Canada’s federal government is proposing changes aimed at countering rising rates of childhood obesity and chronic disease.
The proposals focus on changes to food labels that will provide more information on calories, sugars and more consistent portion sizes.
Health Minister Rona Ambrose announced the proposals Monday at a grocery store in Edmonton, Alberta.
Following the announcement, the president of the Canadian Medical Association, Louis Hugo Francescutti, said the changes are a step in the right direction.
However, he added that Ottawa could have made it simpler for Canadians to see which foods are healthy by labelling healthy foods with green labels and unhealthy with red.
Dr. Francescutti said there is one simple guideline consumers should follow to improve their health.
“If it doesn’t rot, don’t eat it,” he said. “Only healthy food rots.”
The president and CEO of the Canadian Diabetes Association, Richard Blickstead, said the changes to the labelling will make a “huge difference” to consumers while allowing them to make informed choices about what they eat.
In February, a study in JAMA Internal Medicine, a medical journal published by the American Medical Association, linked high sugar intake with heart disease deaths.
Another recent study by Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland predicted one in five adults will be obese by 2019.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says 25 per cent of Canadians, including children, are obese.
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