Midwestern

Grey Bruce dietitian speaks out about food guide debate

Local public health officials say politicians should be debating food insecurity instead of the updated Canada Food Guide.

Grey Bruce Public health Dietitian Laura Needham said unhealthy eating is costing the province $5.6 billion annually, and 15 per cent of Ontario households have inadequate access to healthy food. She added that instead, politicians need to be talking about the 21 per cent of children who live in food-insecure households.

Needham said she supports a living wage or basic income and added that she thinks the priority should be to ensure all Canadians can afford to choose healthy foods to meet their family’s needs.

"We need to really support our employers that are supporting living wages. We need to work together across all sectors. It's not something that government can solve alone, or individuals can solve, definitely charity cannot solve it," she explained.

The top two causes of death in Grey Bruce (2003-2012) were heart disease and cancer. Both of these diseases are diet and lifestyle-related. People in Grey-Bruce have a 27 per cent higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to the rest of Ontario. This is why Public Health is working with local municipalities to make communities healthier places. But it still comes down to money. Without adequate financial resources, people cannot make good choices when it comes to food and activities for themselves or their children.

Needham said the guide is based on scientific merit, and a huge step forward in creating a guide that serves the health of the people, not select sectors.

"The fact is, milk is still in there, all the dairy foods are still present in the food guide, we still have meat in the food guide. We're just saying we should have more plant-based proteins in Canada," she added "it's important for those changes to be made because all of our institutions, all of our nutrition education, so many things about our food culture in Canada are influenced by the food guide. "

Needham said she would like to hear local candidates for the upcoming federal election debate an income response to food insecurity instead of the updated food guide.

She said leaders should focus on developing policies that address health. Access to and knowledge regarding healthy food, better education, better employment, better housing, better social supports, better access to transportation, better access to childcare and many more all contribute to better health. These are what Public Health call the social determinants of health. Improvements in any of these areas result in improved health.

She pointed to the benefits in the policies that created Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement or the recently scrapped Basic Income Guarantee. These are not hand-outs but a considered policy approach to ensure basic needs are met. When those needs are met, health improves.

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