Thursday, June 12, 2008

Leslie Beck says the Food Guide Makes you Fat


If you live in Canada, you've probably heard of Leslie Beck - she's one of our most well known dietitians and aside from writing books and running a practice, she's also a health columnist for the Globe and Mail.

Yesterday her column entitled, Supersized servings, supersized people had her discussing portions and how certainly one of the main contributors to global weight gain has been global portion size gain.

She also had this to say,

"The first step in downsizing portions is to become familiar with the number of food servings you need each day (Canada's Food Guide is available on the Internet). If you're trying to lose weight, you'll probably need to eat fewer servings than recommended."
Of course that means if you don't reduce the number of servings recommended by the Food Guide, you won't lose weight.

That means that the number of servings recommended by the Food Guide provides you with enough Calories to keep you overweight.

That means that if you're a healthy weight and eat the Food Guide's recommended number of servings it would follow that Leslie Beck thinks you're liable to gain.

Now I've been criticizing the Food Guide seemingly forever but Leslie is now the second prominent dietitian to come right out and say that following the Food Guide makes you fat (the other was former College of Dietitians director Samara Felsky Hunt as I blogged about here).

If you travel back in time a bit further you can also hear Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, telling the Canadian Medical Association Journal's Margot Andresen,
"the Guide isn't meant to be "a weight-loss tool or a diet system," but rather, a means of helping Canadians make healthier choices."
So for those of you keeping score.

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer says the Food Guide isn't a weight loss tool or a diet system and two of Canada's most prominent dietitians say that if you're one of the now minority of Canadians with a healthy body weight and you follow the Food Guide, you'll gain.

Great job Health Canada - that's one heckuva Guide.

[By the way, that graphic up top was sent to me by a loyal reader who wishes to remain anonymous - it's a testament to the fact that the only people who are truly benefiting from our obesigenic Food Guide are those involved in the food industry - more food = more sales. Please feel free to disseminate the graphic widely!]