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The StayAbove Nutrition Team Reviews Canada’s Food Guide

Blog, Nutrition
  • January 11, 2024

Reading Time – 7 mins

We’re all looking for that one thing that’ll help us eat healthy for years to come.

Unfortunately, that’s what makes diet trends so effective. The creators of these diets make it seem like they’ve got the secret to eating “right”.

But what if we already have it? Not a magic secret to eating right, because that doesn’t exist.

But what if we already have a guide that is both sustainable and realistic, while showing us how to eat well-balanced meals so we can train harder, live stronger, and feel better for years to come?

Well readers, you’re in luck because such a guide does exist, it’s known as Canada’s Food Guide.

What is Canada’s Food Guide?

Knowing there is an overabundance of research published on nutrition, Health Canada created an easy-to-digest (pun intended) and simplified dietary guide for the public called Canada’s Food Guide.  The guide helps consumers understand what they should be eating.

In addition, for policy makers and health professionals, Health Canada also created Canada’s Dietary Guidelines.  These guidelines are based on statements made by expert panels of researchers across the world. Based on the best available scientific evidence, they’re unlikely to change anytime soon.

Our team of scientists have referenced the Canada Food Guide in our blog posts, social media posts, and email newsletters because we believe it to be one of the best nutrition resources. Today we’ll break down why you’ll love the Canada Food Guide as much as we do.

Is Canada’s Food Guide Reliable, Sustainable, and Realistic?

Yes. Canada’s Food Guide is the result of current scientific evidence, which indicates to our team that it is both realistic and sustainable. Importantly, Canada’s Food Guide generally holds true across ethnicities, gender, and ages.

What Are the Key Points of Canada’s Food Guide?
There are seven easy-to-follow and sustainable tips found in Canada’s Food Guide.

  1. Make Your Health a Priority – Prioritizing your health with good nutrition and regular exercise can prolong your life by over ten years. Isn’t that worth it?
  2. Eat Well-Balanced, Simple Meals – Consume a well-balanced and nutritious diet according to Canada’s Food Guide. As shown by their diagram, half of your plate should be a variety of colourful vegetables, and the other half should be equally divided between lean proteins and whole grains
  3. Avoid Restrictive Diets – Most restrictive diets are simply not sustainable. By following Canada’s Food Guide the majority of the time, you can enjoy cake at your child’s birthday party or a slice of pizza at a friend’s house without “ruining” your diet. This is much more sustainable than a diet that cuts out an entire macro nutrient, such as fat or carbs.
  4. Regulate Your Portion Size – By following Canada’s Food Guide, there’s no reason to count calories. Instead, you can be mindful of your portion size, chew slowly, mind your satiety cues, and make sure to eat with others.
  5. Drink Water – As your body is mostly water, dehydration can have serious health consequences. Children should drink about 1.3 L of water per day, women should drink between 1.7 – 2.7 L, and men should drink between 1.7 – 3.7 L.
  6. Avoid Late Meals – Late night snacking can mess with your inherent circadian rhythm which regulates your metabolism, body weight, and overall health. Instead, eat your meals during the day.
  7. Supplement – Fill any nutritional gaps with supplements to ensure optimal intake of key macro- and micro-nutrients. Supplementing is especially important for those with insufficient nutrition intake or higher requirements, such as vegetarians, athletes, the older adults, or clinical populations.

Does the StayAbove Team Recommend Modifying Canada’s Food Guide?

In general, no, but there are some exceptions.
  1. Limitations on food supply (geography) or food scarcity (poverty) are non-obvious factors that will affect a person’s diet. In these cases, any food is better than no food.
  2. Athletes require more calories than non-athletes, which generally means larger portion sizes but with the same macronutrient distribution. However, there may be exceptions for sport-specific diets under expert supervision. For example, optimized carbohydrate and protein intake is crucial for proper athletic performance. To learn more about when to supplement with a carbohydrate-based supplement, like our Restore 9, click here.
  3. Finally, there are special cases such as clinical populations, those with food allergies, and pregnant women. These groups may need to alter Canada’s Food Guide with the help of a registered dietitian, family physician, or other experts.
In summary, the StayAbove Nutrition team highly recommends Canada’s Food Guide for people of all ages and activity levels. For specialized nutrition advice, we recommend consulting a Registered Dietitian or your family physician.

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