razz
7-30-12, 7:38am
Found this interesting info about the history and politics of the national food guide and the agendas that drove the issue.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/07/27/f-food-guide-70.html
Quotes:
For 70 years, the issuing of government food guides in Canada has been about more than just nutrition and health.
The first Canadian government food guide debuted in July 1942, and reflects its Second World War origins.
FOOD GUIDE A timeline of daily dish recommendations over 7 decades
Then called Canada's Official Food Rules, the guide was written to address the crisis of widespread malnutrition revealed by a serious of studies.
Poverty was the main cause. It was shortly after the Great Depression, a time when government, in order to save money, had set the levels of relief rations well below nutritional adequacy.
One of the studies, conducted in Toronto, found that only three per cent of families were consuming sufficient calories, and only seven per cent were getting enough protein.
Across Canada, over 60 per cent of people had inadequate nutrition, and that was a challenge for the war effort. Over 43 per cent of the first 50,000 military recruits had been rejected for medical reasons...
The food rules were part of a major government effort to transform Canadians' diets, which included discouraging people from eating some foods that were needed for wartime export and encouraging the consumption of foods that did not meet that bill, like lobster.
A year before the release of the Official Food Rules, Saturday Night magazine, which backed the campaign, ran a story headlined, "Canada's Faulty Diet is Adolf Hitler's Ally."
In another Saturday Night story, from December 1942, Anne Fromer wrote, "Canada has determined to change the eating habits of a nation."
Producing food efficiently was "only half the victory," she wrote. "It takes efficient consumption, too, to give full meaning to the slogan, 'Food will win the war.'"...
Reflecting wartime needs and rationing, the food rules were based on just 70 per cent of the dietary standard set by the Canadian Council of Nutrition.
(The nutritional recommendations of food guides over the years are covered in the companion timeline to this story.)
During the war, Canadians did eat more, although perhaps not resulting in the creation of "a race of super-Canadians," as a 1943 Saturday Night editorial predicted.
The editors wrote that the food program, "is going to effect what is probably the most radical change in the living habits of a nation that has ever been brought about by the conscious effort of its rulers and its scientific and intellectual leaders."
Since Jan 1/12, I have been following Canada's Food Guide in my weight loss efforts with serious research into dietary background and diabetic exchanges for size of portions. I have lost 36 lbs to date with 4 more to go. So, for me, the current food guide works well.
What impact have food guides had on your diet?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/07/27/f-food-guide-70.html
Quotes:
For 70 years, the issuing of government food guides in Canada has been about more than just nutrition and health.
The first Canadian government food guide debuted in July 1942, and reflects its Second World War origins.
FOOD GUIDE A timeline of daily dish recommendations over 7 decades
Then called Canada's Official Food Rules, the guide was written to address the crisis of widespread malnutrition revealed by a serious of studies.
Poverty was the main cause. It was shortly after the Great Depression, a time when government, in order to save money, had set the levels of relief rations well below nutritional adequacy.
One of the studies, conducted in Toronto, found that only three per cent of families were consuming sufficient calories, and only seven per cent were getting enough protein.
Across Canada, over 60 per cent of people had inadequate nutrition, and that was a challenge for the war effort. Over 43 per cent of the first 50,000 military recruits had been rejected for medical reasons...
The food rules were part of a major government effort to transform Canadians' diets, which included discouraging people from eating some foods that were needed for wartime export and encouraging the consumption of foods that did not meet that bill, like lobster.
A year before the release of the Official Food Rules, Saturday Night magazine, which backed the campaign, ran a story headlined, "Canada's Faulty Diet is Adolf Hitler's Ally."
In another Saturday Night story, from December 1942, Anne Fromer wrote, "Canada has determined to change the eating habits of a nation."
Producing food efficiently was "only half the victory," she wrote. "It takes efficient consumption, too, to give full meaning to the slogan, 'Food will win the war.'"...
Reflecting wartime needs and rationing, the food rules were based on just 70 per cent of the dietary standard set by the Canadian Council of Nutrition.
(The nutritional recommendations of food guides over the years are covered in the companion timeline to this story.)
During the war, Canadians did eat more, although perhaps not resulting in the creation of "a race of super-Canadians," as a 1943 Saturday Night editorial predicted.
The editors wrote that the food program, "is going to effect what is probably the most radical change in the living habits of a nation that has ever been brought about by the conscious effort of its rulers and its scientific and intellectual leaders."
Since Jan 1/12, I have been following Canada's Food Guide in my weight loss efforts with serious research into dietary background and diabetic exchanges for size of portions. I have lost 36 lbs to date with 4 more to go. So, for me, the current food guide works well.
What impact have food guides had on your diet?