The politics behind Canada's Food Guide

for the past 75 years Food Guide has

been about more than just health and

nutrition but shaped by the undertones

of politics Ralph has decided that it

must be lots of milk which has given

Linda such a bright smile

ever since Health Canada revealed its

newest draft of Canada's Food Guide

health experts and the public were quick

to praise its commitment to revamping

the guide based on evidence and science

the drafts addressable address food

allergies cultural differences in eating

habits and will encourage plant-based

diets which scientific research

continues to show is the best way to

stave off heart disease and diabetes but

this begs a question why is this only

happening now shouldn't the government's

guide to healthy eating have always been

about evidence-based policy yes and

here's why it matters a quarter of

Canadians suffer from obesity a rate

that continues to rise rapidly across

the country the food guide has been a

tool to tackle such large numbers and is

used by schools daycares and healthcare

facilities it's the most downloaded

federal document second only to tax

forms yet the most recent version of the

guide from 2007 was heavily criticized

by health experts from the very

beginning who claimed it was 2 lakhs on

processed foods and sugar there was too

much emphasis on eating dairy and meat

and ultimately not enough science

backing it up how did that happen over

the decades Health Canada has promised

the public healthier food guides only to

cave in to lobby groups and their

business interests the tradition started

in 1942 after Canada joined the war

effort during the Great Depression

malnourished mint was widespread with

60% of Canadians not getting enough

nutrients and many war recruits were

rejected for medical reasons the

government responded with a series of

steps to improve the Canadian diet

including implementing Canada's official

food rules the document defined healthy

eating with the goal of strengthening

young men to march into battle at the

same time the food rules were a way to

discourage Canadians at home who were

mostly women from eating the food that

needed to be exported for the war effort

households had to use substitutions and

make do with less in 1944 the guide was

updated to reflect pre-war meal sizes

Canadians were encouraged to eat four to

six slices of buttered bread a day and

at least one daily serving of potatoes

overall the focus was on eating greater

quantities

with a few exceptions the government had

to stop recommending weekly servings of

organ meats due to its limited supplies

the guide recommended drinking more milk

but they didn't retract about advice in

the next iteration of the food rules

after the Department of Agriculture

voiced concerns of a dairy shortage

worldwide food shortages and an

increasing understanding about the

effects of overeating factored into the

next set of food rules released in 1949

the guide made it clear that more was

not always better the years that

followed didn't see many updates until

another so-called overhaul in 1992 when

the food guide was renamed to Canada's

Food Guide to healthy eating however it

didn't make it through its second draft

without food industry groups protesting

it to appease the Canadian meat Council

the Canadian egg marketing agency and

the dairy Bureau of Canada Health Canada

up to the daily recommended meat and

dairy servings which many nutritionists

agreed was far too much for a balanced

diet another one for the 2007 version of

the food guide Health Canada appointed a

food guide advisory committee with four

of its 12 members being big food

representatives as yoni friedhof wrote I

can't think of anyone with greater

conflicts of interest in the creation of

a food guide than the folks who sell and

promote the food this time around Health

Canada is vowing to keep business and

political interests away from a new food

guide Dairy Farmers of Canada was quick

to express their concern already they

provide the six of the eight nutrients

that are often lacking in the diet they

definitely deserve to remain in the food

guide and to be also a separate food

group there's still plenty of time for

lobbyists to influence policymakers and

in turn what Canadians eat as they have

for the past 75 years don't they know by

now not to bring politics to the dinner

family

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