One doctor says the new version of Canada鈥檚 Food Guide is taking one of several possibly healthy diets and promoting it at the expense of other options.
Dr. Andrew Samis told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning Thursday that he took issue with the new guide鈥檚 recommendation that meat, eggs and dairy should make up a smaller portion of the typical Canadian鈥檚 diet than previous versions of the guide had suggested.
鈥淭here isn鈥檛 any reason to do that,鈥� he said.
鈥淐anadians can eat a very healthy diet and not need to reduce the meat, eggs and dairy.鈥�
Samis is an assistant professor of surgery at Queen鈥檚 University in Kingston, Ont. He is also part of the Canadian Clinicians for Therapeutic Nutrition, a group which has been pushing the government to ease up on its targeting of saturated fats and sodium.
Samis said studies show that saturated fat consumption does not increase a person鈥檚 risk of heart attack, stroke or death.
The updated version of the food guide, which was released last month, contained an 鈥渋deal plate鈥� image suggesting a healthy diet consists of 50 per cent fruits and vegetables, 25 per cent proteins and 25 per cent grains.
Samis argued that the image contains an unhealthy amount of carbohydrates, saying he would prefer if Canadians followed a diet with more proteins and fewer grains than the one illustrated on the plate.
鈥淓veryone is different, and Canadians need choice,鈥� he said.
The federal government has said the updates to the food guide were based on the latest scientific evidence around health and nutrition.
