Thursday, June 02, 2011

Shouldn't Health Check at least check calories?


Health Check, the woefully underpowered Heart and Stroke Foundation front-of-package program that encourages Canadians to consume processed foods and meals out, should listen to their social media folks.

Apparently Health Check has folks who are,

"listening online with an ear to conversations about eating habits, food sources and preparation, and nutritional hot points such as fat and sodium"
What'd they hear?

Well according to their blog post,
"Calories are the number one topic of conversation (32%) followed by fibre and carbohydrates (14% each), and sodium and fat (11% each). Other topics include added sugars, oils, cholesterol, and saturated and trans fats."
So let's see.

Is the nutritional determinant of health that Canadians are most concerned about online a determinant of Health Check?

Nope.

Sure, there are many things that go into an evaluation of whether a food's a healthy choice or not, but no doubt in a country where it's abnormal to have a healthy body weight, calories at least ought to be one of them.

Of course so should so many other things.

Generally Health Checks are awarded on the basis of a product's scores in only 3-5 different nutrient areas.

Contrast that with Nuval, a robust front-of-package program that scores more than 30 (including calories), and you might have a sense as to why I describe Health Check as woefully underpowered.