Squash Soup - Consideration of the Canada Food Guide and the Soup’s Nutritional Value

The Canada Food Guide is published by the Health Canada to promote “nutrient standards and the prevention of chronic disease.”  It is an evolving document that expands and shifts in response to new scientific discoveries and changing patterns in food consumption.

The newest version, published in 2007, is a marked change from its 1992 predecessor.  In addition to making general recommendations on daily intake of the four food groups – the standard content since first published in 1942 – a supplementary guide has been issued for First Nations, Inuit and Métis, to better reflect their cultural history and resources.  It has also been adapted to reflect preference for different ethnic foods, and is currently available in 12 languages – English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil and Urdu – to address shifting demographics due to the increasing immigrant population.  *

Health Canada has included a new online “My Food Guide” tool aimed at helping Canadians create personalized food plans. Though I commend the intent to address technological changes and the Internet generation, I found it too simplistic.  After entering my age, gender, and examples of foods I like from each food group, I expected a meal plan, perhaps a way of evaluating meals or recipes, or at the very least, a few examples of what a healthy day could look like for me.  My efforts, however, yielded nothing more than a customized PDF of the guide showing my food and activity selections.  “My Food Guide” should be more comprehensive to be of any real benefit – comparing current diet with the idealized diet, weighing caloric requirements against calories burned through the types of physical activities chosen, suggesting daily meal plans to accommodate personal nutritional needs and ways to eliminate what is unnecessary.

The revised Food Guide, however, already focuses more on foods to avoid and limiting the quantity of food consumed.  These changes were made in response to a 2001 Canadian Community Health Survey that found a 24% increase in the number of obese 20-64 year old Canadians (almost 2.8 million) in the previous 6 years.

A person aged 19-30 now has a daily recommended intake of no more than 2-3 Tbs (30-45mL) of non-saturated oils and, depending on activity level, 1900-2350 calories (for women) and 2500-3000 calories (for men) ages 19-30. *  A single serving of the squash soup recipe I obtained from Treadwells contains an astounding 33 grams of fat and 600 calories – necessitating some ingredient substitutions and adjustments to lessen its unhealthiness and thus increase my psychological enjoyment.