my preference is for the Canada Food Guide plate method. I think this is a great move and am really impressed with an easy to use visual tool that looks like a meal instead of counting and measuring food!

Another huge change that I am very impressed with is there is was no industry funded research included and lobby groups were not key stakeholders. Very impressive!

So as I mentioned this is only part 1 of the tool so let’s look at the second piece – a combination of Group A and Group B: “How to eat” or “The Food Experience”

2nd-pg-CFG-snapshot-EN

What I personally like about the focus on the food experience is:

This puts more emphasis to think about where we are, what we are doing and why we are eating which is half of what eating is about! It’s the fun part 🙂 I love the fact that ‘enjoy your food’ is part of the recommendations.

Again, wanting to acknowledge the other side, I am very aware that for some people enjoying food may feel like too far of a stretch and I get that – there is no need to stress if you don’t enjoy food. However, perhaps there may be a way to make meals more pleasant by enjoying the food experience. This might look like sharing special moments with others eating together or if eating on your own at least acknowledging you are providing your body nourishment and appreciating that – maybe even with some good music.

Let’s take a look at the black background cautionary comments which talks about what to limit – again a bit more about ‘what to eat’ part of Group A recommendations.

These items are recommended to be limited (note limit, no avoid) – and my personal preference is to call them ‘treat foods”. So we can include them in a healthy relationship with food in limited amounts. We can notice these foods by looking at the labels. And even if you think you might be – the research says we aren’t immune to food marketing. Here’s a few more extra tips but remember that the more we eat of nutritious foods, it’s easier not to focus on foods to limit:

• Compare sodium on the label (Daily Value % is useful)
• Look at how much sugars and also what types of sugars are listed in the ingredients (naturally in foods such as fruit vs. added sugars such as sugar, syrups, or anything ending in — ose)
• Reduce sweetened beverages including juice, alcohol, sodas and even ones that pretend to have ‘healthy’ packaging.
• Choose more unsaturated fat such as liquid oils at room temperature than saturated fat which are solid oils/fat at room temperature.

These are important recommendations to be aware of. Knowledge gives us the ability to know what we are eating, how we are being influenced to eat, – it can even be fun to be curious and find out all the little things about food – or even be curious about what we actually are eating!

Remember – know “what to eat” helps us make decisions, but we need to mix this with Group B “how to eat”. So don’t go thinking you can’t eat anything ever again! So let’s learn how to mix “what to eat” with “how we eat” TOGETHER.

To help make this make a bit more sense I’ve broken both groups into two subgroups. See the pdf below for a different format of the same Canada Food Guide and which Group it fits in!

Group A: What to Eat
1) Nutritious foods are the foundation for healthy eating
2) Some foods have a negative impact on health if consumed regularly

Group B: “How to eat” or “The Food Experience”
3) Importance of food skills to support healthy eating
4) Importance of supportive environments for healthy eating

CFG-9-Healthy-Recommendations-EN

So although the two sections are split apart and are separate what I really love about this food guide is we can talk even more about why it is so important to use these recommendations TOGETHER.

Let’s focus on one example. Have you ever felt guilty about eating a food – especially a treat food? Let’s start with the end – it is ok to enjoy your food, even some treat food that we can make ‘fit – the key is ‘fit’. It’s too easy to just focus on the what to eat so the one thing I will tell you the food guide is not doing is vilifying food, or telling us to be afraid of food, or telling us to feel guilty about food. It’s doing the opposite stating ‘enjoy meals’.

It’s saying: knowledge is important – we need to know what foods are nutritious foods for my body to eat as a foundation most of the time and we need to know what foods are treat foods we can enjoy in limited amounts. That balancing act is the ‘how’. The ‘how’ is the fun part for me as a dietitian to make health eating fit within each person’s life.

So let’s talk bring it back to the bigger other aspects of ‘how we eat’ and the food experience – some are fun and some aren’t.

Food choice is not always an option for everyone. The food guide also includes this concept in the ‘how / food experience recommendations’ recognizing that the food environment and food skills impact eating. This includes factors such as the physical ability to cook, knowledge to cook, access to food and water, household food insecurity (adequate income for sufficient nutritious food), access to land for traditional foods, cultural foods, current life priorities/responsibilities, health, enjoyment, social events/environment, emotions, and if you are lucky – preferences. Let’s also not forget how the food we grow, harvest, consume, and dispose of affects our earth. And these factors may change. Now this is a huge section for me but I thought I’d just give you a ‘taste’ (haha) since a lot of this will come out in other content this year.

I believe strongly this new Canada’s Food Guide is a great step. It does an amazing job of combining the science of nutritious food for the body in talking about “what to eat” and the art of applying evidence to each person’s life by incorporating “how to eat” and the food experience impacted by our food environments and food skills”.

So what an AMAZING JOB Canada’s Food Guide! You did A LOT!
So let’s celebrate! Where’s that cake I made where I forgot the egg?
(if you were following my Instagram you know this happened
– and yes I ate it anyways)

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR!

Here’s the summary Canada’s Food Guide

Group A) Know what you are eating – the science of food
1) is it an all the time food such as fruit, veggies, whole grains, water and proteins?
2) or an occasional treat such as foods that are high in sugar, sodium and/or high in saturated fat?).

Group B) Think “how you eat/the food experience” – the art of application
3) Be mindful: Think about what you eat, when you eat, why you eat, and your food environment.
4) Put the fun back in food 🙂 Enjoy your meals, get curious about food, eat together with good conversations and find some fun food things you can learn!

Remember to combine both recommendations TOGETHER!

References:
1. Dietitians of Canada. (2019). Dietitians of Canada applauds new Food Guide, calling it relevant, modern and evidence based (News Release)
2. Health Canada. (2019). Canada’s Food Guide
3. Health Canada. (2019). Food Guide Snapshot
4. Health Canada. (2019). Healthy Eating Recommendations
5. Health Canada. (2019). Canada’s Dietary Guidelines for Health Professionals and Policy Makers