Building better meals with Canada's Food Guide

Canada's Food Guide moved away from counting servings. The current advice is a picture of a plate and a handful of habits that are easy to keep.

The plate

• Half the plate: vegetables and fruit. Fresh, frozen or canned all count. Variety and colour matter more than any single "superfood".
• A quarter: protein foods. Include plant proteins often — beans, lentils, tofu, nuts — alongside fish, eggs, lower-fat dairy, poultry and lean meat.
• A quarter: whole grains. Whole-grain bread and pasta, oats, brown rice, quinoa.
• Make water your drink of choice.

The habits that matter as much as the plate

1. Cook more often at home. It gives you control over salt, sugar and portion size.
2. Eat with others when you can, and pay attention while you eat rather than eating on autopilot.
3. Use food labels. Compare the % Daily Value — 5% or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot — especially for sodium, saturated fat and sugars.
4. Limit highly processed foods high in sodium, sugars or saturated fat, and sugary drinks.

Eating well on a tight budget

Healthy eating does not have to be expensive. Dried and canned beans and lentils, frozen vegetables, eggs, oats, canned fish, and in-season produce are inexpensive and nutritious. Plan a few meals around what is on sale, cook once and eat twice, and keep a small list of five or six cheap meals you can always fall back on.

When to see a registered dietitian

A registered dietitian can help if you have diabetes, high blood pressure or cholesterol, a digestive condition, a food allergy, are pregnant, are losing weight without meaning to, or simply want a plan that fits your budget and culture. It is a regulated profession — anyone using the title has met a provincial standard.

Sources

• Canada's Food Guide (Health Canada)
• Dietitians of Canada
• Heart & Stroke — Healthy eating