The Rural Voice, 2019-03, Page 21headlined, “Canada’s Faulty Diet is
Adolf Hitler’s Ally.”
Official Food Rules was part of a
major government effort to correct
the situation. Canadians were
discouraged from eating wheat, meat,
dairy products and other foods
needed for wartime export, and
encouraged to consume foods that
didn’t quite fit that bill including
fish, vegetables and fruit.
Ashift occurred with the
publication of the 1944 guide.
Called Canada’s Food Rules,
it was based on the dietary standard
set by the Canadian Council of
Nutrition. But Canada’s Department
of Agriculture had its own interests
to advance. Milk was scarce at the
time, and when the new rules
advocated greater milk consumption,
the Department objected. The
promotion of agriculture would
thereafter become one of the central
goals of the food rules which,
according to Mosby, closely mirrored
the interests of Canada’s main
domestic agricultural producers.
The 1949 Canada’s Food Rules
was based on a dietary standard
similar to the previous version,
despite increasing concern about the
health effects of over-eating. The
standard did hint that eating more
was not necessarily better, but the
concern appears to have been mostly
a response to a persistent post-war
global food shortage than the health
hazards of excessive consumption.
The next rewrite was in 1961 with
the new title, Canada’s Food Guide.
That edition, as well as the 1977 and
1982 editions of the same name,
were considered not substantially
different from the 1949 version.
The 1992 guide was renamed
Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy
Eating. It touted a “total diet
approach” to meet both energy and
nutrient requirements, and ushered in
“a new era in nutrition guidance in
Canada.” In addition to the
traditional four food groups, the draft
guide included a fifth group called
“extras” that included processed
foods and corn-derived sugars.
When they read the draft, food-
industry groups objected. The
Grocery Products Manufacturing
Council felt that “extras” created a
good food/bad food scenario. The
Canadian Meat Council complained
that the “meat and alternatives” food
group included only one to three
servings per day. When viewed in the
context of four to 10 vegetable
servings, the Council said, the
guideline could be interpreted as
advocating less meat consumption.
The protests were effective. When
the final text was released,
recommended servings for products
including meat, dairy and high-fat
foods were increased, and the
contentious “extras” food group was
renamed “other foods” which were to
be eaten in moderation. Of the 1992
guide, CBC Marketplace co-host Bill
Paul told viewers in 1993, “the
outcry was enough to make one think
that the four food groups should be
renamed the four lobby groups.”
Attempts to influence the rules
persisted. When planning for the
2007 revision began in 2003, four of
12 members on the Food Guide
Advisory Committee represented the
food industry. Critics objected.
Nutrition guides, they said, should be
based on science and medicine, not
business interests. Said one medical
doctor at the time, “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.”
Nutritional science has advanced
since the publication of Eating Well
with Canada’s Food Guide. Multiple
studies demonstrate that eating
processed foods and corn-derived
sugars — those “extras” or “other
foods” — can disrupt the body’s
metabolism, compounding current
epidemics of obesity, type 2 diabetes,
heart disease, and other illnesses.
Which brings us to the newly-
minted 2019 food guide. Has Eating
Well with Canada’s Food Guide,
unlike its predecessors, managed to
sidestep controversy? Apparently
not. By emphasizing plant-based
sources of protein, it has raised
hackles in the meat and dairy
industry. It has also prompted
questions among the nutrition and
health sectors where doctors and
nutritionists say the new guide does
not sufficiently address the dangers
of overeating and alarming rate of
childhood obesity. ◊
March 2019 17
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