Health Canada announces nutrition label campaign

How often have you walked into a grocery store and stopped to look at a Nutrition Facts table? The media is redundant with news about how trans fats and excessive amounts of sodium are bad for your health, and how you should avoid them at all costs. However, it has been discovered that despite all their efforts to raise awareness, many people still do not understand the meaning of these unhealthy components. That is why Health Canada launched a new program, the “Nutrition Facts Education Campaign”, to aid Canadians in reading the Nutrition Facts Table.

As their website states, “the Nutrition Facts Education Campaign is a multi-media campaign that helps consumers understand and use the information on the Nutrition Facts table, and in particular, the % Daily Value”. On the website, they lay it out very clearly for even the most numerically-challenged to understand. They even include a meter illustrating their point. However, this meter is very specific and only works for the three food items that they have chosen.

Other interactive resources on the site include how to choose healthier food products, how to compare different foods, and how to moderate your food intake for the maximum amount of nutrients. However, many of their tips are very self-explanatory. For instance, their comparison of two types of soup point out very blatantly that since the former only has 4% trans fat and the latter 17%, the former should be the preferred option. I would hope that Canadians already know that 4 is less than 17!

But Health Canada is taking a step in the right direction, for research shows that with regards to the Nutrition Facts table “more education is needed to help [Canadians] use this information to its full potential”.

If you would like more information on this campaign, visit http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/label-etiquet/nutrition/cons/dv-vq/index-eng.php.