Making informed food choices...

This is not a post about what you should choose to feed yourself or your family. There...got that off already! I have enough trouble with this one to know that I'm the last person who should grab a soap box and try to convince you of what to do.

Rather, this is a post about something that might help you as you are choosing what you are going to eat.

There's a lot of information out there about food, and food choices. And it's coming at us from many different sources, many of them slightly biased in favour of their own product. As you do your grocery shopping, there are so many products available, different versions and brands of the same product. Like yesterday, I was looking for tomato sauce. Shouldn't be that hard, right? Except there are 3 or 4 brands, each with an original, spiced, salt-free and more options available.  I was fortunate yesterday to be shopping only with our 17-month old daughter, who still sits up front in the cart, strapped in, and so I can check or compare a few products. But add our 2 older boys to the mix and there's not a whole lot of patience or tolerance for checking any more. :)

All food products in Canada must display the Nutrition Facts table (NFt) on their labeling. I know there's a similar label policy in the USA as well. This table is a designed to allow you to see, at a glance, which key nutrients are in the product, enabling you to make a more informed choice. But, do most Canadians really know how to use the nutrition facts table? I know I look at it often, especially to check the values of certain nutrients, such as sodium, but I was never quite sure what the values really meant, in daily practical terms.

So, Health Canada and Food & Consumer Products of Canada have decided to collaborate on a Nutrition Facts campaign. Research shows that the majority of Canadians were not using the NFt as intended and that 83% of Canadians wanted more information on how to use the NFt. You may have seen a television commercial (above) or magazine ad for the campaign in recent weeks.

These 2 organizations reached out to bloggers across the country and invited us to attend a Webinar during the last week of March to find out more about the NFt and the campaign, and encouraging us to share this information with our readers. The members of the Food & Consumer Products of Canada support this campaign. 92% have launched or reformulated products. 73% have strategies to help consumers manage caloric intake. 80% communicate healthy lifestyle/eating messages to consumers. All are active partners in consumer education through funding, marketing expertise and consumer connectedness.

The Webinar was presented by 3 different speakers: the director general of the Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion of Health Canada, Dr. Hasan Hutchinson, the Vice President, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Food & Consumer Products of Canada, Phyllis Tanaka and Registered Dietician and mother of 2 young children, Sue Mah. Each speaker told us a little about the campaign and it's intention, as well as providing us with specific examples and tips to help us understand and use the % Daily Value chart more effectively.

Here are the Key Consumer Messages from the campaign:

• Making informed food choices can benefit you and your family. Learning to use the % Daily Value is a simple way to help.
• Use the % Daily Value to quickly understand if a product has a lot or a little of a nutrient. 5% or less is a little; 15% or more is a lot.

I found this guideline to be very helpful.

• Use the % Daily Value to compare food products. Choose a higher % Daily Value for the nutrients you want more of like calcium or fibre. Choose a lower % Daily Value for the nutrients you want less of like saturated and trans fat or sodium. 

Best of luck with your grocery shopping endeavours! :)

**Disclosure: I received a bag of food samples presenting the % Daily Value chart from the supporters of this campaign in exchange for being featured on Glimpse. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Glimpse and have not been influenced in any other way. Please see the full Terms of use.