Why you should care about Canada’s new food guide

Canada’s Food Guide matters. You may not consult it, but chances are you’ve at least scanned it at some point. Odds are most of us are aware of some of the basic premises recommended by the guide.

It’s not just the impact of those food guidelines on individual Canadian consumers that matters. The guide is also used as a basis for good nutrition in institutional settings — hospitals, schools, daycare centres and long-term care facilities, for example.

So news that a new version of the guide will come out within a few weeks, with significant changes, is notable. According to published reports, Health Canada’s food blueprint will no longer have four food groups when it comes out this spring. Say goodbye to vegetables and fruit, grains, milk and alternatives and meat and alternatives.

Sylvain Charlebois, professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University (and a regular contributor to The Spectator), says consumers will instead be encouraged to eat more of nearly 30 different food products.

“So instead of having a food group representing milk or meat products, the food guide will focus more on fibre and proteins. In fact, the new guide will even encourage Canadians to drink more water and cook,” Charlebois said in a Halifax Today media interview.

He referred to the new guide as “... a look at lifestyle. It’s not just about what you eat, but with whom you eat, when you eat and where, as well.”

The biggest change will be around meat and dairy. Health Canada wants us to eat less of both, and consume more plant-based protein — vegetables, fruit and whole grains — which are known to have health benefits over red meat and saturated fat alternatives.

Another change: sweetened fruit juices like orange juice will all but disappear.

The new food recommendations aren’t going over well with everyone. The beef and dairy sectors are worried about what the increased competition will have on their bottom lines. The same goes for makers of sugary fruit drinks.

But Health Canada did a smart thing early in the process of updating the food guide, which hasn’t been modernized since about 2007. It said it was not going to base its recommendations on research linked to any food-industry sector. It was only interested in evidence around health and diet. And we know what that evidence says about too much red meat, dairy and sugar. Less is more.

Health Canada is quick to assure concerned food sectors that it’s not labelling meat and dairy as bad choices. It will still recommend lean meats and low-fat dairy products, just in more moderation.

And there’s no denying it: The new guidelines will show a preference for food types that offer the same or more benefits while not carrying the same health baggage as red meat and high-fat dairy products.

It’s not wrong for lobby groups representing meat and dairy to express concerns. Their job is to represent the best interests of their constituents.

But Health Canada’s job is to represent the interests of every Canadian, based on the best evidence available.

It cannot and should not be swayed by economic arguments, only by evidence about healthy food options.

“It’s not just about what you eat, but with whom you eat, when you eat and where, as well.”

SYLVAIN CHARLEBOIS Professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University