You’ve heard about the Mediterranean diet’s link to health, but our neighbors up north are touting the benefits of another area: Canada.
The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, a not-for-profit corporation that focuses on policy issues that concern the agriculture/food sector, recently issued a report, “Building Convergence: Toward an Integrated Health and Agri-Food Strategy for Canada,” that recommends linking agriculture and health policy in Canada.
“Canada is facing a diet-related health crisis and a farm income crisis driven by very different challenges,” says Dr. Laurette Dubé, Professor and Founding Chair and Scientific Director of the McGill World Platform for Health and Economic Convergence. “But a solution to both rests increasingly on the convergence of health and agriculture policy.”
One of the solutions is likening homegrown Canadian cuisine to that of the Mediterranean. While traditional Canadian fare like maple syrup and poutine (a mixture of cheese curds, French fries and brown gravy) might not qualify, David McInnes, the institute's president, says the country offers many healthy, delicious options for a “Canadian diet.” This includes fish, Canadian berries, such as cranberries and blueberries, and seed crops and grains, like flax and various pulses.
Promoting a Canadian-centric diet is a starting point to address the report’s recommendation of promoting homegrown food to help improve Canadians’ health and aid the country's farmers. “The Canadian diet concept is really a means to try to explain that we have tremendous advantages in Canada, and are we doing enough as a country to (capitalize on) those advantages?” McInnes explains.
