Health committee  I'm not aware of any benefit other than the fact that it's a quick source of energy, and that can be debated, I'm sure. Adam van Koeverden can talk about what's best to fuel your body through sports. If we did talk about it from an evolutionary point of view, for most of human ev

Health committee  I also have an evolutionary bias, so I believe in evolutionary medicine. I would say that the food industry doesn't set out to harm anyone. What it does is engineer food products that are attractive. They're savoury and they're sweet. We have an evolutionary bias to want to max

Health committee  Thanks for the question. It is conjecture; however, the University of Waterloo did a study looking at the financial benefits of implementing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. I don't have the study in front of me, but it seems to me it was close to roughly $1 billion per year

Health committee  That's correct. There are a number of jurisdictions that looked at improving food literacy and the impact of those didactic sessions on behaviour. I would say that they're not non-existent, but they're dwarfed by the power of marketing that kids are subjected to. The budget for

Health committee  It should be taught; however, I don't think we should rely upon that to have a substantive change in eating patterns for children. Part of it is the neurobiology of kids, their neurocognitive perceptions. The organ of thought of the brain area—the prefrontal cortex—doesn't fully

Health committee  When you look at the key action statement around the AAP recommendations, you see that they don't differ significantly from what's been recommended in Canada. They talk about monitoring and detecting early departure from healthy weight trajectories, and when that's detected, they

Health committee  I think in part it's industry lobbying, but also there's a natural hesitation for government to increase taxes. That's worldwide. Over the last decade, we've met with various levels of government, both provincially and federally, to advocate this step. In British Columbia, we w

Health committee  We would love to see that happen. In fact, that was our initial proposal back in 2015 when we met with the government. You're right about the unique vulnerabilities of adolescents. They have discretionary income, they have less supervision, and they have unique drivers in terms

Health committee  That's correct.

Health committee  Media literacy for children has not proven to be effective at all. The media literacy messages are kind of staid, boring, brief, and they pale in comparison to the pizzazz and sizzle of advertising.

Health committee  I like the use of the term “kernel” because I think it gets back to keeping it simple. Like you, as a physician, I don't know much about nutrition. I think that there's more and more awareness of talking about calories, about carbohydrates and about particular components. People

Health committee  I would characterize it as bidirectional. Sometimes, due to genetics and the obesogenic environment, unhealthy weights develop, and then, as a result of stigma, mental health deteriorates. In other times, children who have been subject to child maltreatment—sexual abuse, physic

Health committee  I'm going to try to unpack that. Eating disorders have increased in prevalence, but they're still dwarfed by the incidence of unhealthy overweights and obesity. Mental health is hugely important. I would say that 80% of my practice deals with anxiety, depression, autism, and ADH

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  Childhood obesity is defined according to curves generated by the World Health Organization. It's a little bit complicated. It's actually reasoning backward or extrapolating backward from those BMI criteria that in adulthood—say, above the age of 19 years—are associated with an i