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This article is one of the many resources offered by our Health Navigation Platform to help your members stay abreast of the latest health information. Offering an informative overview of the newest version of Canada’s Food Guide, this article briefs your users on the most up-to-date information for keeping a healthy diet.
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The highly anticipated new version of Canada’s Food Guide has finally been released and is giving Canadians a new way to think about healthy eating for themselves and their families.
With more emphasis on how to eat instead of just what to eat, the new guide removes portion sizes and age-specific serving recommendations, and instead focuses on being mindful of our eating habits, cooking more, and eating meals with others.
Why is a guide containing healthy eating information important?
We know that an unhealthy diet is a primary risk factor for disease burden in Canada, and while there is a lot of nutrition information out there to help Canadians eat healthily, it is often complex, confusing and unreliable. Canada’s Food Guide aims to break down nutrition information into evidence-based, useful and relevant recommendations for Canadians to implement into their daily lives.
So, what does the new food guide say about what you should eat?
Using a “healthy plate” model, the guide recommends eating a variety of healthy foods every day by ensuring that for most meals, half of your plate is filled with fruit and vegetables, a quarter with protein foods and a quarter with whole grains. In addition, it recommends choosing healthy fats over saturated fats and making water your drink of choice.
Let’s break down these recommendations even further…
Have plenty of fruits and vegetables: Canada’s Food Guide recommends choosing whole fruits and vegetables over fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates. Fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables are all healthy options, however keep in mind that some canned produce is high in sodium and sugar, so pay attention to the nutrition label.
Eat protein foods: The new food guide recommends that you choose protein foods that come from plants more often – this means nuts, seeds, beans, peas, lentils and soy products – as they contain more fiber and less saturated fat than other types of protein. Animal-based proteins, like beef, pork, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy products, can also be part of a healthy eating pattern – but the guide recommends choosing lean poultry and beef and low-fat dairy products over their higher-fat counterparts.
Eat whole-grain foods: Whole-grain foods like quinoa, whole-grain pasta or bread, whole oats and wild rice are healthier than refined (white) grain products. The guide cautions the importance of knowing the difference between whole-wheat, multi-grain and whole-grain foods. Always read the ingredient list and choose foods that say “whole grain,” followed by the name of a grain like oat or wheat.
Choose foods with healthy fats: The guide states that rather than focusing on how much fat you include in your diet, paying attention to the type of fat is most important. Choosing foods with healthy, unsaturated fats (found in nuts, seeds, avocado, fatty fish and certain vegetable oils) can reduce your risk of heart disease. On the other hand, saturated fats – found in fatty meats, high-fat dairy products and hard margarine – should be limited.
Make water your drink of choice: Many beverage choices are high in sugar, sodium and calories. Drinking water keeps you hydrated, helps get rid of waste and is important for your overall health. Other healthy options for keeping hydrated include milk, unsweetened fortified plant-based beverages (like soy or almond milks) or unsweetened coffee and teas.
Healthy eating is more than the foods you eat
In addition to recommending what foods to eat, Canada’s Food Guide emphasizes the importance of the behavioral and social aspects of eating. Here are just some of the recommendations that the guide provides to promote healthy eating habits:
Be mindful of your eating habits: Be aware of how, why, what, when, where and how much you eat. This can help you make healthy choices and be more conscious of your eating habits.
Cook more often: Cooking instead of eating not only helps you make healthy choices for you and your family, but saves you money in the long-term.
Enjoy your food: With so much emphasis on the importance of food for health, it’s sometimes easy for forget that food is something to be enjoyed. Enjoying your food includes socializing at mealtimes, getting to know the people that grow your food and finding fun recipes to cook with your family.
Eat meals with others: Enjoying meals with family, friends or co-workers allows you to explore new foods and share food traditions, and is an important part of celebrations, holidays and special events. Eating together as a family is especially important – children benefit greatly from regular family meals as a way to develop a healthy eating habits and behaviors.
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