Evidence of meeting #83 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was well.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Dietitians of Canada
The position of the Dietitians of Canada is the position of the 800 members who expressed themselves.
NDP
Chief Executive Officer, Dietitians of Canada
Right now I'm here to represent the whole membership and not here in my previous role. But I can concur that the comment that Dietitians of Canada gave to Health Canada to be very cognizant of the understanding of that protein-based group is consistent with the concern that the Dairy Farmers of Canada have.
NDP
Chief Executive Officer, Dietitians of Canada
No, I'm just trying to show you that there's no inconsistency.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I understand they're different positions. That's what I'm trying to understand.
Chief Executive Officer, Dietitians of Canada
It was expressed differently. There was a lot of misunderstanding, even by our members, of what it meant. We share that in the consultation, but also, as Dr. Hutchinson said, the Dietitians of Canada are close partners with Health Canada, so that comment was shared also.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I only have a little time, so just quickly, I understand that the dietitians and the Canadian Paediatric Society said soy, rice, and other plant-based beverages, whether or not they are fortified, are inappropriate alternatives to cows' milk for the first two years. What about after two years?
Chief Executive Officer, Dietitians of Canada
They're not a source of protein, so when the guiding principle was talking about protein-rich foods, those beverages are not sources of protein. Soy is, but the position was not referring to soy. It was talking about the other beverages.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
The good news is that you're giving us such great answers, the chair is getting feedback and we'd like to have a few more questions. We're done now officially, but Mr. Oliver would like to ask a question, and Ms. Gladu. I don't imagine Don Davies would want to ask another question, would you?
Liberal
Liberal
John Oliver Liberal Oakville, ON
Great. I just want to come back to the questions I was asking about fat and carbohydrate intake.
This was a study done through McMaster University. It was international, published on August 29, 2017 in The Lancet. They looked at 135,000 individuals. I won't go through all the details of the study, but here was their conclusion:
High carbohydrate intake was associated with higher risk of total mortality, whereas total fat and individual types of fat were related to lower total mortality. Total fat and types of fat were not associated with cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, or cardiovascular disease mortality, whereas saturated fat had an inverse association with stroke.
Their conclusion was that “Global dietary guidelines should be reconsidered in light of these findings.” I think it was a seven-country study.
I'm going to come back to this. There is lots of research out there on the fact that we are probably too high in carbs, and our focus on fats needs to be rethought. From the Canadian dietitians association, have you looked at any of this? Do you have any views on this current debate between high-fat, low-carb, and low-fat, high-carb, and what the right strategies are?
Chief Executive Officer, Dietitians of Canada
I would just add to what Dr. Hutchinson said, that a lot of the carbs that we're currently looking at when we're considering those studies, for instance, are refined carbs. They're not the ones that are promoted in what was under review.
Those studies are looking at big buckets. You have to go into those buckets to see what people are really eating, and when it's refined carbs and added sugar, certainly it's not helping health.
Liberal
John Oliver Liberal Oakville, ON
But there is a premise, I think, out there, that fats are not the evil that we think they are, and that setting out a lower carb-intake target, regardless of the source of the carb, might be worth considering. That's what the research I've been looking at has been saying on this one. I'm worried that in five years' time.... It seems to be very popular, and it's the direction the northern Scandinavian countries are taking. It seems to be in the U.K. now.
You said you hadn't seen any of the research on the question of carb numbers.
Director General, Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health
I haven't seen the types of studies where you have panels of experts examining the studies and then doing an evaluation grading the quality of the evidence, where you can have strong concluding evidence on that, and there is—
Liberal
John Oliver Liberal Oakville, ON
It was cited. The Swedish Health Technology Assessment committee, with 16,000 studies, came to that conclusion, so that's a meta-analysis, if there ever was one.
I thank you.
Conservative
Marilyn Gladu Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you, Chair.
I'm going to ask the orange juice question. I hear the scandalous thing that if you went out and you wanted to consume seven oranges that you got from the grocery store, and you fresh-squeezed them yourself, then it would all be fine, but if you get it in a juice box, it's not fine.
I'd like you to comment on that, because I think the important thing is that, if it's fine to eat a fruit, then it should be fine to drink the fruit juice. It could be the quantity that's the problem there, people drinking big gulps of it instead of smaller portions.
Let's start with Madam Savoie.
Chief Executive Officer, Dietitians of Canada
Yes, it's really the quantity that's the issue. It's very easy to drink a lot of juice, because it is good. The variety message gets lost. You identified your seven oranges. Well, eating seven oranges is not really variety, so that wouldn't be a recommendation either.
Really, I think the concerning part is the quantity. As I think Dr. Critch would agree, young children especially might drink a lot of juice instead of just drinking water if they're thirsty.
Conservative
Marilyn Gladu Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
I was just coming at it from the point of view that in northern communities, where orange trees are not as likely to grow and there's not as likely to be as much available, that might be the right alternative, but the importance is volume. I just wanted to bring that out.
Another interesting thing I came across in my reading was that chicken eggs are used as a benchmark by which all other proteins are judged, apparently because of their better digestibility. They have a value of 100. Chicken is 79. Wheat is 60. Corn is 54.
Why is this important? Is it important?
Director General, Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health
It's true that across the board different foods will have different digestibility. Here what you're looking at, of course, is with respect to the protein content as well. Basically, as we develop our dietary reference intakes and as we develop our dietary patterns, we try to take all of that into consideration at a certain level. We realize that each particular food has different characteristics as well. It's already complicated enough when you think of just the number of different foods we have there. Then we have to sort of split them apart.
I think the important part is to make sure that one is getting enough protein that is then assimilated in as well. From most studies, certainly out of North America, we're not having a problem with respect to the amount of protein we're taking in. Certainly that's what we've shown as well.
Conservative
Marilyn Gladu Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
All right.
I want to make a final comment. I noted that you said people could go online to the Health Canada site and create their own food guide and everything else. I was fiddling around with that while the testimony was going on. It's actually quite a great tool, but I knew nothing about it and I'm sure maybe others don't. Obviously, there needs to be an app for the Canada food guide that you can download to your smart phone.