Columnists
The one-two punch
In the past few days, the one-two punch has hit the North American diet—right in the stomach.
The first blow was delivered by a report in The Lancet medical journal by a group of 27 scientists from 16 countries, who aimed to come up with a “planetary health diet” that could feed a world population of 10 billion in a sustainable way. They say that following their recommendations will also avoid 11 million untimely deaths a year caused by poor nutrition.
The 2,500-calorie a day diet provides for protein to come largely from plant sources such as beans, lentils, soy and nuts. Whole grain foods are allowed, and half of what you eat should be fruits and vegetables. You can eat, daily if you want, up to an ounce of fish or poultry, or up to half an ounce of red meat, Converting that latter limitation to hamburger terms, it means that it should take you at least eight days to work your way through a single Quarter Pounder; or you could eat it one in a single sitting, as long as you divided it with seven friends.
And then came the second blow—the introduction of a refreshed Canada’s Food Guide. Pointing in much the same direction as the planetary health study, it calls for half of one’s diet to be fruits and vegetables, one quarter to be proteins and one quarter to be whole grains. The drink of choice should not be pop, fruit juice or milk, but water.
This one-two punch has radically challenged Canadians to change their dietary habits. But moving from meat to pulses as the major source of protein is hardly riven with excitement. The people who conceived the Food Guide are well aware of the challenge: the Guide is represented by a dreamy image of a delicious looking plate of food showing samples of the appropriate types of food, arranged in the correct proportions. Plus, the Guide comes with lots of recipes for healthy choices. For breakfast, how about Savoury Broccoli and Cheese Muffins; and for lunch or dinner, we could choose Quinoa and Veggie Casserole. Puts you off a bit, does it? Well, we’ve got to start somewhere.
We hear rumours that the proponents of the Food Guide have a multi-stage program mapped out. Stage 1, which we are in now and which will run through 2019, is the “information” stage, in which people will be given the facts and the opportunity to act from enlightened self-interest to change their dietary habits.
Stage 2, for 2020, will be the “encouragement” phase, in which the government will use behavioural techniques to move the dial. This may range from a simple subsidy of lentils at the grocery store, to a free bumper sticker touting ‘The Joy of Soy’, to grants to restauranteurs to open up tofu takeout joints to compete with the big red meat franchises.
Stage 3, if it becomes necessary, will be the “surveillance” phase. It will start in 2021 and run for two years. Canadians will be expected to complete and file a weekly list of meals consumed—a task officials assure us will be no more difficult than preparing a tax return. The government will then hire a cadre of compliance officers, whose job it will be to review the reports and monitor how closely families are sticking to the Food Guide. However, the only penalty that a violator will face is to be shamed.
The exact number of compliance officers to be hired will depend on the success of a parallel initiative to encourage one or more members of the household—preferably youthful idealists—to contact an inspector directly in the event of a perceived violation. The government is said to be studying models from Eastern Europe and Asia. “We want the kid who catches his dad snacking on a ham on white sandwich to feel he can call us with complete anonymity,” one official is quoted as saying,
Stage 4 is the “compulsion” phase of the program, a contingency plan that is to come into effect only if the other stages don’t produce the desired result. This will see the Food Guide become codified into law as “Canada’s Food Rules”, and Canadians obliged to stick to them or face fines or even imprisonment. Inspectors will have the power of entry and arrest.
If you think that sounds like a dark future, you’re responding the way the government wants you to. If you know what Stages 3 and 4 are going to look like, you’ll be more inclined to jump in with both feet at Stage 1 and try those recipes for Savoury Broccoli and Cheese Muffins, and Quinoa and Veggie Casserole, right now. Talk about a one-two punch!
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