Ask a Dietitian

As seen on BCTV March 13/01

Nutrition Month – March is Nutrition Month and this year’s theme is Make Sense of the food you eat… www.dietitians.ca.

Most Canadians consider nutrition and health important, second only to taste, when they make decisions about food and eating. They want to know what’s in their food and how it relates to their health. While consumers are becoming more knowledgeable and interested in nutrition, they are still baffled by many myths and misconceptions.

With today’s technology, there is an unprecedented amount of nutrition information and it is hard to know who to believe and what to act upon. This is why the Dietitians of Canada felt compelled to devote the March 2001 Nutrition Month Campaign to making sense of the food you eat. The Dietitians of Canada’s award winning, interactive website www.dietitians.ca/eatwellhas been expanded this year. At the website you can:

• Test your nutrition knowledge with a new interactive quiz designed to challenge popular nutrition myths
• Visit a “Virtual Kitchen” that provides nutrition information about food choices
• Make use of the “Meal Planner” designed to help you determine the kinds and amounts of foods to eat
• Evaluate “Your Nutrition Profile” which compares your food choices to current nutrition recommendations and gives personalized advice for healthy eating
• Find out if your body weight is in a healthy zone with the “Body Mass Index Calculator”
• Try the “Physical Activity Quiz” and get feedback on your activity level and tips for active living
• Get trusted answers to the most frequently asked nutrition questions, recipes and more.The website provides a highly accessible means for Canadians to find answers to their nutrition questions and reach a local dietitian.Myth: I would be healthier if I cut out red meat
• Meat provides important nutrients such as iron and zinc, which tend to be under-consumed, especially among children, adolescents and women of childbearing age.
• A lack of fruits and vegetables, rather than the presence of meat or other animal foods in the diet, may be more closely associated with disease. Beef and pork are leaner today than in the past. The leanest beef cut is inside round and the leanest cut is pork tenderloin.
• Meat and milk products from ruminant animals are the richest sources of dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA may play a role as a cancer inhibitor.
• Vegetarian women who exclude meat tend to have significantly lower levels of vitamin B12 , niacin and vitamin D than non-vegetarians.Antibiotics and Meat:
  Low levels of antibiotics are approved for use in farm animals to prevent and treat disease. Prior to going to market, antibiotics are stopped for a period of time so that there are no antibiotic residues in animals raised for eating. Meat is routinely inspected for antibiotic residues. In fact, almost all (99.7-100%) of the Canadian meat, milk and eggs tested for agricultural chemicals comply with Health Canada’s strict laws.Healthy Tips from the Dietitians of Canada
• All foods can fit into a healthy diet. Meat and Alternatives is one of the four food groups in Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating. No single food of food group can be blamed for a poor diet or poor health.
• Choose leaner meats, trim all visible fat and try lower-fat cooking methods such as baking, grilling or stewing. Remember that a serving of meat is 50-100 grams, which is about the size of a deck of cards.
• Healthy eating tastes great! Enjoying delicious food is one of life’s pleasures. You don’t have to give up the foods you enjoy for the sake of healthy eating.For more healthy eating information and how to Make Sense of the Food You Eat, visit the Dietitians of Canada website at www.dietitians.ca/eatwellExcerpt from: 2001 National Nutrition Month – A Resource Manual for Dietitians. Produced by the Dietitians of Canada.

  Watch for the Eating for Energy segment every Tuesday on BCTV’s Noon News Hour!