Essay Sample on New Canada Food Guide: Summary & Guidelines

Introduction

The new Canada's food guide is a set of guidelines that are intended to promote healthy eating and improve the wellbeing of the public and act as a guide to professionals and policymakers when developing nutritional policies. The guide is formulated by making consideration of the current research regarding nutrition and diseases that are closely tied to diet. This paper will provide a summary, look at specific guidelines in the food guide, and identify the good attributes as well as the limitation of the food guide.

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The food choices a person makes influence their health. Some foods improve a person's health, while others have a negative influence on their health. Bad food choices increase the risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart diseases, which are significant causes of death in Canada. The economic costs associated with these diseases are high to the individuals and the nation (Scarborough, Bhatnagar, Wickramasinghe, Allender, Foster & Rayner, 2011). The new Canadian food guide tries to improve the health of individuals by guiding them to choosing healthy food choices. This improves people's wellbeing and reduces economic burdens both to the individual and the nation.

Poor food choices have a considerable impact on the environment. The cheap and convenient foods that are common among Canadians are not only bad for their health but also affect the environment negatively and are not sustainable (O'Kane, 2012). Canada's food guide is a guideline that guides people to choose foods that will not only improve their health but also conserve the environment. These are sustainable foods.

The food guide emphasizes the consumption of plenty of fruits and vegetables and eating whole grain and proteins. The food guide encourages the use of plant-based protein. Consumption of these foods reduces risks to chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases (Liu, 2013). Consumption of a plant-based diet also increases fiber intake, which reduces the risk of colon and rectal cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes. The Canadian consumption of fruits and vegetables is low despite the health benefits of these foods. The use of these plant-based foods has a less negative impact on the environment (O'Kane, 2012).

The food guide encourages people to reduce the consumption of saturated fat in favor of unsaturated fat. High use of saturated fat found mostly in processed foods has been linked to a high risk of cardiovascular disease. Replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat found in vegetable oils, nuts, avocado, and fatty fish can reduce this risk (Mozaffarian, Micha & Wallace, 2010). Adoption of this guideline can have a significant impact on people's health since 50% of the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases in Canada in 2017 was due to dietary risks.

Foods that are highly processed contain high levels of sodium, sugars, and saturated fats. The food guide advises on limiting these highly processed foods except foods that are prepared to preserve nutrients by drying, canning, and freezing. Sodium is added to processed foods to add flavor and for preservation. Its use in these foods makes processed foods the highest source of sodium by Canadians. High sodium intake can lead to high blood pressure, which puts a person in the risk of heart diseases. Sugars found in these processed drinks increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity. These sugars also cause tooth cavities in children. Processed meats have high sodium and saturated fat content. Consumption of these has been linked to colon and rectal cancer (Scrinis, 2012). The food guide provides ways of limiting these highly processed foods, therefore, helping in the reduction of their consumption and improving the health of the Canadian population.

The food guide advises people on how to carefully choose healthy ingredients for their meals. Some food ingredients are marketed as healthy, but they may contain sugars, saturated fat, and high levels of sodium. The food guide emphasizes the careful reading of labels for the users of these products. Labels contain information such as nutrition facts, the ingredient list, and the important dates concerning the product, such as the expiry date, best before the time, and the packaging date. The guide has an influence on policymaking and has resulted in new policies that makes it easier for consumers to know what exactly is in the products hence making it easier for them to make healthy choices.

Habits are almost automatic responses to cues that have developed due to past co-occurrence of these responses with these cues in context. For any sustainable change, there must be a change in daily habits. Cues and meaning are the most influential characteristics that enable carrying out of patterns without much conscious control (Neal, Wood & Quinn, 2006). Since developing habits is essential for self-regulation, the food guide emphasizes on the development of healthy habits. Cues trigger patterns; therefore, the food guide emphasizes on creating an environment that makes it easy for a person to make healthy choices. Habits can be how you eat, where you eat when you eat, and the amount of food you eat. Cues can influence all these habits in the environment. For a person to make lasting changes in their dietary choices, they should be mindful of their practices and make their environment-friendly to these choices. Eating at home creates an environment that is friendly to healthy eating habits. The situation at home can also be made more favorable to healthy eating by providing more healthy snacks. The environment can also be enhanced by eating with other people and preparing meals at home using healthier cooking methods such as poaching, roasting, and baking. The food guide has shown habits that can make decisions about healthy food choices easy.

Positive Attributes of the New Food Guide

One of the significant advantages of the food guide is that it clarifies what is healthy to eat. Many individuals want to make healthy choices, but they lack knowledge of what is healthy or not. These people can easily be misled by the advertising of products that use terms that people usually associate with healthy food choices, such as a claim that a product is organic. These people can also be misled to fad diets that are commercially motivated and may have a negative influence on their health. Most of these fad diets are restrictive for quick fixes and promise reduced risk of chronic diseases that are affected by diets hence appear to be healthy to people. Most of these diets make claims that have no scientific evidence and can lead to poor nutrition due to their restrictive nature and high motivation for quick fixes (Jauregui-Lobera, 2017).

Another advantage of the food guide is that it encourages people to eat foods that are mostly plant-based. Such diets have a less negative impact on the environment as compared to animal-based foods (O'Kane, 2012). The diet results in the conservation of air, water, and topsoil. Improved distribution leads to better access to healthy and nutritious food and reduces food waste, which also harms the environment. The food guide conserves the environment by recommending these healthy plant-based food choices.

Limitations of the New Food Guide

The food guide has a limitation in that the food guidelines that it offers can only be followed by individuals who are well-off financially. Most healthy food options are more expensive than unhealthy choices. This results in individuals with financial difficulties eating unhealthy foods. This, in addition to adverse climate, affects indigenous communities who have low rates of employment and limited land for farming (Caraher, Dixon, Lang, & Carr-Hill, 1998). The food guide is likely to be less effective due to the unaffordability of healthy food options.

Another limitation of the food guide is that it encourages inconvenient food choices. Most healthy foods recommended in this food guide can only be followed by people who have enough time to prepare meals at home. Most people are in demanding jobs and have no time to choose and make these foods at home; they want convenient foods that are readily available and are cheap. These choices tend to result in unhealthy diets. This is a significant barrier to healthy diets (Caraher, Dixon, Lang, & Carr-Hill, 1998).

Use of the New Food Guide by Health Professionals

Most chronic diseases are caused by unhealthy eating. People working in health care will meet people suffering from diseases that are a result of unhealthy diets. It is then essential for these individuals in healthcare to be adequately aware of the best food choices to combat these diseases. The Canadian food guide offers a guide for these healthcare workers to deal with different conditions as well as general preventive healthy eating. These workers can use the guide to provide individualized and less restrictive food guidance to specific individuals. Food guidance tailored to individual needs is essential in healthcare, especially to older adults (Dorner, 2010).

Health professionals, such as nursing students, benefit from the food guide when dealing with patients because it makes dealing with cases that require dietary advice easy. The guide helps the health professional suggest diets that can improve the patients' health without the need to do much research since the food guide is made considering the current scientific research. The guide is prepared with extensive consultation, which makes it a reliable tool in diet advisory.

Conclusion

The new Canada's food guideline offers diet advice, which is backed by science concerning foods such as vegetables, fruits, and plant-based proteins. It also provides a clear guidance concerning fats and the consumption of sugars. It has benefits to the health of the individual and acts as a tool for health professionals in combating diseases that are caused by unhealthy diets. It has many advantages but is limited because of the high cost and inconvenience of the healthy foods it suggests.

References

Caraher, M., Dixon, P., Lang, T., & Carr-Hill, R. (1998). Access to healthy foods: part I. Barriers to accessing healthy foods: differentials by gender, social class, income, and mode of transport. Health Education Journal, 57(3), 191-201.

Dorner, B. (2010). Position of the American Dietetic Association: individualized nutrition approaches for older adults in health care communities. Journal of the AmericanDietetic Association, 110(10), 1549-1553.

Jauregui-Lobera, I. (2017). Fad diets, miracle diets, diet cult... but no results. JONNPR, 2(3), 90-93.

Liu, R. H. (2013). Health-promoting components of fruits and vegetables in the diet. Advances in Nutrition, 4(3), 384S-392S.

Mozaffarian, D., Micha, R., & Wallace, S. (2010). Effects on coronary heart disease of increasing polyunsaturated fat in place of saturated fat: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS medicine, 7(3), e1000252.

Neal, D. T., Wood, W., & Quinn, J. M. (2006). Habits-A repeat performance. Current Directionsin Psychological Science, 15(4), 198-202.

O'Kane, G. (2012). What is the real cost of our food? Implications for the environment, society, and public health nutrition. Public health nutrition, 15(2), 268-276.

Scarborough, P., Bhatnagar, P., Wickramasinghe, K. K., Allender, S., Foster, C., & Rayner, M. (2011). The economic burden of ill health due to diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol, and obesity in the UK: an update to 2006-07 NHS costs. Journal of public health, 33(4), 527-535.

Scrinis, G. (2012). Nutritionism and functional foods. The philosophy of food, 39, 269.