Eat healthy, an outdated concept?

MONTREAL (PasseportSanté.net) February 23, 2006 – Eating healthy, as proposed in the food guides, would it be a concept ill-suited to the hectic lives of citizens of the 21st century?^e century? At least that’s what the participants at the “What do we eat?” For a Canadian Food Policy ”, organized by the Canadian Research Institute of McGill University¹.

“Few people adhere to nutritional recommendations,” said Hélène Delisle.², professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of Montreal. Why? According to her, the foundations of current nutrition are based on scientific precepts that belong to a bygone era.

“With the globalization and individualism that characterize our time, we cannot conceive of a food policy that does not take into account socio-economic, political and environmental factors”, explained this specialist in changes in lifestyle and in ‘food.

Frédéric Blaise, Enzyme Communication Marketing³, abounds in the same direction. “Eating well to be healthy is a concept that does not stick to people’s lives,” he said. This is why he considers it essential to first seek to understand the motivations of consumers, which science has not explored so far, before developing a national food policy.

According to Frédéric Blaise, only 25% to 32% of the Canadian population really eat a healthy diet. “The rest are segmented into groups that show ‘medium-rare’ interest,” he said pictorially.

“One-quarter of Canadians watch food TV shows, but that interest doesn’t translate into the pan. You have to find out why, then turn that interest into action, ”added the nutrition graduate.

Too much information, not enough action

A broad consensus emerged from the discussions: there is an overabundance of information on nutrition, but it is generally patchy and sometimes contradictory. Hence the consumer confusion.

Whether it is disseminated by the media or by the food industry, this information is often not put into context. “How can consumers get an overall idea of ​​nutrition when, at the grocery store, they are sold products that rely on specific nutrients such as vitamins, omega-3s or the absence of trans fats? Asked Mary Bush of Health Canada.⁴.

By gleaning some information here and there, consumers learn a certain nutritional vocabulary, but they fail to integrate and understand it sufficiently. “Eighty-nine percent of Canadians believe they have a good knowledge of nutrition, but 36% believe that trans fats have the same role as saturated fats in the development of cardiovascular disease, which is obviously not the cases, ”said nutritionist Nathalie Jobin from Extenso, a reference center for human nutrition. Trans fats are indeed more damaging to cardiovascular health than all other fats.

It is therefore felt that negative or moralizing messages in food should be replaced by positive messages. Even more, insists the dietitian Louise Lambert-Lagacé�: “It is necessary that these messages have a durability, that what people hear today have the same meaning next week”.

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Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net

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1. The Institute for Canadian Studies at McGill University brought together, from February 15 to 17, 2006, more than 250 speakers around the theme “What do we eat?” For a Canadian food policy ”.
2. Hélène Delisle is a full professor at the Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the Department of Nutrition at the University of Montreal
3. Enzyme Communication Marketing is a consulting company specializing in the analysis of consumer behavior and brand influence.
4. Mary Bush is the Director General of the Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada. Prior to her tenure, Ms. Bush led the Nutrition Labeling Policy Review from 1998 to 2000, which led to the new labeling regulations coming into force in December 2005.