NUTRISPEAK

by Vesanto Melina MS, RD

This fall, Health Canada will publish a new, updated food guide. In April, the ministry hosted events across the country for stakeholders, which presumably means anyone who eats, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had not been referring to steakholders. The proposed guide shows much more allegiance to health than its American counterpart (published by the US Department of Agriculture), which caters even more to the interests of agribusiness.
Representatives of the industry – from Soyaworld to dairy foundations – as well as environmentalists, agriculturalists, vegetarians, dietitians, health professionals and the general public attended the Vancouver event. Over the last four years, members of these groups have all provided input into the revised guide.
A food guide has the near-impossible mandate of translating data about food requirements – protein, fat, carbohydrates and about 30 minerals and vitamins – into various food groups, and condensing it to fit on a single page. Of course, the translation will be markedly different for cultural groups, whose origins are Inuit, Asian or Hispanic. (See international food guides at www.senba.es/recursos/piramides/pictorials_nutrition_guides.pdf)
The first food guide to emerge in North America, How to Feed Children, was published in 1916 and consisted of five food groups: 1) Meat and milk; 2) Breads; 3) Vegetables and fruits; 4) Fats; and 5) Sugars. Subsequently, from US president Herbert Hoover’s campaign promise of “A chicken in every pot...” to the realities of having enough food to eat during the Depression years, both the form and content of the guides continued to shift. By dividing vegetables and fruits into four subgroups, and meat and milk into four subgroups, including eggs and beans, peas and nuts, the guides identified between seven and 10 food groups.
In July 1942, Canada introduced its first food guide, Official Food Rules. While acknowledging wartime food rationing, the guide endeavoured to prevent nutritional deficiencies and improve the health of Canadians. In 1961, Rules outlined five official food groups. Since 1977, Canadian food guides were simplified to a four-food-group system. Two, milk and milk products, and meat and alternates, were featured foremost. In 1992, breads and cereals along with vegetables and fruits became more prominent, reflecting advances in nutritional science and a growing concern with our fatty diets.
In the ‘40s and ‘50s, no one thought twice about the Canada food guide’s claim that dairy products – cow’s milk, cheese and ice cream – were essential to good health and the cornerstone of a “balanced” diet. Never mind that this guide was the ultimate marketing tool for the dairy industry. The focus then was the prevention of dietary deficiencies, rather than obesity, and dairy products were viewed as nature’s perfect food. And not just for young calves that needed to gain weight fast, but for humans of all ages.
Our perspective then was also far less multicultural than it is today. Otherwise, the wisdom of designating a food as essential that was linked to lactose intolerance for 70 percent of the world’s population – including First Nations, Asians, Africans and Hispanics – would have been called into question. Today, it would be unthinkable to insist that everyone drink innumerable glasses of milk every day (or consume milk products), when milk sugar causes so many people the discomfort of gas, bloating and abdominal upset.
Vesanto Melina is a registered dietitian and the author of seven classic books about food and nutrition, www.nutrispeak.com. To book a personal nutritional consultation, call 604-882-6782 or email vesanto@nutrispeak.com



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