Today, readers are discussing Canada’s new plant-focused Food Guide and Leslie Beck’s column Canada’s revamped Food Guide has finally caught up with scientific evidence
Page from Canada's Food Guide
It’s somewhat amazing that, despite all of our technological achievements, we’re still figuring out what food we should eat. - Joe.Blough
You would need to be a good cook with some good ideas (and a few broken rules) to even have a hope of making that plate appetizing. It's a diet plate, really. I know the image is just to explain the types of foods, but it still boils down to nibbling salad and fruit most of the time. Most of us aren't vegetarian recipe experts which you'd need to be with those recommendations. - Toulouse Lautrec
In response to Toulouse Lautrec:
That’s the thing about meat, milk, etc. it makes it easy to get the necessary protein, fats, etc. Using other sources means a lot more work and planning. - JC12345
I will be 76 shortly! I think the Canada's Food Guide is catching up to the way my mother used to feed us (with a few tweaks). We ate real food - much of which we grew ourselves. - Pops10
Of course the dairy and meat people are going to keep insisting that the image of their products is being harmed by the new food guide, but everything I’ve been reading emphasizes we need to reduce the consumption - especially beef. It requires enormous resources for every kilogram produced and the methane from the industry is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases. Time for a change. And long overdue for stopping the frequent abuse of livestock that continues to offer inexcusable horror stories. Of course we’ll keep consuming many of these products but those of us who want good health should heed the evidence-based research underscoring the new food guide. - John England1
“Real food on a plate.” Not quite. The salad on the left looks Okay. But, would we really eat salad for every meal? The tiny scraps of meat, egg, nuts, and who-knows-what on the upper right look like leftovers ready for the compost bin. As for the lower right, it’s hard to identify some of that dry chaff. And who serves a fraction of a slice of dry bread, or pasta without sauce? To be fair, the Dietary Guidelines document contains good information. But the plate poster makes a healthy diet look like punishment. Is this really all we get to eat in a day? - independentlypoor
Well this government has more or less destroyed the energy industry so it may as well start on agriculture now. - brissy
I love it. The photo of the plate is easy to follow. It is exactly how my acquaintances and I have changed our diet over the years. - WatchWood
Eating healthy, even from the supermarket, isn’t cheap. So much less expensive to buy a frozen lasagna from Loblaws than to buy all the ingredients and make it yourself. Mind you, the quality of the frozen product is garbage. Produce is expensive too, as is fish like salmon. - Mason_J
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Our grandparents (and those before them) ate organic, fairly clean and reasonable portion sizes, because that was the way it was. Things changed after WW2 mostly for the sake of making money. This new guide looks realistic and healthy. I sincerely hope it will make a positive impact for people. - Sandra Marcelle
Let us all pause for a moment to appreciate that we live in a country that not only cares about what we eat but uses science to find out what is best. - Tseth
We are all going to die regardless. I’d rather enjoy my food and have a stroke at 83 than eat rabbit food and have a stroke at 85. - Secular Atheist Liberal
In response to Secular Atheist Liberal:
It’s not the length of life; it’s the quality of life. - DennisCasaccio
It's interesting that the new Canada Food Guide is also looking at the social aspects of eating. In my family, social mealtimes where family ate together went out the window when my parents split up, my father worked late into the evenings, and if we kids wanted to eat at a decent hour, we had to learn to cook. It was a development in our lives that probably had long-term negative impacts on our family as a social unit. - John McMortimer-Boyles
I would like to know how many families have high intakes of fed meat when a prime rib roast costs over $100? Even fish is unaffordable for many families. Chicken and Eggs are still reasonably priced and a good source of energy. - Jack Reacher
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