The past 12 months brought a mix of nutrition stories to the forefront. It's fair to say it was a bad year for deli meats, alcoholic beverages and the provinces' school nutrition policies. Even restaurant meals were exposed for their shockingly high calorie and sodium counts.
But the year's news wasn't all bad. Vitamin D supplements and dark chocolate grabbed positive headlines. We also welcomed a new and improved food guide to help us eat better.
In keeping with tradition, my last column of the year looks back at 2007's nutrition headlines. Here's a recap.
CANADA'S NUTRITION
'BIBLE' OVERHAULED
In an effort to help Canadians make healthier food choices, Health Canada unveiled a revised food guide in February.
It was high time. Since 1992, when the food guide was last revised, much had changed in nutrition. We now know about the evils of trans fats, the cardio-protective effects of fish and whole grains, and the importance of vitamin D.
While many praised the new Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide for providing advice targeted to specific groups such as children, women and older adults, others criticized it for its potential to promote weight gain by recommending too much food.
While it might not be perfect, the latest version is a much needed departure from the previous one-size-fits-all approach. It also includes far more ethnic foods to meet the needs of a culturally diverse population.
Following the new food guide might not help you lose weight, but it will certainly help you make healthier food choices. For more information log on to http://www.healthcanada.gc.ca/foodguide.
RESTAURANT MENUS SLAMMED
In March, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer group, slammed North American Chinese-restaurant food for its high calorie, fat and sodium content.
Consider this: A dinner-sized order of lemon chicken weighed in at 1,400 calories, 13 grams of cholesterol-raising saturated fat and 700 milligrams of sodium. Orange crispy beef had 1,500 calories, 11 g of saturated fat and 3,100 mg of sodium. Even an order of stir-fried greens delivered 900 calories and 2,200 mg of sodium.
Restaurant menus were brought to the forefront again in November when The Globe and Mail and CTV's Canada AM commissioned an independent lab to analyze popular meals at four national chains - Kelsey's, Jack Astor's, Milestone's and the Keg.
The findings: Just about every menu entree contained more than 1,000 calories. Including an appetizer, a beverage and a dessert lifted calorie counts to over 2,000. To put those numbers in perspective, the average adult needs about 2,000 calories and no more than 2,300 mg of sodium for the entire day.
Meals were awash in more than just calories. Most provided more than a day's worth of fat, saturated fat and sodium. To eat healthier in 2008, consider preparing most of your meals at home.
VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTS
CUT CANCER RISK
Vitamin D continued to make headlines this year. But unlike previous studies that linked a daily vitamin D supplement to a reduced cancer risk, in June the first randomized, controlled trial - the most reliable form of scientific evidence - substantiated that vitamin D is an important tool in fighting breast, lung and colon cancers.
In the four-year study of 1,179 healthy, postmenopausal women, researchers found that those taking 1,110 IU (international units) of vitamin D each day in conjunction with calcium were 60 per cent less likely to get cancer than their placebo-taking peers.
The growing evidence that vitamin D guards against cancer - and the fact that Canadians don't get sufficient sunlight during winter to produce enough of the nutrient - prompted the Canadian Cancer Society to recommend adults take 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day in the fall and winter. (Older adults, people with dark skin, those who don't go outdoors often, and those who wear clothing that covers most of their skin should take the supplement all year round.)
In September, 2007, an analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials involving 57,311 people found that those who took at least 528 IU of vitamin D daily had a 7-per-cent lower risk of death than those given a placebo.
