Canada’s food Guide: a Canadian success story
Today I am proud to be Canadian. Health Canada released the Canada’s food guide this morning. It is progressive, evidence-based, intuitive and healthier for Canadians and for the planet.
The biggest changes?
Removing dairy as a food group is the biggest change. Food groups are created to group nutritionally similar foods together intended to deliver key nutrients to the population. Dairy was seen as essential because the combination of protein, calcium and vitamin D helped us grow strong bones and healthy teeth. Or so we were told. The reality is that protein is abundant in our diet and we don’t need dairy to get it. Looking for calcium? Plant foods like tofu, kale, sesame seeds and almonds are good sources of calcium. Plant-based milks are fortified with calcium and vitamin D to the same levels of dairy milk. In fact, vitamin D does not naturally occur in dairy milk, it is there as the result of fortification. Don’t worry, we can grow strong bones without dairy.
The other big change you will see is that meat and dairy are grouped together with beans, lentils and tofu in the ‘protein foods’ group. And Canadians are encouraged to choose plant-based sources of protein more often. Why? Because plant-based proteins come with healthy fibre and without unhealthy saturated fats. Choosing plants more often is a win for our health and a win for the planet.
Canada taking action on dietary evidence
Despite industry pressure, Health Canada stood by their promise for a transparent, evidence-based process. In the last few years countries such as Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Brazil have all updated their foods guides and they have all encouraged people to eat more plants. Even the USA included mediterranean and healthy vegetarian food patterns in their latest guide. This is in the face of overwhelming evidence of the benefits of eating a plant-rich diet to reduce our risk of all of our big chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Our Canada’s food guide comes out just a week after the massive EAT-Lancet report was released. This report is the result of three years of work by 37 experts reviewing the highest quality evidence. Their recommendations for more sustainable diets to support human and planetary health include eating more plants and cutting our consumption of meat; particularly beef. I’m so proud to say that our food guide falls right in line with this report.
Anything less than these recommendations would be a backwards step for Canada. To fail to recommend plant-based diets, knowing what we know about health and the environment is akin to being a climate change denier. Bravo Canada for standing firm, not yielding to industry pressure, and telling Canadians the truth.