New food guide could hurt farmers, health

The fact that Canada has become an exemplar for the nanny state is proven again by proposals for a new food guide.

The government wants us all to change our eating habits, based on the values of the ideologues who clog the halls of Parliament Hill.

Let’s look at a bit of the record on food recommendations from governments.

Take eggs, a source of dietary cholesterol, as an example.

It’s not hard to remember when the brainiacs were telling us to cut down on egg consumption. It was all about consuming cholesterol.

After a number of decades, that concern was debunked.

Today a government website says this: “Eggs provide essential nutrients that are part of a healthy diet.”

Of course, the holier-than-thou bureaucrats couldn’t help but adding, “like all foods, they should be produced, handled, and prepared with care to minimize the risk of food poisoning.” Well, duh.

You might also remember when gaining weight was blamed mostly on calories, then it was fats, now it’s carbohydrates. All three are factors.

Apparently the new food guide is going to advise us to get our protein from plant-based, rather than animal-based, sources.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada is worried about how far this politically correct view might go. Could it include warning labels on foods that didn’t get endorsement from the aforementioned ideologues?

Here’s the Dairy Farmers: “Imagine yourself ... in your local grocery store and seeing a carton of whole milk, a product that is widely considered to bring significant nutritional value, and that is recommended by health authorities as the drink of choice for young children. Unfortunately, on that carton of whole milk, despite its nutritional benefits, there is a big stop sign put there by the government to warn you away,”

The Health Canada document will recommend Canadians eat more vegetables, fruit, whole grains and protein-rich foods, with a focus on plant-based sources of protein.

The proposed labels are too focused on three things that are bad for you, said Isabelle Bouchard, director of communications for Dairy Farmers.

Dairy products would be called out for their fat content, while their benefits are overlooked, she said.

“There’s zinc, potassium, vitamin C. There’s a lot of other nutrients that need to be comprehended when you’re thinking about a balanced diet. Focusing on the three, that’s (a) problem,” said Bouchard.

The other factor at play here is the politically correct belief of the day that raising animals is not an environmentally-friendly activity.

Conservative MP Larry Miller, a former beef producer, has come out strongly against food guide recommendations that will hurt farmers.

Miller, former chair of the standing committee on agriculture and food calls on the feds to develop sciencebased recommendations for the new Canada Food Guide.

There’s a concept that will never fly in Ottawa, basing guidelines on facts rather than ideology.

Besides the concerns of dairy farmers, Miller says the Canadian meat industry, including Beef Farmers of Ontario, has expressed concerns that the proposed changes put more emphasis on plant-based protein, encouraging Canadians to eat less red meat.

Miller points out that the plan could have significant negative impacts on Canada’s meat and dairy sectors.

But here’s the bottom line that should concern all of us: it also could have negative impacts on the health of Canadians.