Canada's New Food Guide - Implications and Opportunities for Action

It acknowledges that a range of culturally-diverse foods can make up a healthy diet. For the first time, Canada's Dietary Guidelines recognize the relationship between food consumption and the environment. Based on the most recent evidence, it recommends to the public how to eat to meet health as well as environmental goals. Finally, the new Food Guide acknowledges that nutrition concerns more than what people eat. It is also determined by environmental factors, including marketing, food skills, and food literacy. Canada's Dietary Guidelines are a collection of health and environmental principles and also a declaration of shared responsibility and a call to action to stakeholders across the country to pursue policy initiatives that will improve the food environment and reduce long-standing barriers to healthy eating, while also reducing environmental impacts. The updates to Canada's new Food Guide and Dietary Guidelines provide an opportunity for the City of Toronto to review food-related programs and policies and to consider new actions that will actively promote healthy eating and healthy food environments.

collaborate with the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, on promoting water as the beverage of choice in the City of Toronto's facilities by incorporating drinking fountains and water bottle filling stations, as appropriate, in redevelopment, state-of-good repair, and new development projects and supporting the development of a Food and Beverage Policy; c. collaborate with the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services, and the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management, on supporting their work to reduce single-use and takeaway items, as it relates to Canada's Dietary Guidelines on sustainable food consumption; and d. collaborate with the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services, and the Chief Purchasing Officer on supporting their work to implement circular procurement as it relates to Canada's Dietary Guidelines on sustainable food consumption. 3. The Board of Health, in recognition of the social and environmental factors influencing healthy eating, as outlined in the new Canada's Dietary Guidelines: a. request the Medical Officer of Health to report back in the fall of 2019 on the accessibility and affordability of healthy food and the state of food insecurity in Toronto; b. urge the Province of Ontario to pass provincial Bill 60, An Act to amend the Ministry of Community and Social Services Act to establish the Social Assistance Research Commission, in order to establish a mechanism to account for the cost of healthy eating when social assistance rates are revised; and c. continue to support the intent of federal Bill S-228, An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (prohibiting food and beverage marketing directed at children) with other health organizations.