The (Glorious) Canada Food Guide

1700 calories. 250 carbs. 8 vegetables or fruits. 7 grain products. 2 milk products. 2 meat products. 24 years old. 108 pounds. 26% BMI… 

Good lord. So much for “easy” nutrition. I am drowning in numbers. Who knew there was so much math involved in being healthy? (Thank god I took grade 12 calculus. This may be the first time in my life I actually need to use it.)

The first couple of days have gone pretty well, all things considered. I have eaten three square meals a day. I have started to learn the meaning of “healthy snack”. I even cooked myself a vegetable last night. (Sweet potato. Turned out edible. Major success!) Not bad. The trouble is making sense of all of these numbers to put together a “balanced diet”.

I start to think about how many factors there are to consider here. What are my ultimate goals? I brainstorm a list. It looks something like this:

• Get the recommended amount of caloric and nutrient intake every day
• Start doing the recommended amount of exercise every day
• Gain muscle mass, particularly on my upper arms (if you’ve arm wrestled me before, you’ll understand the rationale behind this one.)
• Maintain my current weight of 108 pounds

Juggling all of this seems complicated enough. Now, add in the fact that I’m also a Type 1 diabetic (neglected to mention this before), who has to be mindful of keeping blood sugar levels in the range of 4.0-7.0 mmoLs… this is achieved by calculating the number of carbohydrates in everything I eat, factoring in levels of exercise, and accordingly giving myself the right amount of insulin throughout the day. 

I consider all of these things. I start getting a headache. My next thought is, “maybe I should just hire a full-time dietician to follow me around for the next 3 months.” Oh right. I’m on a student budget. Okay then. Hmm. My next (slightly more realistic) idea is, how about some kind of book? Aha! There must be a book out there that makes coherent sense out of basic nutrition, right?

So this is my new plan. I head off to Yorkdale. I make a beeline for Chapters Indigo. I find their Healthy Living section. *Gulp*. Oh boy. This is what’s staring back at me...

Allow me to highlight the problems with this picture. First of all, there are what appear to be 10 000 books about how to become healthier. I can’t even begin to sort through them all. Second of all, 99% of them have some kind of “weight loss” theme to them. This does not surprise me. Given the obesity pandemic in our society, the plight of us few who have a hard time gaining weight is not widely recognized, nor exactly sympathized with. *Sigh*. The book shelf is overwhelming. I leave the store empty-handed.

And then, out of nowhere…I get a well-timed memory flashback from my childhood. A tidbit of information I learned about during diabetes education which I chose to ignore as an eight year old, but now seems like it could be my saving grace. The Canada Food Guide. The Canada Food Guide will have all of the answers!

I go home, google it, and then immerse myself in their website. (For those who haven’t visited it before… http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php .) It is downright glorious. First of all, it clearly outlines the recommended daily intake of each food group (fruits and vegetables, grain products, meat and alternatives, milk and alternatives) by age, according to number of servings. It has a comprehensive list of every kind of food you could think of in each food group, and how much constitutes one serving for each. It gives awesome meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. It tells you how much exercise you should get in a day. All in one comprehensive package. I bookmark the website. I print out all of their pdfs and post them on my fridge. 

Thank you, Canada. Your Food Guide just gave me back my optimism. 

Until next time,

 xo Janine