By Kirsty Coleman-
Canada released a new food guide at the beginning of January 2019, omitting food portions and food groups. Instead, the food guide featured half of the plate containing fruits and vegetables, a quarter, protein, and a quarter, grains. Throughout the guide, and noticeably when talking about protein, it suggests consuming plant-based foods more often. This is a fantastic document to read because for so long, humans have been denying their ability to stop eating meat, or cut down on meat, because they, “need their protein.” Chickpeas, sweet potatoes, tofu and legumes are all packed with protein, and they are also commonly used ingredients in a plant-based diet.
The new outlook on Canada’s suggested eating habits is very refreshing and encouraging, recommending water, instead of milk or fruit juice as the main drink choice. It displays a table showing the benefits of an increased intake of plant-based foods, explaining the compelling findings associated with a higher intake of nuts, soy proteins, viscous soluble fibres, and lowered cardiovascular risk factors. There was also an association between increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables, and decreased cardiovascular disease risk. Whilst talking about processed meats, it states a correlation between increased intake of processed meat and increase of cancer. Most people have lost a loved one to the dreaded cancer, so given the option and information to decrease your chances of getting cancer, surely making the choice between eating more, or less meat, is obvious.
It also mentions the impact which humans eating habits can have on the environment, supporting the idea that eating more plant-based foods would be beneficial to the environment, by, “helping to conserve soil, water and air”. Helping the environment should be a primary focus for all humans simply because it affects the world we live in, and therefore, ultimately affects humans. We have a duty to protect the earth, especially after how much we have damaged it.
Canada’s new legislation requires food labels to show in descending order by weight, how much free sugars are in the food item, allowing Canadians to see the proportion of free sugars are in their food, compared to other sugar types. I hadn’t heard of the term, “free sugars”, before, but when finding out the easiest description of ‘free sugars’, this was the statement I found made it clearer. “When fruit is turned into fruit juice, the sugars come out of their cells and become free sugars.” This explains why diabetics can consume oranges, but it is not good for them to consume orange juice. Aside from fruit juice, more examples foods and drinks which contain free sugars, are jam, cakes, chocolate, coca cola; free sugars are also sugar which are added to our food, by the manufacturer for example. Too much sugar can cause obesity and as a result of this, can increase your risk of heart disease.
Section four in the document, explains how every sector in Canada has a role to play in implementing the dietary guidelines it has produced, and goes into detail regarding current issues in the realistic ability of everyone having access to healthy food options. The sectors need to work together if a healthy lifestyle is going to be an option for everyone in Canada. It discusses how those who face poverty could lack the ability to lead a healthy lifestyle, as well as addressing th
FOOD LABELS
Canada wants to make their people more aware of what nutritional value their food contains. They help to implement this by listing ingredients in order of weight, so if you buy a vegan burger, you will know what the main ingredient in that burger is, because it will be at the top of the list. Simple! Food labels have been around for a long time, but we do not pay attention to them, and that is where Canada want to help. They want to promote food labels to help their fellow Canadians become more knowledgeable about what they are consuming.
Canada’s new legislation requires item, allowing Canadians to see the proportion of free sugars are in their food, compared to other sugar types. I hadn’t heard of the term, “free sugars”, before, but when finding out the easiest description of ‘free sugars’, this was the statement I found made it clearer. “When fruit is turned into fruit juice, the sugars come out of their cells and become free sugars.” This explains why diabetics can consume oranges, but it is not good for them to consume orange juice. Aside from fruit juice, more examples foods and drinks which contain free sugars, are jam, cakes, chocolate, coca cola; free sugars are also sugar which are added to our food, by the manufacturer for example. Too much sugar can cause obesity and as a result of this, can increase your risk of heart disease.
Section four in the document, explains how every sector in Canada has a role to play in implementing the dietary guidelines it has produced, and goes into detail regarding current issues in the realistic ability of everyone having access to healthy food options. The sectors need to work together if a healthy lifestyle is going to be an option for everyone in Canada. It discusses how those who face poverty could lack the ability to lead a healthy lifestyle, as well as addressing the indigenous people of Canada, including the difficulty for those living in more secluded areas. A healthy reminder included here, is how children are affected by their parents’ choices of foods, and brings us back to how we have to lead an example in healthy eating and living, if we want future generations of children to grow into strong and healthy adults.
GUIDELINES
The UK could adopt some of Canada’s new guidelines, and the benefits would speak for themselves, as you may agree after reading this article alone. The UK could increase the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables in our meal portions, and emphasise on eating less meat in general, rather than just a reduction in processed meat. Cutting down meat intake is something I have heard spoke about on the radio several times recently in relation to helping the environment, but it has not been implemented into our food guide much as of yet. In the UK’s Eatwell guide, there is a very small section containing ‘8 tips for eating well’, none of which include reduced meat intake. I took note of the fact that the UK’s Eatwell Guide also commented on limiting the amount of fruit juice or smoothies consumed, which is great, but I feel it did not focus enough on encouragement of drinking water. I have always been under the impression that it is recommended we drink 6-8 glasses of water each day, however, it included counting lower-fat milk, and drinks with no added sugar, like tea or coffee, within this target, which I found quite strange.
The Eatwell Guide was last published in March 2016 and according to the ‘gov.uk’, website, parts have been updated in September 2018. Perhaps the UK will soon choose to adopt some of Canada’s newly released dietary guidelines