When it comes to healthy eating, we’ve got room to improve. According to Statistics Canada, half of adult Canadians don’t eat the recommended daily servings of vegetables and fruit. What’s more, over two-thirds of us are not getting enough milk and other milk products.
This article will help you understand the Food Guide, and find out about
• foods to choose and foods to limit;
• how much to eat every day; and
• ways to use the Food Guide to change your eating habits.
Changing your eating habits is not as difficult as you might think. Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide is a simple tool that you can use to look at your current eating habits and create plans for change. The Food Guide describes the kinds of foods that promote good health and help prevent conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Understanding the Food Groups
Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide classifies foods into (one of) four food groups:
- grain products, e.g., breads, pasta, cereals, rice, and other grains;
- vegetables and fruit, e.g., fresh, frozen, canned, or dried vegetables and fruit, or 100% pure juices;
- milk products, e.g., milk, yogurt, cheese, and fortified soy beverage;
- meats and alternatives
- meat examples: beef, pork, fish, and poultry;
- alternative examples: eggs, legumes (such as dried beans, peas, and lentils), tofu, peanut butter.
Foods from each of the four food groups contribute essential nutrients to your eating plan. Because of this, it is important to choose a variety of different foods from all of the food groups. Limiting yourself to only a handful of foods within a food group or avoiding one of the food groups altogether makes it hard to get the nutrients you need to keep healthy.
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“Foods to Limit”
Foods and beverages that are high in calories, fat, sugar or salt (sodium) have no place on the Food Guide. Examples include:
- Cookies, cakes pastries, doughnuts and muffins and granola bars.
- Potato chips, nachos or taco chips, cheese-flavoured puffs.
- Ice Cream and other frozen desserts.
- Alcohol.
- French fries, onion rings or deep fried zucchini sticks.
- Chocolate and other types of candy.
- Fruit flavoured drinks, fruit punches or cocktails, sports drinks, and energy drinks.
- Hot or cold "Specialty" coffee or tea drinks made with added sugar, syrup, chocolate and/or whipping cream.
These kinds of foods offer little in the way of nutrition, while providing a significant number of calories. Choosing foods that are high in calories and less nutritious makes it very difficult to achieve or maintain a healthy body weight. Knowing this, limit how often you choose foods that are not part of the Food Guide.
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How Much Should You Eat Every Day?
- Number of servings. Different people can have very different energy or calorie needs depending on their age, gender, life stage, body size, and physical activity level. The Food Guide uses serving ranges to help you decide how many servings from each of the four food groups you need each day.
People with lower energy needs should eat fewer servings. On the other hand, people with higher energy needs should aim for the higher end of the serving ranges. For example, an elderly woman who is mildly active needs fewer calories than a growing teenage boy who is involved in competitive sports.
- Serving sizes. Knowing how big a serving or portion of food should be can be challenging. Portion sizes in restaurants today are much larger than they were 20 years ago. This “supersizing” has created what some nutritionists call “portion distortion.” Simply put, we’ve gotten used to eating larger portions of food than most of us need.
The Food Guide helps put an end to “portion distortion” by providing clear information on how large servings of different kinds of foods should be.
For example, you might choose a banana at breakfast, 250 mL (1 cup) of salad at lunch, an apple after work or school, 125 mL (1/2 cup) of broccoli at dinner, and one medium carrot as an evening snack. You will then have the five servings recommended as the minimum for the vegetables and fruit category.
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Using the Food Guide to Change Your Eating Habits
You can use the Food Guide to assess your current eating habits, and develop a plan to change your eating habits if you need to improve them. Free online tools are available to help you, or you can do it yourself in a few simple steps.
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Step 1: Create a personal food record. Record everything you eat or drink for two to three days. Think about the portions or serving sizes of foods you actually eat, and don’t forget to include “other foods,” e.g., beverages, added fats, and extras such as jam or snack foods.
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Step 2: Classify your food choices. Classify your food choices into one of the four food groups or the “other foods” category.
For example, for breakfast, you might eat 125 mL (1/2 cup) of cold cereal topped with a banana and 125 mL (1/2 cup) of milk. This meal would equal one serving of grain products, one serving of vegetables and fruit, and 1/2 serving of milk products.
Remember, some foods have no place on the Food Guide and you will not be able to classify them into any one of the four food groups. However, make note of how often you choose foods that are high in calories, fat, sugar or salt (sodium). Keep in mind the importance of limiting these less nutritious foods.
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Step 3: Calculate and compare. Calculate the number of servings from each of the four food groups by adding up the food choices you classified in Step 2. Count each “other food” you eat as one serving. Compare the number of servings you ate with the number of daily servings recommended in the Food Guide.
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Step 4: Time for a change? All Canadians over the age of four should meet the minimum number of recommended servings in all four food groups. If you did not meet the minimums, set a goal to choose the foods you lack more often. If you met the minimums, consider your age, gender, life stage, body size, and physical activity level. Keep in mind that you may need to eat more if you are growing, active, pregnant, or breastfeeding.
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Variety is also important. Variety means that you choose different kinds of foods from each food group every day. Choosing a variety of food helps you get many different nutrients.
Moderation also matters. Make sure that you are limiting foods that do not fit into the Food Guide.
One Step at a Time
The Food Guide can help you choose healthy portions of a variety of foods from the four food groups. When you change your eating habits, try making only one small change at a time. Drastic changes are often hard to stick with. Replace a donut with an apple at your coffee break. Snack on yogurt instead of ice cream. Choose smaller portions of your favourite foods rather than avoiding them completely.
Want to change the way you eat? Get started by using the Food Guide to lay the foundation for a healthy, active lifestyle.
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Learn More
Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide
Find out more about using the Food Guide on Health Canada’s website. Create a personalized version of the Guide that displays your favorite food choices.
Food Serving Sizes
Alberta Health & Wellness offers information about portion sizes for children.
Healthy Eating and Active Living
These Alberta Health & Wellness publications will help you ensure that you children eat in a healthy way and get enough physical activity.
Tracking Your Food Choices
Record your food choices, and compare them to Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating using the Dietitians of Canada’s EATracker.
