Let’s talk about the Food Guide…

The current Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide was developed in 2011. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this version of the food guide, and a lot of opinions on how it should be changed. I have my own opinions on it, however, for this blog, I am going to focus on the main parts of the food guide that we can use for our benefit.

One of things that the Food Guide promotes is the importance of healthy living. Healthy eating + physical activity = healthy life. Most people already know this, but there are some people that think they can just concentrate on either the healthy eating portion or the physical activity portion, without including the other. A healthy life needs both to endure.

Most of the controversy surrounding the Food Guide has stemmed from the suggested serving sizes of the four food groups; and sometimes whether the four food groups should be included in our daily meals and snacks. My take on this is that although I can’t comment on what the serving sizes should be, but I believe that all four food groups should be included in our daily diet. Each food group contains its own important nutrients, vitamins and minerals that are important for our bodies to thrive. Eliminating one of those food groups means eliminating those specific nutrients, vitamins and minerals from our diet. They can’t always be found in the other food groups.

Some of the other ideas found in the Food Guide that I agree with are (bolding and italics are mine):
• Choose foods and beverages that are lower in calories, fat, sugar and salt.
• Choose (whole) grain products that are lower in fat, sugar or salt.
• Choose (whole) vegetables and fruit prepared with little or no added fat, sugar or salt.
• Choose skim, 1% or 2% milk (and milk alternatives) each day.
• Eat at least one dark green and one orange vegetable each day.
• Have (fish and) meat alternatives such as beans, lentils and tofu often.
• Include a small amount of unsaturated fat each day.
• Satisfy your thirst with water.
Adapted from Health Canada’s “Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide – A Resource for Educators and Communicators” at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/pubs/res-educat/res-educat-eng.php#tphp

In the next couple of weeks, I am going to tackle the specific food groups, nutrients, vitamins and minerals. If you have certain questions about any of these topics, please send them my way and I’ll include them in my blogs.

If you have any nutrition topics you would like me to write about or have a question you would like answered, email me at thedishonlcn@gmail.com. I would really like to hear from you!