Canada Food Guide Essay

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The Canada food guide is a tool/resource used to suggest ideas that promote healthy eating. It is an effective resource for the majority of people who have a normal lifestyle, and provides an evidence-based guideline that includes specific recommendations for nutrient rich foods, specific recipes, and tips to incorporate healthy eating habits. It effectively helps people to manage not only their eating, but shopping decisions.It provides very realistic scenarios on what can cause unhealthy eating habits and how to avoid them. For example, the Canada food guide talks about how people complain about how they don't have the time to make healthy meals, and it provides solutions - planning meals and shopping ahead of time, getting help from family, …show more content…

It emphasizes eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, along with lean protein, whole grain carbohydrates and healthy fats, while avoiding processed foods. This type of diet is nutrient rich, and helps us meet all the daily requirements for each macronutrient which are essential for the wellbeing of our body. According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, individuals who used the Canada food guide had a 30% lower risk of developing chronic diseases compared to those who did not follow the guide. The Canada food guide also provides lots of suggestions to improve and promote healthy eating and shopping habits. It helps us recognize that many different factors can affect our eating habits such as how we eat, why we eat, what you eat, when you eat, where you eat, and how much you eat. It considers potential reasons for unhealthy eating habits such as distractions, lack of time to prepare food, eating out too much, etc. and provides applicable solutions to avoid these unhealthy habits. For example, people who eat out a lot complain they can't find a way to eat well consistently. The Canada food guide suggests various ideas to improve this - choosing water instead of sugary drinks, taking leftovers home instead of finishing everything on the plate, ordering small/appetizer portions or share a meal with a friend when eating out, limiting cream sauces, gravy, deep-fried or battered foods, cakes, cookies and pastries, and checking to see if the restaurant provides nutrition information about their menu items so you can find healthier choices. The Canada food guide provides useful methods like these to eliminate unhealthy eating habits for many different scenarios. According to a study done by BMC Public Health, over 30% of individuals who followed the Canada food guide felt better about their eating habits over one year. The Canada food guide also