Food Guide

Canada’s Food Guide was developed to help Canadians make wiser food choices. Following the recommendations and tips in Canada’s Food Guide will help you meet your needs for vitamin, minerals and other nutrients; help reduce your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer and osteoporosis; and contribute to your overall health and vitality.

Canada’s Food Guide places foods into four groups.

• Vegetables and fruit – choose at least one dark green and one orange vegetable and fruit each day
• Grain products – make at least half of your grain products whole grain every day
• Milk and alternatives – drink skim, 1% or 2% milk each day and select lower fat milk alternatives
• Meat and alternatives – choose leaner meats, poultry and fish, as well as dried peas, beans and lentils, more often

But what about foods that don’t fit into one of these four categories? Canada’s Food Guide recommends limiting foods and beverages high in calories, fat, sugar or salt such as cakes and pastries, chocolate and candies, cookies and granola bars, doughnuts and muffins, ice cream and frozen desserts, french fries, potato chips, nachos and other salty snacks, alcohol, fruit flavoured drinks, soft drinks, sports and energy drinks, and sweeten hot or cold drinks.

Motivating Toward a Better Ratio section of www.knowyourratio.ca has some excellent details about what makes us choose the foods we do and tips to help you rationally make healthy options.

Canada’s Food Guide encourages healthy eating by selecting a variety of foods from the four groups every day, and recommends the daily number of servings from each group as well. Here’s a handy chart to help you with planning your choices:

Recommended Number of Food Guide Servings per Day

	Children			Teens		Adults
Age in Years	2-3	4-8	9-13	14-18		19-50		51+
Sex	Girls and Boys			Females	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males
Vegetables & Fruit	4	5	6	7	8	7-8	8-10	7	7
Grain Products	3	4	6	6	7	6-7	8	6	7
Milk & Alternatives	2	2	3-4	3-4	3-4	2	2	3	3
Meat & Alternatives	1	1	1-2	2	3	2	3	2	3

Although everyone is different, Canada’s Food Guide has based the recommended number of servings on a person’s age and gender. Once you understand the recommended number of servings per day, you need to understand what a proper portion size is. Here are a few examples:

Food Group	Examples of One Serving Size
Vegetables and Fruit	½ cup of fresh, frozen or canned vegetables 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables I apple or 1 orange ½ cup of 100% juice
Grain Products	1 slice of bread ½ a bagel ½ cup of rice or quinoa ½ cup of cooked pasta
Milk and Alternatives	1 cup of milk 1 cup of fortified soy ¾ cup of yogurt 1 ½ oz of cheese
Meat and Alternatives	2 ½ oz (1/2 cup) of cooked fish, poultry or lean meat 2 eggs ¾ cup of cooked legumes 2 Tbsp of peanut butter

You need to know that healthy eating is not about under-eating and certainly not about starvation. If you want to lose weight, you will have to burn more calories than you take in, and if you want to maintain weight you will need to balance energy in with energy out.

You will find that if you eat healthy, you will be able to eat reasonable amounts, and if you increase your activity you can tip the energy balance toward healthy weight. But following the details outlined at www.knowyourratio.ca will allow you to eat in a way that is both healthy and satisfying. Gone are the days of the person sitting at a table nibbling on a lettuce leaf, while watching his/her family members eating a 16 oz steak with fries and gravy!

Grains

The reality is grains, if chosen well and eaten in a healthy portion, are a part of a balanced diet. Grains offer benefits such as cholesterol-lowering fibre, B vitamins and various disease-fighting compounds. Canada’s Food Guide recommends 6-7 servings of grains per day for females under the age of 50 and 8 servings for men under 50 years.

Look for whole grains, which are rich in fibre, over refined grains. Foods with whole grains, such as brown rice, oatmeal and whole wheat pasta, are a healthy choice that can help you reduce your LDL cholesterol and improve your Cholesterol Ratio.

Experiment with grains. Try exotic grains such as quinoa or whole wheat couscous. Take a look at the recipe for Mediterranean Couscous. It is an easy to make, healthy side-dish.

And remember – read the label. You are looking for whole grains listed as the first ingredient, as well as words such as 100% whole wheat or whole grain.

Vegetables & Fruits

A recent study found that eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruits can reduce your risk of a heart attack by up to 30%. The reality is that most of us do not eat enough fruits and vegetables to meet the recommended servings per day.

Filling up on vegetables and fruits is a smart, nutritious way to get disease-fighting compounds, such as antioxidants like vitamin C and E, beta-carotene, folic acid and fibre.

And with this food group, the brighter, the better. Dark green vegetables, like spinach and broccoli, and orange vegetables, such as carrots or squash, are ideal sources of vitamin A. Or try bright red strawberries – they have loads of vitamin C.

Milk Products

When your parents urged you to drink your milk, they were right!

Milk products are a great source of calcium and potassium, both of which help to keep your bones healthy and can contribute to better blood pressure. It’s important when choosing foods from this category to watch the fat content, and to choose lower fat options most often.

You can do this by looking for the M.F. (milk fat) or B.F. (butter fat) content on your favourite dairy products. Whole milk, for instance, might be tasty, but it includes three times the fat as 1% milk.

Canada’s Food Guide calls for adults between 19-50 years to have two servings from this group every day, while adults over the age of 50 should aim for three servings. Choosing carefully will mean a boost for your bones and for your efforts at reducing your LDL and Cholesterol Ratio.

Meat & Meat Alternatives

Some meats, especially untrimmed red meat, can be high in saturated fats, the kind that contributes to high cholesterol. But meat and meat alternatives also provide the body with much-needed protein, which builds and maintains muscles and body tissues. All meats also provide iron, which your body needs to stay energized. The key is choosing the right meat and meat alternatives to achieve the recommended two to three servings per day, while still controlling your portions.

Why not make alternatives, such as dried beans, peas and lentils, your new favourites? Definitely look to the sea for nutritious options, such as salmon, sardines and mackerel. These fish also have the benefit of providing omega-3 fatty acids, which may prevent blood clots, decreasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Lean meats are also a good choice, especially if they are cooked using low-fat methods like broiling, baking or on the BBQ. The key is to keep the portions manageable – about the size of a deck of cards. If you are used to eating meat portions closer to the size of a plate this can be challenging. Try adding lots of vegetables to your plate so it is filled, but now with a healthy balance.