America is often considered to have one of the worst overall diets, but eating habits up here in Canada aren’t much better.
A report funded by the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada and carried out by researchers the University of Montreal found that about 48% of Canadians’ daily caloric intake hails from ultra-processed foods. Alarmingly, the investigation also discovered that children aged nine to 13 are the largest consumers of these nutritional duds, which account for 57% of their daily calories. Those are huge numbers and should sound alarm bells for health officials.
For the purpose of the study, “ultra-processed foods” were defined as products comprised largely of substances like sugar, fat, salt and additives, with little to no intact food. So that would be stuff like sweetened drinks, frozen dinners, sugary boxed cereals, fast-food pizza, cereal bars and potato chips. All of which are contributing to our collective poor health and expanding waistlines among all generations.
So clearly, dietitians like myself still have a lot of work to do.
A report funded by the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada and carried out by researchers the University of Montreal found that about 48% of Canadians’ daily caloric intake hails from ultra-processed foods. Alarmingly, the investigation also discovered that children aged nine to 13 are the largest consumers of these nutritional duds, which account for 57% of their daily calories. Those are huge numbers and should sound alarm bells for health officials.
For the purpose of the study, “ultra-processed foods” were defined as products comprised largely of substances like sugar, fat, salt and additives, with little to no intact food. So that would be stuff like sweetened drinks, frozen dinners, sugary boxed cereals, fast-food pizza, cereal bars and potato chips. All of which are contributing to our collective poor health and expanding waistlines among all generations.
So clearly, dietitians like myself still have a lot of work to do.
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