After years of work, the NutriQuébec project published on Tuesday the very first portrait of what is found on the plates of Quebecers, an exercise that will now make it possible to develop the strategies necessary to encourage the population to eat better.
The data in this portrait comes from information provided by nearly 7,000 participants who reported more than 26,000 meals over the past few years.
“This allows us to identify the dietary profiles we observe in the population, and the sources of saturated fat and salt more precisely,” said Professor Benoît Lamarche, the researcher in charge of NutriQuébec, who discussed the project firsthand with The Canadian Press.
“This will guide us towards the recommendations we can make, the new policies we can implement.”
Professor Lamarche, who is also the director of the NUTRISS Centre at Laval University, readily admits that the report contains no major surprises and essentially corresponds to what one could have imagined.
“The idea we have of a typical Quebec diet, ultimately, is really the reality,” he said.
It’s not particularly surprising to discover that Quebecers enjoy their toast, peanut butter, and bananas for breakfast. Or that for supper, foods considered “convenient,” like pizza, are popular. Soup, garden salad, and hard cheese are the go-to choices for lunch.
On the other hand, we probably don’t suspect that bread contributes almost as much sodium to our daily diet as seasonings, condiments and sauces, Lamarche pointed out.
“To say that we’re going to tackle salt, we need to know, firstly, what the problem is with salt in our diet, which foods contribute to this overconsumption,” he said. “We need to measure it. We can’t rely on data collected in France or the United States. We need to look at what’s happening in our own population, because we don’t eat the same things in the United States or France as we do here.”
And now that the contribution of bread has been identified, Professor Lamarche continues, “are we able to manipulate the salt content in bread to reduce the population’s salt intake among consumers?”
Snacks, fruits and vegetables
The four most commonly consumed snacks are, in order, apples, potato chips, cheese, and bananas. Cheese is also notable for its frequent presence at almost every meal, it was noted.
Onions, tomatoes, and carrots are the top three most popular vegetables. The report highlights their use in many recipes, their affordability, and their long shelf life.
Small fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) top the list of most consumed fruits, ahead of bananas, apples and grapes.
The authors of the report believe that some frequently consumed fruits owe their popularity to their year-round availability, fresh or frozen; their convenience; and, for some, their relatively low cost.
It is also worth noting that berries and apples can be produced locally.
“So that means that if we want to use local food, promote the fruits that we grow here, there will be a favorable response because that’s already what’s on the plate, it’s not a far-fetched argument,” analyzed Professor Lamarche.
Cheeses are another significant source of sodium. They also stand out as the main source of saturated fat (25 per cent), far surpassing butter.
Sugary products such as sugar, jam, candy, chocolate, muffins, biscuits and other pastries, as well as sugary drinks, including fruit juices, account for almost two-thirds of free sugar intake.
Compliance with recommendations
Less than two out of ten Quebec adults consume less than 2300 milligrams of sodium per day, which is the maximum threshold recommended by Health Canada to reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
The same is true for saturated fats: fewer than two out of ten project participants consume less than 10 per cent of their energy intake from saturated fats, in accordance with Health Canada’s recommendation to promote good cardiovascular health.
The situation is no brighter on the free sugars side, since the report reveals that 60 per cent of adults consume less than 10 per cent of their energy intake in the form of free sugars, which is the maximum threshold recommended by the World Health Organization to reduce the risk of overweight, obesity and dental caries.
Finally, only 36 per cent of adults consume at least five portions of fruits and vegetables per day, a proportion lower than the target of the Quebec government’s health prevention policy, which aims for more than 50 per cent of the population to reach this threshold, the report states.
“The data show that more than half of the total sodium, saturated fat and free sugar intake of NutriQuébec participants is attributable to a limited number of food categories,” the authors write.
These food categories, they continue, “contribute significantly to sodium, saturated fat and free sugar intake due to their high content of these nutrients, but also to their frequency of consumption and the quantities consumed.”
“These findings highlight the importance of prioritizing certain food categories in actions aimed at improving food quality,” the report emphasizes.
The new report, Professor Lamarche concluded, will “provide food for thought so as not to make a poor choice of words.”
“This allows us to say, here is the dietary profile. Now, how can we develop actions on the ground that will really benefit the health of Quebecers through food?” he asked.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
