Canada's Food Guide

This article was to examine how the US government uses dietary guidelines for Americans and how the guidelines were supposed to help us eat and stay healthy. Diet and chronic diseases are sometimes connected. For example, it is proven that nutrient deficiency disease like scurvy can be cured by consuming the lost nutrients. However, it is also shown that some nutrient exposure can cause chronic illness such as energy, fats, sodium dietary fiber, and food exposures, etc. making it difficult to set dietary guidelines. In addition to some nutrient causing chronic diseases, nondietary factors such as stress, lack of exercise, smoking and other environmental factors are linked to causing chronic illnesses (Slavin, 2012).

Zinczencko complains that unlike many other hazardous items, fast food does not come with warnings on how terrible the food is for one’s health and its future effects. He emphasizes that even if the customers were able to obtain the nutritional facts, they are not palpable, but rather obscure. He points out that the fast-food companies make the nutrition labels vague and misleading; they calculate the calories for every separate part of the meal, and they make it so the consumer must pay attention to serving size as well. He observes that the fast-food industry can get away with confusing labels because there are not any Food and Drug Administration labeling requisites (Word Smart, p. 220) covering fast food. Zinczenko complains that there is not any sort of nutritional labeling on the menus at fast-food restaurants. Now, nine years later, there are some changes, but his point is still valid. McDonald’s menu now states the calories of each meal, but as Zinczenko points out, it is very difficult to

Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is an eye-opening analysis of the American food industry and the fear driven relationship many of us have with food. He talks in depth about all the little scientific studies, misconceptions and confusions that have gathered over the past fifty years. In the end provide us with a piece of advice that should be obvious but somehow is not, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows the history of nutritionism and the industrialization of food, in hopes to answer one question….. how and when "mom" ceded control of our food choices to nutritionists, food marketers and the government.

The main aim of the policy is to shape individuals ' eating methodologies, as Americans ought to give more attention to the sustainability of the food they eat. Though there are many guidelines published on Dietary issues, people couldn’t find much information on the type of foods, which keeps them healthy. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans: 2015-2020, eighth edition, which was released on January 7, 2016, was very resourceful.

As a culture and as individuals, we no longer seem to know what we should and should not eat. When the old guides of culture and national cuisine and our mothers’ advice no longer seem to operate, the omnivore’s dilemma returns and you find yourself where we do today—utterly bewildered and conflicted about one of the most basic questions of human life: What should I eat? We’re buffeted by contradictory dietary advice: cut down on fats one decade, cut down on carbs the next. Every day’s newspaper brings news of another ideal diet, wonder-nutrient, or poison in the food chain. Hydrogenated vegetable oils go from being the modern alternatives to butter to a public health threat, just like that. Food marketers bombard us with messages that this or that food is “heart healthy” or is “part of a nutritious meal”. Without a stable culture of food to guide us, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance. We listen to scientists, to government guidelines, to package labels—to anything but our common sense and traditions. The most pleasurable of activities—eating—has become heavy with anxiety. The irony is, the more we worry about what we eat, the less healthy and fatter we seem to become.

Journalist and novelist Michael Pollan writes about the trials and tribulations surrounding food in North America and raises questions regarding Western diet, which is mostly comprised of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup and corn in general. He reiterates that chemically generated food is creating disease in North Americans; If we eliminate these factors and adopt the eating habits of less industrialized places in the world will we in our lifetime see rates of heart disease, type two diabetes and obesity decline dramatically? The western diet has evolved drastically in the last sixty years, so much so that people have become codependent on the government, dietitians and food agencies regarding their health and what to consume. The land is suffering from pesticides and singular plant farming, the alternative to this is to buy organic but at a higher price. Media has influenced the consumer to read the label and accept and trust the daily vitamin percentages on the box, as this is what is best for them. Money is the key factor in all of this and the government, scientific research and media know that, therefor the public is in for a shock when they realize that the very labels that are supposed to save them have fooled them.

America has been faced with the growing obesity epidemic. This is becoming very wide spread among all races and class levels due in part to the abundance of inexpensive food available and how easily people are becoming persuaded to but things they do not need. David Zinczenko published article “Don’t Blame the Eater”, Zinczenko argues that fast-food industries are not doing their job to provide clear enough nutritional information for hazardous food.

Why are a third of young people identified as overweight or obese? The presence of gluttony in Canada, specifically in children, is a growing issue. To demonstrate, the education board is putting a ban on certain unhealthy foods in school lunches, cafeterias, and vending machines. Leah McLaren, wrote an article in The Globe and Mail (2014) drawing attention to a specific example of a student caught selling said contraband at school. Banning junk food in school is not a good way of instilling healthy eating habits because it makes said food more alluring to kids.

As an unhealthy culture of obesity continues to spread through out Canada the life style that many practice continue to worsen and influence the young around us. The shifting of our basic norms, values, practices and beliefs about healthy eating have not been challenged by anyone openly. The need for the federal government and the health minster is

The consumers have definitely done their part in terms of the obesity epidemic; however, they are not the only ones to blame. This video sheds light on how misinformed consumers are with the food choices they are making. “There is

Americans love to eat, but do we actually understand how to eat healthy? In today’s world, everyone wants to be healthy, nonetheless, it seems no one knows how. With the nutritional knowledge of present-day, society’s health should be getting better instead of worse. However, there are so many different ideas regarding food that the public may feel confused. Michael Pollan points out many worthy causes in his book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto; he tends to overuse quotes and research and uses unseemly portrayals, but he also implements excellent information to make a valid argument.

The Australian food guide has five sections because fruits and vegetables are divided while Canada has four. Also, the shapes of the food guides are different as one is shaped like a circle and the other is shaped like a rainbow. Furthermore, the Canadian food guide does not mention to consume a minimal amount of sweets, wine, beer and some other food items, while the Australian food guide mentions to eat them sometimes in small quantities. The Canadian food guide might have not mentioned these items because there are already a lot of issues with obesity and other diseases that it may be a risk for the population. The Australian food guide also has less information; the Canadian food guide is very specific. Not only that but, the Canadian food guide mentions to remove visible fat from meat, mentions that vegetables should be consumed with little or no added fat, sugar or salt, while the Australian food guide does not mention that. Furthermore, Canada’s food guide mentions physical activity, compared to Australian’s food guide, which does not mention any physical activity. These differences may exist because Canada really wants to decrease the amount of fat in diets as so many diseases are caused because of it such as, of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer or osteoporosis. Thus, it mentions several times to decrease the consumption of any sort of fat and Australia may not have such a

Child obesity is a problem much more severe than a single child’s dietary decisions, but rather a conflict in which the government of Canada should have more involvement. Unlike several other countries around the world; for instance France, the Canadian government takes little to no precautions in preventing such an avoidable dilemma. The Canadian governments need for intervention and involvement can be felt along the lines of its lack of priority, the government’s lack of involvement in schools and finally, the government’s lack of implemented laws and regulations within society and within the food and drink industry.

MD David L. Katz who is the director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center calls this ideal “‘see food’ diet: We see food, we eat it” (USNews, 2012). As a country many of its inhabitants feel obligated to eat whatever is offered to because they still function as if food is scarce. Katz mentions “our culture is also the reason that health is something we tend to ignore and neglect until it's broken”. This mentality of eating everything in sight is hurting this country and just causing more obesity due to common problems like over-eating, and turning to unhealthy food because it is

Culturally appropriate foods are those that are pertinent to the specific culture. Food is the cultural heritage of the South Asian people living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Ethnic vegetables play a vital role in the accessibility of culturally appropriate foods. Despite numerous barriers and constraints for the local production of ethnic vegetables increases in recent years especially South Asian ethnic vegetables. The South Asian ethnic group is the largest communities in Canada. Most of the South Asian communities are living in the low-income areas of the GTA having difficulties to access their culturally appropriate foods. Although there are no specific policies to increase the production of ethnic vegetables, a lot of initiatives