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Canada’s Food Guide leaves room for beef on the table

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With the release of Canada’s updated Food Guide earlier this week, beef producers are happy to see that Health Canada recognizes a place for beef in the healthy diet.

Some of the highlights of the new guide focus on healthy eating habits, such as cooking at home, limiting intake of processed foods, and drinking water rather than sugary drinks.

In its visual plate model, Health Canada suggests a diet consisting of half fruits and vegetables, one-quarter whole grains and one quarter proteins. It recommends choosing plant-based proteins more often, but in combination with other foods such as lean meats. 

Meats and plant-based foods are better together – the nutrient value of both foods increases when consumed as part of a meal. For example, the absorption of iron increases over 150 per cent when meat and legumes are combined on the plate.

Beef and other meats are among the most nutrient-rich sources of complete, quality proteins. To get a comparable amount of protein from plant-based foods would require consuming considerably more calories.

Many Canadians are overfed but undernourished – even though dietary trends show a decrease in meat and dairy consumption, consumption of processed and other nutrient-poor foods is on the rise. Health Canada’s recommendations to make healthier choices are aimed at encouraging Canadians to eat mindfully, and to eat a wide variety of healthy, nourishing foods.

All food production systems come with their own impacts and benefits. To replace Canadian beef with another protein source could, in fact, mean higher caloric and environmental impacts from other foods. Cattle feeders support consumers taking action on food waste reduction through sustainable food choices. Beef is a good example of a sustainable food choice because Canada is an exceptional place to grow beef and has one of the most sustainable agriculture systems in the world.

Real, unprocessed food

Because beef is typically eaten as part of a complete meal, rather than in isolation, it fits nicely with Health Canada’s recommendation to eat a variety of healthy foods and to limit highly processed foods.

When combined with vegetables and whole grains, a delicious portion of lean beef makes a complete, balanced meal. 

Preparing beef for a healthier diet

Beef is an excellent source of many essential nutrients including iron (in the bio-available heme form), zinc, vitamins B6 and B12, riboflavin, niacin and selenium. It also contains good fats such as ruminant trans-fats, which are linked to health benefits.

Health Canada recommends using herbs, spices and seasonings to add flavour, without adding salt or sugar. Check out the delicious recipes to be found at Think Beef and Alberta Beef where you will find inspiration for a healthy, delicious meal that fulfills the recommendations of Health Canada’s Food Guide.

You can learn more about the nutritional benefits of beef in ‘4 reasons you should include beef in your health, balanced diet’

Canada’s chief vet works to minimize animal health risks

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As a follow up to last week’s report on the recent trade delegation to the 86th general assembly of the the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), we talked to the person who led the Canadian delegation.

Dr. Jaspinder Komal is the OIE delegate for Canada, and interim Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Canada’s Chief Veterinary Officer

The CVO leads the CFIA’s efforts to ensure the Canadian animal health community and veterinary infrastructure are prepared to respond to foreign, emerging and future animal health risks.

Most notably, the CFIA’s animal health programs are designed to achieve the following:

  • Prevent and manage food safety risks
  • Prevent and manage animal and zoonotic diseases (those that can be transmitted between animals and people)
  • Contribute to consumer protection
  • Facilitate market access for Canada’s animals, and food of animal origin

“In collaboration with industry, consumers, and federal, provincial and municipal organizations, the CFIA continues to work towards protecting Canadians from preventable health risks related to food and zoonotic diseases,” said Dr. Komal. “Animal diseases can have widespread impacts on everything from the economy to public health,” said Dr. Komal. “So, we’re simultaneously managing the health of the animals and food safety for people.”

Chief delegate to the OIE

Canada’s minister of Agriculture nominates a delegate to support the OIE’s work in developing international standards for managing diseases and helping promote the safe trade of animals and animal products. As head of the animal health program in Canada, the CVO is typically selected to be the delegate.

“Because I am familiar with the animal health programs in Canada, I am well placed to consult in the development of standards, and their incorporation into Canadian animal health regulations and programs,” said Dr. Komal.

Outside of the OIE General Assembly, Canada also works extensively with the OIE to develop and update OIE standards, fund capacity-building initiatives, and provide scientific experts for OIE ad hoc and permanent working groups and other advisory groups.

During this year’s general assembly, Dr. Komal, was elected to the OIE Regional Commission for the Americas as secretary general and, in this capacity, is actively engaged in the governance of the activities of the region, such as planning their next conference.

Early career in eastern Canada

Dr. Komal graduated from the Faculté de médecine vétérinaire at the Université de Montréal in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, with a degree in Veterinary Medicine and a post-graduate degree in Veterinary Microbiology. He began his veterinary career specializing in small animals in a practice in the Eastern townships of the province of Quebec.

In 1994, Dr. Komal joined the CFIA as a Veterinary Inspector as well as a Laboratory Supervisor in the provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. In 2000, Dr. Komal and his family moved to Ottawa where he held various positions of increasing responsibility within the CFIA and other departments such as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Health Canada.

He lives in Ottawa with his wife and two grown children. He loves to exercise and describes himself as a health junkie. “I go to the gym, I play volleyball once a week and in the summertime I play golf,” he said. “I also spend a lot of time in community service, volunteering on the weekends.”

4 ways proposed changes to the Canada Food Guide could be bad for our health

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For 40 years, Health Canada has urged Canadians to follow its dietary guidelines, and using the Canada Food Guide is considered a basic reference when it comes to healthy eating.

As we learn more about nutrition and health, it makes sense that recommendations will change over time, and the Guide should be kept updated. But recently proposed changes have many people, including doctors, worried.

Of particular concern to Canada’s beef industry is a recommendation that Canadians eat less meat. They are encouraged to replace animal proteins with plant-based proteins, partly for health reasons and partly for environmental considerations.

Why 717 Canadian physicians disagree with Health Canada

In July 2017, a group of 717 Canadian physicians and allied health professionals sent an open letter to the Canadian Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion expressing their concerns about several aspects of the new Guide, including the recommendation to eat less red meat. These health professionals have been successfully using food and diet to help reverse disease and made the following points:

    • The Guide continues to recommend reducing consumption of saturated fats, despite “essentially overwhelming evidence now that saturated fat is not harmful in the diet and does not cause heart disease, but rather that the low fat dietary pattern has very likely caused harm”.
    • The caution against red meat does not stand up to “rigorous clinical trial data which does not demonstrate any negative health consequences from eating meat.” The physicians cited a recent review which shows no negative influence on cardiovascular risk factors with red meat intake of more than 0.5 servings per day.

“The advice to eat less red meat may already be having some unintended consequences. A recent report by Public Health England shows that 25% of working age women do not have enough iron in their diet, and that almost half of teenage girls are at risk of iron-deficiency anemia. Encouraging all population groups to eat less red and processed meat … is not helpful and places women at risk of iron deficiency and related anemia.”

You can read the full letter here.

Four ways the new Guide could be counter-productive

    1. The Guide plans to eliminate the meat category and replace it with a proteins category. The implication that all proteins are created equal is misleading – red meats are the best source of high-quality, dietary protein relative to caloric intake.
    2. Red meats are an excellent part of a balanced diet because they are so rich in nutrients such as zinc, iron and Vitamin B12.
    3. Saturated fats are now known to play an important role in a healthy, balanced diet.
    4. Dietary guidelines should be first and foremost about nutrition, rather than environmental considerations.

Why environmental considerations don’t belong in nutritional recommendations

Nutrition and the environment are diverse issues that should not be confused. According to Tom Lynch-Staunton, issues manager for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, “it’s absolutely important for us as an industry to look at ways to improve our environmental impacts, but the food guide should be about nutrition; about human health, which is complex enough.”

“The Guide should provide recommendations for a variety of different diets so that people can get the best nutrition possible, and not confuse that with other issues such as the environment.”

Tom also explained that the environmental impacts of agriculture as an industry are incredibly complex.

“It’s very misleading to look at one measurement, such as greenhouse gas emissions per pound of beef,” he said. “Although the data suggests that cattle produce the most methane emissions of any livestock, we also know that cattle can provide great benefits to the environment – they use food sources that we can’t use, such as feed grains or crop residues, and they are able to graze natural grasslands that aren’t very well suited to farming crops or vegetables. We also know that grasslands promote biodiversity, providing wildlife habitat, a water filtration system and nutrient dispersion, as well as storing huge amounts of carbon.”

You can read about some of the research into greenhouse gas emissions in these blog posts: