Alberta Posts Nutrition Guidelines for Adults
Nutrition advice seems to come from everywhere these days, and the government of Alberta has just added their perspective with the release of new Nutrition Guidelines for Adults. The guide was published online this fall and advises which foods should be chosen most often — including canola oil such as Omega-9 Canola Oil. By incorporating Omega-9 Canola Oil into menus and packaged foods, restaurant owners and food manufacturers are including an ingredient that can help Albertans eat healthier because it has zero trans fat, low saturated fat and heart healthy monounsaturated fat.
Posted only online, the guidelines cover a range of eating advice and break each food category into those to choose most often, choose sometimes and choose least often. In the fats category, the guidelines recommend consumers consider the type they are eating, recommending those that are liquid at room temperature, such as heart-healthy vegetable oils.
The release of the guidelines for adults follows the release of the guidelines for children and youth in June 2008. Motivated by the health issues caused by childhood obesity, the provincial efforts were taken up by school administrators and others who were looking for ways to improve young people’s diets.
For example, the Lethbridge Herald reported in October that the Lethbridge public school district adopted the Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth to strike a balanced approach. As a result, when developing its nutrition policy for schools a couple of years ago, it put foods into three categories: choose most often, choose sometimes and choose least often.
Other school boards, such as the Calgary Board of Education, have taken a much more strict approach to the foods sold in their schools. As of the New Year, schools in Calgary will not sell foods such as French fries, pastries, sour cream, pre-sweetened cereals and potato chips. The rule doesn’t affect what foods students decide to bring to school of course, but it is a concerted effort to help improve the health of Alberta’s youth.
The Alberta guidelines are emblematic of an increasingly busy health and wellness environment in Canada. The longstanding cornerstone of nutrition advice from the federal government, Canada’s Food Guide, is increasingly complemented by provincial and local advice. Last fall’s federal-provincial-territorial resolution to tackle childhood obesity is one example of jurisdictions working together.
Attention to nutrition and its connection to health will continue to be a focus of governments at all levels as healthcare costs grow and budgets remain tight. With five new provincial governments in Canada this fall and the negotiations on the next generation of healthcare funding to be decided over the next two years, nutrition and its contribution to chronic disease will continue to be top of mind.
