A Love/Ate Relationship!
I’m Barrie, and I warmly welcome you to my monthly blog: Over50andfit
I have a question for you: When was Canada’s first food guide introduced to the public. Answer: in 1942. To acknowledge wartime food-rationing, while endeavouring to prevent nutritional deficiencies and to improve the health of Canadians.
My purpose is to encourage eating a balanced diet as an essential part of maintaining good health, and to allude to the compelling evidence which suggests that your diet may affect your mental health and well-being.
New Canadian Food Guide
If you want to read about eating a variety of healthy foods each day, the new Canada’s Food Guide (March, 2020) is an excellent source.
The new guide is distilled into one striking image: a plate of food filled with roughly half fruits and vegetables, and the remaining half divided into whole grains and proteins…Eat a diet made up of roughly half fruits and vegetables, and half of the remaining two categories.
What is Different About the New Food Guide?
The new guide recommends eating lots of vegetables and fruits, whole grain foods and protein foods. Also emphasized is the importance of cooking and preparing meals at home. The guide also claims that meals do not have to be complicated.
Notable Changes from Previous Versions of the Food Guide
- Greater emphasis on fruits, vegetables, and plant-based proteins
- Reduced emphasis on meats and dairy products favouring low-fat dairy and non-dairy alternatives where possible
- Emphasis on drinking more water to lower sugar intake and protecting teeth from exposure to sugar
- Recommends that Canadians commit to half of their daily diet being fruits and vegetables, and splitting the remaining half between whole grains and proteins
- I am adding my personal bias: eat from smaller plates
Start Small
Making changes in your diet can be overwhelming. Make small changes to begin with. Don’t try to do everything at once, instead pick one or two food items to change, and try them consistently. Set some realistic goals of what you want to achieve
Unhealthy Diet
By the time you reach 50, you will have eaten some 50,000 meals and also innumerable snacks. If you ate as I once did, you will have consumed an unhealthy portion of bacon, sausage, processed meat, muffins, doughnuts, overly-processed white bread, and an over-abundance of sugar, butter and salt. But it is not too late to change – it never is!
This comprehensive slide show recommends foods to help you improve your circulation.
I welcome any suggestions you have, and would be delighted to answer any questions at Over50andfit.ca
Yours in fitness,
Barrie Street
