Eat with pleasure: What Canadian Nutrition Guide recommends
Health Canada published new recommendations on nutrition, which made a lot of noise both in the country and abroad. The last time the national guide was updated in 2007 and then it was a completely standard document with food categories, norms for the consumption of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, a lot of numbers and percentages. But in 2019, Canadians staged a small revolution - they released a short, just two pages, and very nice nutritional guide with lyrical recommendations like "Enjoy Meal" and "Eat More Fruit."
New guide caused a lot of discussion. Most people are inclined to think that Canadians made a breakthrough: the health service finally spoke to the population in simple language and at the same time took into account eco-trends - the advice to eat more plant foods fits into the modern agenda. On the other hand, experts note that the call to reduce the consumption of meat and dairy products may adversely affect livestock production, which is now making active attempts to become more environmentally friendly. One way or another, the Canadian recommendations should be heeded - they are based on the results of recent research, and for the first time take into account the psychological and cultural aspects of nutrition.
Text: Vasilisa Kirilochkina
What should be on the plate
The concept of the ideal dish has long been used to demonstrate a balanced diet - they developed their options at Harvard and Stanford, the Ministry of Health of Great Britain, Spain, and several other countries used the dish. But Canadians have created, perhaps, the simplest version of the diet: half should fall on fruits and vegetables, a quarter - on protein sources (primarily vegetable, including soy, other legumes and nuts), another quarter - on cereals and whole grain pasta or bread. There are no separate sources of fat on the plate - fats in sufficient quantity are present in protein-rich foods, that is, fish, eggs, meat, as well as beans, nuts and avocados.
An important feature of the Canadian guide is the emphasis on plant food and a set of recommendations on how to get all the necessary substances out of it. Although there are no direct prohibitions on milk or meat in the manual, there are no recommendations for their mandatory presence in the diet - and this is a bold step that runs counter to traditional recommendations. The Russian Ministry of Health, for example, recommends eating three servings of dairy products per day (only 800 grams). Although the WHO does not focus on milk derivatives, it mentions them in the context of consumption of saturated fats. Many national guides recommend drinking a glass of milk a day - but not Canadian. Perhaps this is due to the active controversy around the benefits of dairy products. They contain sugar (lactose, which every sixth Canadian does not tolerate), proteins (mainly casein, which often causes food allergies) and saturated fats. There are fierce disputes about the dangers and benefits of the latter, but the results of most studies still show that the consumption of saturated fat should be limited and replaced with unsaturated ones.
For the same reason, red meat has fallen into disgrace of Canadians: there is convincing evidence that its consumption increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and colon cancer. But the new guide does not intimidate the possible consequences of malnutrition. This is a positive manifesto about a healthy attitude to food, in which the emphasis is not on individual ingredients or even products, but on food habits that can be embedded in any lifestyle.
Without guilt
The second page of the guide is devoted to eating habits. In the interactive version on the site you can read a detailed transcript of each item, find useful recipes, tips on budget grocery shopping and menu planning. But the main points fit into several sentences and remind more of a motivational mantra than official state recommendations: come to nutrition issues consciously, cook yourself more often, enjoy your food, eat with close people.
This approach may seem naive, but in fact, avoiding the concept of "useful" and "harmful" products, categorical imperatives and strict rules helps to avoid feeling guilty about what you eat "imperfectly." Advice to consciously approaching nutrition leaves much more room for imagination than a directive is six times a day in small portions. The idea to cook at home more often sounds more positive than the instruction to avoid semi-finished products. Nevertheless, Canadians added three of the most important warnings to their guide: read the composition of products, limit sugar, salt and saturated fats, and also remember that grocery marketing can motivate us to buy certain brands and this is not always good.
And the child will understand
The full version of the guide contains sixty-two pages - but it is intended exclusively for professionals: medical professionals and organizations that supply food to schools and other government agencies. And citizens, according to Health Minister Ginette Petipa Taylor, should take care of the formation of healthy eating habits, and not about food categories and calories. Therefore, the two-page guide today is distributed in kindergartens and schools, clinics, hospitals, residences for the elderly and other organizations. Moreover, for the guide they created a special mobile application with a lot of useful information - from recipes to a detailed analysis of the marketing tricks of manufacturers.
The new Canadian guide can be called at least convenient: it is much easier to follow it than to the entangled WHO recommendations like "to reduce the consumption of saturated fat to 10% of the total energy consumption." The shift in focus from individual nutrients to nutrition as part of life, working with the social context, the relevance of data and ease of presentation - all this gives us hope that the new Canadian recommendations will be implemented (statistics of cardiovascular diseases in the world suggests that there are few traditional recommendations who follows). As a maximum, Canadians managed to clearly convey the idea that in the context of modern healthy lifestyles hysteria has acquired particular importance: if you are a healthy person, you do not need to focus on nutrition. Food should in no way cause guilt and paranoia. “Don't complicate things. Food should be nutritious and enjoyable, that's all,” says Taylor. It's hard not to agree with her.
Photo: Lazartivan - stock.adobe.com, Aleksei - stock.adobe.com, supamas - stock.adobe.com
