You know, the fact that I think the Health Check program is nutritionally bereft and a national disgrace is debatable for some and indeed there are folks out there who disagree with me and think Health Check's great.
I think they're wrong of course (and so too does nutritional evidence) and certainly I've posted plenty on why Health Check stinks in the past.
Of course even the folks who disagree with me the most aren't going to be able to squirm their way out of acknowledging that math is certainly not Health Check's strong point.
Today I'd like to look at a page I've scanned in from Health Check's recent publication, "A Woman's Guide to Healthy Eating and Active Living" that my wonderful wife picked up for me at Sobey's.
Click the page for a larger view (the red highlighted areas are my added emphases)
So here the fantabulous dietitians of the Heart and Stroke Foundation are once again endorsing the consumption of beef. According to them,
"Choosing leaner beef is part of healthy eating"
"Beef, Goodness in Every Bite"and,
"Eating well is easy by adding lean beef to your busy mealtimes"Now let's put aside the fact that eating beef is certainly NOT a part of healthy eating (for more information click on the Beef tag at the end of this post to see my various concerns regarding beef). Instead I want to focus on lean ground beef.
I've gone through this math before on my blog, but for the sake of the Heart and Stroke Foundation (clearly they need some help), let's go through it again:
Following the Food Guide and eating Health Check'ed-dietitian-approved lean ground beef women are allowed 150 grams a day and men, 225 grams a day.
Lean ground beef in Canada by definition is 17% fat (extra lean is 10%).
17% of a woman's 150 gram allotment = 25.5 grams of fat.
17% of a man's 225 grams = 38.25 grams of fat.
There are 9 calories per gram of fat.
25.5 grams of fat = 229.5 calories.
38.25 grams of fat = 344.25 calories.
Health Canada, as evidenced by our food labels, believes the average adult needs 2,000 calories daily (though that's likely too much for the average woman and too little for the average man).
If only 30% of our daily calories are supposed to come from fat, 30% of 2,000 calories would mean that Health Canada recommends that we get no more than 600 calories from fat daily.
However, 229.5 calories divided by the recommended 600 total daily fat calories = 38% of the recommended daily intake of fat, while 344.25 calories divided by the recommended 600 total daily fat calories = 57% of recommended daily intake of fat!
So in case you didn't follow all of that the end result is that if you choose the Health Check'ed lean ground beef that Heart and Stroke Dietitians say, "is part of healthy eating" and you even actually restrict your portion to those recommended by the Food Guide (and let me tell you, that's not a ton of meat), then in that single serving if you're a woman you'll be consuming 38% of your total daily recommended intake of fat and if you're a man 57%.
That sure sounds like a lot.
Apparently that's even a lot for the Heart and Stroke Foundation given that highlighted on the left hand side of the page is there admonishment not to consume foods containing more than 10% of your total daily recommended value of fat.
So here we have the left hand telling us no more than 10% and the right hand telling us 38%-57% is just dandy.
Brilliant work Health Check!
(Oh, and of course I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the admonishment not to consume more than 10% also applies to sodium, yet doing the math on sodium, Health Check allows single items to contain between 21% and 57% of current daily recommended maximums and between 32% and 87% of those the Heart and Stroke Foundation themselves endorsed in signing the National Sodium Policy Statement)
Any of my readers grade school math teachers that want to do a good deed? Maybe you can give the HSF a call and offer your help.
6 comments:
It sounds as if the US and Canada have different definitions of "lean" ground beef. "Normal" ground chuck in the US is 15% fat (although they are now selling 20% fat and 25% fat as well for "juicier" burgers), "lean" is usually 10% fat, and while they don't call it "extra lean", I can usually find ground beef that is listed as "92% lean" to "95% lean", depending on the grocery chain.
Any way one cooks it, though, one needs to be aware of the portion size and nutritional value of all of one's foods... and corporate sponsorship does not generally lead to disinterested output.
so ... we can't trust the H&S Foundation for reliable nutritional information.
who or which agency would you say gets the math right when it comes to nutrition and healthy eating?
Unfortunately in Canada you're going to have to learn to trust yourself and therefore educate yourself about healthy eating.
HSF's recommendations are at best "healthier" than others in their category and at worst unhealthy.
Smart Spot and other corporate seals are meant to sell food.
I'd recommend picking up either Eat, Drink and Be Healthy by Walter Willett or What to Eat by Marion Nestle and learning lots about food.
In the States, both Hannaford Brothers' star ratings and ONQI are evidence based nutritional metrics. Here's hoping one day they cross the border.
Actually, a food guide serving of meat and alternatives is 75g, not 150g or 225g. The 150g and 225g is the amount of Meat and Alternatives recommended for an ENTIRE DAY for women and men, respectively. When dietitians speak of food, they speak in servings. They would not be recommending that we consume all 2-3 servings of meat & alternatives as beef. They would recommend one serving of beef. As well, the 10% or less criteria refers to a SERVING on the Nutrition Facts table. The %Daily Value for fat on that Nutrition Facts table is based on a 65g per day reference amount (which, as you pointed out, is essentially 30% of a 2000 calorie diet).
Therefore, extra lean beef, per serving, is not that far away from the 10% recommendation. The correct math is as follows:
10% of 75 = 7.5g of fat
7.5g of fat / 65g = 11.5%
Therefore, one food guide serving of extra lean beef contains 11.5% of the Daily Value for fat.
The lean beef is around 20% of the DV for fat. Yes, this is higher than their recommended 10%, but not as high as you made it seem at 38% or 57%. You have to think in servings as dietitians do.
Some of the other cuts of beef that are referred to in the pamphlet do in fact meet the 10% or less criteria, including:
Eye of Round, Inside Round and Sirloin Tip – 5.8% of DV for fat
Top Sirloin – 7% of DV for fat
In any case, I think the 10% recommendation for total fat is ridiculous. There is no evidence to suggest that we need to keep total fat to 10% or less. If every product you consume throughout the day contains 30% fat, then your total diet will contain 30% fat which IS the recommendation from Health Canada.
As well, I would like to point out that a 75g salmon fillet, at 9.2g of fat, contains more total fat than 75g of extra lean ground beef and I don’t think anyone with nutrition credentials would advise us to limit salmon intake due to its high fat content. The medical and nutrition communities need to stop fearing fat. That is so old school.
Actually new perspective, your new perspective's not new.
You're absolutely right that the 10% limit is low and not founded in science - but yet that's the HSF and the Food Guide's limit. (If you'd like to read my perspective on fat, please read my, "All Fat is Bad" post from my Canada's Food Guide to Unhealthy Eating series.)
Regarding your "entire day" argument.
You make many assumptions about what the dietitians "would" recommend.
As far as the HSF and the Food Guide are concerned, there is nothing to stop someone from choosing to only consume beef for their daily protein and given that 150 grams are 5 ounces not many folks will "split" that up into different protein sources (in fact not many folks will limit themselves to 5 ounces and frankly I'm not suggesting they should, but the HSF and the Food Guide certainly are).
Actually, I've been wondering where to get good nutritional information (it's hard enough to keep up with life, forget journal articles about nutrition). I just ordered Eat, Drink and Be Healthy from Amazon, thank you for the tip!
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