109. CCA Study Notes: Canada’s Dietary Guidelines, Healthy Food Choices, and Nutrition Challenges

The Big Picture

Healthy eating involves both what a person eats and the choices they make about food and drinks. Canada’s Dietary Guidelines use a plate to show the suggested balance of vegetables and fruits, protein foods, and whole grain foods.

Healthy eating also connects with food habits, culture, access to food, and a person’s living situation. Some Canadians face barriers that make healthy food harder to obtain, store, prepare, or afford.

Look for Nova Scotia CCA Notes throughout this page for current provincial guidance.

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Course Notes: Key Ideas You Need to Know

Understanding Nutrition and Nutrients

Nutrition means the processes involved when the body takes in, digests, absorbs, and uses foods and fluids.

Nutrients are substances that a person takes in through food and fluids. The body digests, absorbs, and uses these substances.

A calorie is a unit used to measure the energy produced when the body burns food.

Canada’s Dietary Guidelines

The 2019 version of Canada’s Food Guide changed how healthy food choices are shown. Instead of the older food rainbow, the guide uses a plate divided into three main parts.

The guide was also updated to better reflect Canada’s diverse population. It is available in 31 languages, including English, French, and nine Indigenous languages.

How the Food Plate Is Divided

Half of the plate consists of vegetables and fruits.

This group includes:

• fresh vegetables and fruits
• canned vegetables and fruits
• frozen vegetables and fruits
• dried vegetables and fruits
• fruit juices

The remaining half of the plate is divided equally between protein foods and whole grain foods.

Protein foods include examples such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, lentils, dried peas, nuts, peanut butter, and tofu.

A healthy diet uses these three types of foods in the same daily proportions shown on the food plate.

Healthy Eating Choices

Canada’s Dietary Guidelines include several choices that support healthy eating:

• Make water your drink of choice.
• Limit foods high in sodium, sugars, or saturated fats.
• Eat a variety of healthy foods each day.
• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits.
• Eat protein foods, with an emphasis on plant proteins.
• Choose whole grain foods instead of refined grains.
• Use food labels when choosing foods.
• Reduce sugars in foods and beverages.

Sugary beverages are identified as the number one source of sugar in the Canadian diet.

Oils and Fats

Most Canadians eat too much fat.

Canada’s Dietary Guidelines recommend a small amount of oils and fats in the diet. The recommended amount is about 30 to 45 mL, or 2 to 3 tablespoons, of unsaturated fat each day.

Examples include oil used for cooking, salad dressing, margarine, and mayonnaise.

Recommended choices include:

• canola oil
• olive oil
• soybean oil
• soft margarine low in saturated and trans fats

Butter, hard margarine, lard, and shortening should be used in limited amounts.

Eating more carbohydrate-rich foods also helps reduce fat intake. Examples include:

• whole grain bread
• cereal
• grains
• vegetables
• fruit
• peas
• beans
• lentils

Foods high in carbohydrates are filling. This helps a person feel satisfied with smaller amounts of food.

Healthy Eating Is More Than Choosing Foods

Canada’s Dietary Guidelines also include eating habits and food-related skills.

Important ideas include:

• being mindful of eating habits
• cooking more often
• enjoying food
• eating meals with other people
• being aware of food marketing

Food skills are also important.

Cultural food practices should be celebrated. The guidelines connect food skills with the social, cultural, and historical context of Indigenous Peoples.

Eating with others can help create connections between generations and cultures. Traditional foods are also identified as improving diet quality for Indigenous Peoples.

Why Healthy Eating Matters

Healthy eating helps provide a daily diet containing essential nutrients.

Healthy eating also supports:

• health
• physical well-being
• mental well-being
• a lower risk of health issues related to nutritional deficiencies

Diet and food choices are related to diseases such as:

• heart disease
• high blood pressure
• stroke
• diabetes
• osteoporosis
• certain cancers

The goals and benefits of healthy eating include better overall health, a lower risk of disease, and a healthy body weight.

A person who eats well has more energy, feels and looks better, and has stronger muscles and bones.

Vegetables and Fruits

Vegetables and fruits, including juices, provide:

• carbohydrates
• vitamin C
• vitamin A
• iron
• magnesium

They are naturally low in fat.

The dietary guidance recommends eating at least one dark green vegetable and one orange vegetable each day.

Examples of dark green vegetables include:

• broccoli
• romaine lettuce
• spinach

Examples of orange vegetables include:

• carrots
• sweet potatoes
• winter squash

Vegetables and fruits should be prepared with little or no added fat, sugar, or salt.

Many prepackaged and canned foods contain high amounts of sodium, or salt.

Fresh vegetables and fruits are more beneficial than juices.

Frozen or canned fruit should be unsweetened. Sweetened fruit and fruit packed in syrup contain high amounts of sugar and calories.

Juice should be diluted with water when served to children or when a client is on a calorie-restricted diet.

Preparing Vegetables

Steaming, baking, and stir-frying vegetables provide better value than deep-frying them.

Deep-frying increases the amount of fat in vegetable dishes. French fries, for example, contain much more fat than baked or boiled potatoes.

High-fat toppings often added to vegetables include:

• butter
• oil
• mayonnaise
• salad dressing
• sour cream
• sauces

Using small amounts of low-fat toppings helps keep vegetable preparations lower in fat.

Whole Grain Foods

Whole grain foods contain important nutrients, including:

• fibre
• vitamins
• minerals

Whole grain foods are a healthier choice than refined grains because they contain all parts of the grain. They contain more fibre than refined or processed grains.

Foods high in fibre can reduce the risk of:

• stroke
• colon cancer
• heart disease
• type 2 diabetes

Whole Grain Labels Need Careful Reading

A food labelled “whole wheat” or “multigrain” may not contain the whole grain.

Colour does not prove that a food is whole grain.

Check the ingredient list. Look for the words whole grain followed by the name of the grain among the first ingredients.

Examples include:

• whole grain oats
• whole grain wheat

Whole wheat foods are not the same as whole grain foods. Whole wheat foods still contain fibre and can still be a healthy choice.

When choosing whole wheat foods, ensure that they are enriched or fortified with nutrients lost during processing.

Enriched foods are recommended because they contain more iron and B vitamins.

Enriched and Fortified Foods

Food processing removes valuable nutrients from some foods.

Enriched foods have nutrients replaced to their original level or to a higher level.

Examples include:

• wheat flour
• cereal
• pasta

Fortified foods have nutrients added to them.

One example is milk fortified with vitamin D.

Product labels usually show whether a food has been enriched or fortified.

Protein Foods

Protein foods contain important nutrients such as:

• protein
• vitamins
• minerals

Protein choices should emphasize plant-based foods.

Plant-based protein foods can be more beneficial to heart health than animal-based foods. They also contain more fibre and less saturated fat than other protein sources.

A person does not need large amounts of protein to meet nutritional needs.

Examples of Healthy Protein Foods

Healthy protein choices include eggs and lean meats or poultry.

Examples of lean meats and poultry include:

• lean cuts of beef
• lean cuts of pork
• wild game
• turkey
• chicken

Nuts and seeds that are low in salt include:

• peanuts
• almonds
• cashews
• nut butters
• sunflower seeds

Fish and shellfish choices include:

• trout
• shrimp
• salmon
• scallops
• sardines
• mackerel

Lower-fat dairy choices include:

• milk
• yogourt
• lower-sodium cheeses

Beans, peas, and lentils include:

• brown, green, red, and other lentils
• chickpeas
• split peas
• black beans
• kidney beans

Other protein choices include:

• fortified plant-based beverages such as soy, almond, coconut, or oat milk
• tofu
• soybeans
• other soy products

Nutritional Challenges That Canadians Face

Healthy food is not equally easy for everyone to obtain, store, prepare, or eat.

These challenges especially affect some people in northern Canada and heavily populated urban areas.

Limited Income

Fresh foods are usually more expensive than processed foods or fast foods.

People who struggle to pay rent might also struggle to afford food. Some people lack suitable ways to store, refrigerate, or cook food.

Overcrowded or substandard housing can create another problem. Rodents and insects can contaminate stored food.

Food banks help people with low incomes in many communities, but some communities do not have food banks.

Some school breakfast programs provide nutritious breakfasts to children who would otherwise go without one. These programs are not available in every school.

Geographic Isolation

Many Canadian communities are geographically remote.

Fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables, often travel long distances before reaching stores. They might spoil quickly or arrive after the point when they provide peak nutrition.

Some fresh foods are unavailable in certain remote communities.

Shipping also raises food prices. Higher prices can make fresh foods unaffordable for some people.

Inclement Weather

Bad weather can interrupt food delivery to remote communities.

Food transported by airplane or truck might not reach its destination during poor weather conditions.

Some areas also have a short growing season. These areas cannot grow enough food locally and must bring food in from other places.

Lack of Available Local Foods

Some people depend on hunting or fishing to feed their families, including many Indigenous people.

Past failures to protect air, water, and soil from contamination have contributed to food shortages in parts of Canada.

Illegal chemical dumping in rivers and lakes has affected fish and wildlife. Some fish and wildlife contain toxic amounts of pollutants.

These pollutants can cause birth defects and other health challenges among people who eat contaminated foods.

Unrestricted logging, mining, and poor conservation efforts have also reduced open land in some areas. In some parts of Canada, this has reduced the number of animals available for hunting.

Lack of Nutrition Education

Federal, provincial, and territorial governments and local health units provide nutrition education to children and adults.

Even with these efforts, some people do not know how to make healthy food choices for themselves or their families.

Some people choose foods with little nutritional benefit because those foods were part of how they were raised. Others do not know how to prepare healthy foods that are easy to make.

Mental Illness or Addictions

Some people living with mental illness or addiction may be unable to make appropriate choices about how to eat or feed their families. This can lead to health problems that last for generations.

Common Mix-Ups

Wrong Idea	Better Idea
“Whole wheat” always means whole grain.	Whole wheat and whole grain are not the same.
A dark-coloured bread must be whole grain.	Colour does not prove that a food contains whole grains.
“Multigrain” means the whole grain is present.	A multigrain label does not guarantee whole grains.
Enriched and fortified mean the same thing.	Enriched foods have nutrients replaced. Fortified foods have nutrients added.