March Health Hacks: Nutrition Topic: Canada’s New Food Guide Overview: Why talk about healthy eating? Your brain is highly dependent upon a continuous supply of high-quality nutritious food for physical and mental energy. A combination of hydration, healthy complex carbohydrates, and quality protein can help students’ brains become learning powerhouses. This Health Hack will review the newly released Canada’s Food Guide. The new version was released this January and is a major revamp in comparison to the old version. So how does the new guide work?

Video – Overview of the New Canada’s Food Guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtxLSExa3I (4:30) The Healthy Plate (By the way, you don’t have to eat 30 different foods at each meal)

Healthy Plate Messages Explained

Plenty of Fruits/Vegetables: Since the guide is evidence-based, it follows the research which shows eating a plant-based diet has positive health outcomes and reduces our risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes (among others).

Choose Whole Grains: Whole grains have more fibre and are slower digesting. This makes us feel fuller longer, are better for our blood sugar levels, and have more vitamins and minerals than refined grains.

Choose Plant-Based Protein: Plant proteins provide us with many other nutritional benefits beside the protein. They have healthier unsaturated fats for heart health and are low in saturated fats which are not good for heart health. They also have plenty of fibre for gut health and feeling full, as well as many other great nutrients.

Other Messages

Digging into the Healthy Eating Messages

Be Mindful of Your Eating Habits: It means being aware of:

How You Eat Why You Eat What You Eat

When You Eat Where you Eat How Much You Eat

Asking these questions can lead to making healthier choices, it might provide information on our eating habits, our routines, and how our emotions effect our eating.

Cook More Often: Cooking allows us to develop food preparation skills and rely less on highly processed foods. It also allows us to control exactly what goes into our food. It can be a great way to save some money as well.

Enjoy Your Food: Food is more than just nutrients and energy. There is an important social and emotional component to eating. Canada’s Food Guide wants to promote those relationships and develop a healthy relationships with food. Make food choices that reflect your personal tastes, culture, budget, and lifestyle to get the most enjoyment out of food.

Eat Meals with Others: As mentioned, there is a social aspect to food and eating. By eating with others we can enjoy quality time with those people, share food traditions between generations and cultures, and try new healthy foods.

Use Food Labels: This will be explored more in another Health Hack. But nutrition labels can be powerful tools to find out what nutrients we are getting from our foods.

Limit Sodium, Sugars, and Saturated Fat: These nutrients are most commonly found in highly processed food items. The benefits of limiting these nutrients are decreased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Some highly processed foods that usually have high amounts of sodium, sugar, or saturated fat are:

Sugary Drinks Chocolate and Candies Ice Cream & Frozen Dessert

Fast Foods Frozen Entrees

(Pasta/Pizza/etc.)

Baked Goods (Muffins/Cakes/etc.)

Processed Meats (Deli/Sausage)

To check out the new Canada’s Food Guide online, go to: https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/

Sources: Brain Science for Principals: What School Leaders Need to Know, 2016, edited by Linda L. Lyman; Chapter 7.

March Health Hacks: Nutrition Topic: Reading Nutrition Labels

Overview: This topic reviews how to use and understand nutrition labels. It provides practical examples and looks at some of the changes that have been made to nutrition facts labels. So how can we use nutrition labels to help with healthy eating? Activity 1: Questions for Discussion

1. Are there any foods that don’t require nutrition labels? What are some examples? o Answer: Meats, Fish, Fresh Produce, Items Prepared in House (ex: Baked Goods, Deli Meats, Grab N Go Foods),

Items Immediately Served (Restaurant Foods), Alcoholic Beverages.

2. The nutrition label will always tell you if a food is healthy or unhealthy (True/False). o Answer: False, key word ‘always’. For example: Trans Fats are proven to be bad for heart health and they should

be avoided, but if a food has less than 0.5 grams per serving, the nutrition label can say 0 grams Trans Fats. However, in general nutrition labels are still powerful tools for finding out what nutrients are in our foods and for making healthy choices

3. Reading nutrition labels will make your food choices healthier (True/False). o Answer: Nutrition label reading does not make a difference1, but when combined with food knowledge and food

preparation skills healthy choices can be much easier.

Nutrition Labels 101

a) Always consider the serving size. Think about how many serving sizes are in the entire package, bottle or item. b) Don’t get hung up on calories, as some healthy foods are high calorie and some are low calorie. c) Healthy or important nutrients on the label include Unsaturated Fat (fat that isn’t saturated or trans), Fibre,

Protein, and Vitamins and Minerals. d) Nutrients of concern for health are Sugar, Sodium, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol – which are also found on the

label. Activity 2: Buzzfeed Quiz Can be done as a group or individually. You do NOT need to pass this quiz to grocery shop like the title says. https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonyrivas/whats-in-a-nutrition-label?bfsource=bfocompareon Please Note: This is an American Quiz, some differences are: Question 5: Canadian labels don’t have this daily value breakdown, but we still use the daily value idea. Question 8: In Canada we use 5% or less for low in a nutrient and 15% or more for high in a nutrient. Changes to Nutrition Labels (currently in effect, but the food industry has until 2022 to make these changes)

Serving sizes will now be easier to compare between foods and represent amounts that would be normal to eat or drink based on the food (ex: 2 slices of bread, or per bottle/carton instead of 250ml cup)

Ingredient lists will now have to group all added sugars together. (ex: Sugars (high fructose corn syrup, honey, sugar, brown sugar)).

Ingredient lists will now say if a food contains a food type that is a common allergen.

Vitamins and minerals that have to be listed are more relevant to healthy eating and living.

Sources: Health Canada (2017). Food labelling changes. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-labelling-changes.html 1 Vaitkeviciute, R. et al. 2014. The relationship between food literacy and dietary intake in adolescents: a systematic review. Public Health Nutrition. 18(4). DOI: 10.1017/S1368980014000962

March Health Hacks: Nutrition Topic: Healthy Snacking

Overview: Snacking is a normal and healthy part of any balanced diet. But the term snacking can mean something different to everyone. So how can we snack in a healthy way? There is more than just the choice of food at play here. This review will provide some healthy habits for snacking at home and on the go. Information:

Teens report eating about 4 snacks per day. Of these snacks, about 2 per day are energy dense choices and 3 per day are bought from stores1. So snacking makes up a big part of our diet, around 25% of the total food we eat. This means that making healthy choices in our snacking can have a big effect on our overall health.

But why do we snack? The most common answer is to hold ourselves over between meals. This is important as research shows it makes us less likely to overeat at meals (and keeps us from getting Hangry (hungry+angry)).

The best snack in terms of health and filling us up will contain foods from each of the three food categories (proteins, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables). Examples: Hummus/Pita/Carrots, Yogurt Parfait with Fruit, Trail Mix with Nuts/Dried Fruit/Cereal, a Half or Full Sandwich, Soup/Crackers, Toast/Peanut Butter/Banana.

Activity 1 – What 2000 Calories Looks Like A general dietary recommendation is to consume 2000 calories per day. When choosing snacks, it’s important to note that not all snacks are equal and that calories can add up quickly. This video demonstrates what 2000 calories looks like in various types of foods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaqwFPU7cc&t=14s

Activity 2 – On the Go: Arrange the common convenience store foods into two categories, healthier snack choices and less healthy snack choices. Consider the ingredients, how they were made, and if they will fill you up or not.

Potato Chips Hardboiled Eggs Chocolate Bar Energy Bar Fresh Fruit/Vegetables Chicken Wings Dried Fruit Unsalted Nuts

Trail Mix Pop/Soda Water Milk (White) Hummus Cup Fruit Juice Yogurt Popcorn (Air Pop)

Answers & Explanation Healthy Choices (in no order): Hardboiled Eggs, Fresh Fruit/Vegetables, Dried Fruit, Unsalted Nuts, Trail Mix, Water, Milk (White), Hummus Cup, Yogurt, Popcorn (Air Pop)

Less Healthy Choices (in no order): Potato Chips, Chocolate Bar, Energy Bar, Chicken Wings, Pop/Soda, Fruit Juice.

Explanation of Some Items: Milk: Plain/white is considered a healthy choice due to calcium and Vitamin D content. Flavoured/chocolate milk has much higher sugar content so it doesn’t make the cut here. Water: The best choice for keeping hydrated and should be our drink of choice for satisfying thirst. Unsalted Nuts: Energy dense but full of healthy fats and protein. Watch out for salted versions with lots of sodium. Trail Mix: A healthy choice, but watch out for versions with added sodium or sugars in the form of chocolate. Popcorn: Air-popped is relatively low in added saturated fats and sodium and has high fibre for fighting hunger. Energy Bar: Includes bars marketed as sports or nature bars. These are often high in sugars and some even contain caffeine. Fruit Juice: Juices are high sugar beverages with little of the nutritional value found in whole fruits. Therefore, they fall into the same group as pop/soda. When we drink our calories, it provides less hunger relief than if we eat the same amount of food.

Beyond the Food

Try to pre-portion your snack foods into bowls or plates rather than bringing the whole bag or package. People are much more likely to turn a snack into overeating when they have more food in front of them.

Studies show that snacking while watching T.V., playing video games, or even reading make people eat more. When we are distracted from our hunger cues, we forget or don’t notice that we are actually full.

Don’t be fooled by food marketing. Food companies use many tactics to sell us their food. For example, the claims natural, organic, low fat/carb/other, or low calorie doesn’t make a food automatically healthy. Other tactics include marketing foods as good for sport/athletes or using celebrities to endorse their products.

Hunger is a complex reaction to hormones in our body. Since we usually use snacking to ward off hunger, consider that solid foods fight hunger more than liquids. We can also reduce hunger more by consuming a variety of nutrients; protein, fibre, and fat have all been shown to make us feel fuller – so eat a variety of foods.

Sources: 1 Larson, N. et al. (2016). Adolescent Snacking Behaviors Are Associated with Dietary Intake and Weight Status. The Journal of Nutrition, 146(7), 1348-1355.