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What’s the Latest Update on Canada’s Food Guide?

canada's food guide

At the annual Dietitians of Canada conference in Vancouver, Ann Ellis – Manager of Dietary Guidance Manager at Health Canada – shared the latest update on the revisions to Canada’s Food Guide. We were there and are happy to share our insights!

The current rainbow design Food Guide communicated dietary guidance with an “all-in-one” tool. The new Food Guide will include a “Suite of Resources” using different tools and resources that will all be launched throughout 2018 and 2019. These timelines are later than originally anticipated as Health Canada is waiting for the release of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2015 data.

Specifically, here’s a look at the timelines for the new Canada’s Food Guide:

In late fall 2018, Health Canada plans to launch a mobile-responsive web application to deliver Canada’s Food Guide Suite of Resources in an accessible, relevant and useful way for Canadians. This will house:

Canada’s Dietary Guidelines for Health Professionals and Policy Makers – A report providing Health Canada’s policy on healthy eating. This report will form the foundation for Canada’s Food Guide tools and resources.
Canada’s Food Guide Healthy Eating Principles – Communicating Canada’s Dietary Guidelines in plain language.
• Canada’s Food Guide Graphic – Expressing the Healthy Eating Principles through visuals and words.
Canada’s Food Guide Interactive Tool – An interactive online tool providing custom information for different life stages, in different settings.
Canada’s Food Guide Web Resources – Mobile-responsive healthy eating information (factsheets, videos, recipes) to help Canadians apply Canada’s Dietary Guidelines.

In Spring 2019, Health Canada plans to release:
Canada’s Healthy Eating Pattern for Health Professionals and Policy Makers – A report providing guidance on amounts and types of foods as well as life stage guidance.
Enhancements to Canada’s Food Guide – Interactive Tool and Canada’s Food Guide – Web Resources – Enhancements and additional content to Canada’s web application on an ongoing basis.

A few other insights:
– Health Canada is hoping to get back to an overall pattern of eating and highlight nutrients of public health concern. The new Canada’s Food Guide will also have a heavy focus on food skills and determinants to health.
– There is no intent to advise consumers to avoid meat in the new Food Guide.
– The new Food Guide will focus more on the proportionality and frequency of meals, rather than numbers of servings to consume. In other word, information about number of servings may be more “behind the scenes” info for health professionals rather than front-facing info for consumers

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