23 recipes as fresh and healthy as Canada's new food guide
Jessica Brooks | CBC Life | Posted: January 24, 2019 8:59 PM | Last Updated: January 24, 2019
If the new suggestions have you looking to make swaps, we've got everything you need here
If you're looking to start feeding yourself and your family according to Canada's new food guide unveiled this week, we've got the recipes to make that happen, along with a few tips for shopping and meal prep to help make the change or keep you on track.
The latest updates promote a simplified eating strategy, one that doesn't require you to measure your meat with your fist to calculate its serving size, or any other complicated calculation you may have learned in school.
There are only three food groups now! Low-fat dairy products are now considered part of the protein group. Whole grains and fruits and vegetables make up the other two.
Goodbye rainbow. The 2019 food guide now depicts a plate loaded with fruit and vegetables on one half, a quarter-plate of protein, and a quarter filled with whole grains. You're no longer advised on many portions of each food group to eat, but rather how to eat the right proportions. Your plate is supposed to look like the new photograph, every time.
The big messages
Consume more plant-based protein. Foods like tofu, beans and lentils are recommended to be part of your weekly rotation. Meatless mondays, it's on!
Make water your drink of choice. The 2007 guide suggested you drink a 1/2 cup of juice and call it a fruit and vegetable serving, this updated guide has dropped that and recommends you reach for water whenever you can.
Healthy eating is about more than what you eat, it's how you consume it too. Probably the most groundbreaking change is the inclusion of recommendations for your cooking and eating habits, this guide promotes the importance of eating together, of eating in more often, of paying more attention to when and if you are hungry, and of taking the time to actually sit down, eat, and enjoy the whole process.
Update your eating philosophy
The new food guide encourages you to follow three simple guidelines to help you with your healthy diet.
Eat a variety of healthy foods each day, limit foods that aren't so great for you (skip processed and prepared foods with added sugars, sodium and saturated fat, try to order take-out less), and cook more at home. "It doesn't need to be complicated folks," Canadian Health Minister, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, said at the guide's unveiling. "It just needs to be nutritious, and, might I dare say, fun."
And lastly, at the end of the roundup you'll find a few recipes you can make and share with friends. Enjoy them as part of a larger feast brimming with vegetable sides, whole grains and lean protein. Who knows, you may pick up a new cooking skill or two? Eat together and have fun doing it. It's all part of your new healthy eating plan.
Eat lots of vegetables and fruits with these recipes
Eat more whole grains with these recipes
Eat protein and make it plant-based more often with these recipes
Skip the bakery muffins, pizza, and fried chicken take-out with these from-scratch versions to make at home
Eat together with these recipes you'll wanna make and share
Jessica Brooks is a digital producer and pro-trained cook and baker. Follow her food stories on Instagram @brooks_cooks.