Canadian Pharmacists Journal - May/June 2019 - 152

COMMENTARY
BOX 1

Useful websites

Health Canada's healthy eating strategy:
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/health/campaigns/
vision-healthy-canada/healthy-eating.html
Canada's Food Guide:
https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/
Canada's Dietary Guidelines:
https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/guidelines/
Canada's food guide stakeholder toolkit:
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/can
ada-food-guide/resources/stakeholder-toolkit.html
Calgary Statement Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/enact-food-policies-to-curbchronic-disease-and-health-inequity-for-all-canadians
Health Canada Stakeholder Registry:
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/corporate/
about-health-canada/public-engagement/stakeholder-registry.html
Revision process for Canada's Food Guide:
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/can
ada-food-guides/revision-process.html
Meetings and correspondence on the healthy eating strategy:
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/health/campaigns/
vision-healthy-canada/healthy-eating/meetingscorrespondence.html)

in food production, leading to the Industrial Revolution and a
rapid expansion in food availability.17 Since that time, there has
been a concerted effort by governments to develop policies to
increase the production and distribution of low-cost and more
durable food that is free from infectious pathogens and detrimental toxins, with a specific emphasis on food security and
economics.18 Examples of government policies include varied subsidy programs, healthy eating advertising campaigns,
assessment of food for bacteria or toxins, food labelling and
nutritional assistance to low-income citizens.19
It is clear that individual dietary eating patterns are influenced by a series of complex elements.20 However, to date,
most Canadian government policies around the impacts of
diet on NCDs have generally been based on education and target personal choice.18 Unfortunately, many factors at the sociocultural, community environment and corporate commercial
level work together to directly affect an individual's capacity to
purchase, prepare and consume foods.21-24 All of these factors
can be strongly influenced by government policy and/or regulation. For example, Mozaffarian et al.18 highlighted ways in
which governments can positively shape the dietary patterns of
their citizens. These are wide-ranging strategies that are based
on current behavioural and policy science and a growing evidence base for their effectiveness. Taken together, it is clear
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that government policy is a key driver for significantly affecting the major role diet plays in the health of Canadians.25 Furthermore, many Canadian health and scientific organizations
have already supported a broad range of policy statements supporting healthy public food policy.26,27

Canada's new Healthy Eating Strategy

In October 2016, the Government of Canada, through Health
Canada, released its new Healthy Eating Strategy,28 the vision
for which is "Make the healthier choice the easier choice for
all Canadians." As highlighted above, a number of synergistic
policy strategies can be leveraged to improve the diet of Canadians and "no single intervention can tackle the complexities
of the current food system."18,25 As such, it is unsurprising that
a number of internationally recommended food policies have
been included in the Healthy Eating Strategy. Specifically, the
strategy targets providing better nutrition information, a focus
on eating behaviour, improved food quality, protecting vulnerable populations and improving food access and availability.
The cornerstone initiatives of this strategy are the following:
* Revision of Canada's Food Guide
* Improved food label information and front-of-package
labelling
* Reducing sodium in food
* Eliminating industrial trans fats
* Running a campaign to reduce sugary drink consumption
* Restricting marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages
to children
* Expanding and updating Nutrition North Canada
Of these initiatives, the revision and reconceptualization of
the Food Guide is a critical element, providing the evidencebased context for eating patterns and behaviours of Canadians
and having the greatest impact on the day-to-day activities of
health care professionals.

Canada's new Food Guide

Today we have unprecedented access to information. The
majority of Canadians obtain various health care and related
information from the Internet.29 This phenomenon, coupled
with the surge in usage of social media,30 has created a nutrition information environment that is strewn with contradictory messages and potentially erroneous, misleading or
harmful advice.31,32 In this context, it is unsurprising that the
majority of people felt that the Canadian Food Guide, which
was originally developed in 1992 and updated in 2007, needed
to be updated not only for content but also for usability.33
To achieve its goal of developing a new approach to food
and nutrition,34 the Canadian government has a multiphase
approach planned: assessing current evidence to update dietary
guidance policy, provision of simplified resources (including visuals, tips and messages) and launching an integrated,
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