If elected as our next prime minister, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer vows to review Canada’s Food Guide, which was just introduced in January. And while the idea is desirable, politicizing healthy eating can’t be a good thing.
Speaking to dairy farmers in Saskatoon recently, Scheer registered his concerns about the food guide and said the review process was flawed.
He’s certainly entitled to his opinion, but the new guide is based on sound research and science, whether we agree with it or not. Individuals involved in the process had good intentions and are quite competent.
What Health Canada also got right is that it excluded any active industry participation in the process. Allowing industry to get involved in reviews in the past has often led to making the guide a political instrument.
Weaponizing the food guide to promote certain foods against other food sources never results in a positive outcome. But Health Canada also needs to recognize that industry supports strong research and this should remain part of any future reviews.
Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, and a senior fellow with the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.
