Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, hence it should not be missed. Most importantly, breakfast should be balanced. Staple breakfast food includes eggs, toast, bacon, and eggs. As for a beverage, people either opt for coffee or juice depending on what they like.
However, those that want a truly balanced meal should probably avoid juice according to the changes Health Canada wants to make to Canada’s Food Guide.
Health Canada plans to reduce the usual juice serving served for breakfast and make it the ideal serving size of a balanced diet. In an interview with CBC News, Health Canada spokesperson Geoffroy Legault-Thivierge said that the organization’s ideal beverage of choice is plain water to reduce sugar intake in the morning. Even if the juice came from natural sources, there is still too much sugar in it for a person to consume in one sitting.
By the organization’s standards, people should only consume half a cup or 125 ml of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice in the morning.
While Health Canada means well, there are critics going up against its proposed changes. “Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Juice” author Alissa Hamilton said that nobody is going to adhere to the organization’s recommended serving size saying that people are used to calling a 355ml a single serving.
Aside from this, Hamilton argued that sugar in juice is digested differently. Fruits have fibers that slow down the metabolism of sugar. She added, “When you’re drinking the juice without the fiber, you get an insulin spike, and when you have too much insulin circulating in your blood, that’s a precursor to diabetes.” Moreover, the juice helps people easily fill up in the morning, allowing them to take in less of other items.
More changes coming to the food guide soon
Health Canada is expected to make major changes to Canada’s Food Guide which will launch this spring. According to early leaks, the food guide will encourage people to eat from more of at least 28 different food groups instead of having them choose from the four basic groups which are vegetables and fruit, grains, milk and alternatives.
Professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University Sylvain Charlebois said that the upcoming food guide will focus more on fiber and proteins. It will also encourage Canadians to drink more water and to eat more homecooked meals. The upcoming food guide will be completely different from what Canadians are currently using which is already 12 years old.
When it was introduced in 1942, the food guide was an effort to boost Canada’s agriculture and rural economy. Now, the people behind it are putting the people’s health in mind above anything else.
Though expected to be more complicated, Canada Health’s upcoming food guide will help people create a more balanced diet. A lot of Canadians use the food guide on a daily basis, so we can expect the upcoming changes to have a major influence over the nation’s diet as well.