Awareness of Canada’s Food Guide Among Canadian Youth

Publication: Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research
25 August 2022

Abstract

Purpose: Canada’s Food Guide (CFG) contains recommendations for healthy eating for Canadians. The objective was to examine the awareness of and learning about CFG by Canadian youth.
Methods: Cross-sectional online surveys were conducted with 3,674 youth aged 10–17 years in Canada in November/December 2019. Logistic binary regression models examined awareness of CFG, learning about CFG in school, and learning about healthy eating in schools in the past 12 months.
Results: Most participants reported hearing of CFG (84.5%), learning about CFG in school (86.6%), and learning about healthy eating in school (65.4%) in the past 12 months. Awareness of CFG was higher among females (OR: 1.61; 95% CI: 1.32–1.96), older youth (1.70; 1.39–2.07), and those in Atlantic Canada (OR: 1.77; 95% CI: 1.10, 2.84). Significantly fewer East/Southeast Asian, South Asian, Latino, and Middle Eastern participants reported hearing of CFG compared to white participants (p < 0.05 for all). Unstated/missing BMI (0.56; 0.45–0.71) and living in BC (OR: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.45, 0.82) were negatively associated with hearing about CFG. Similar results were observed in the models on learning about CFG and healthy eating in school.
Conclusions: This study indicates discrepancies in awareness of CFG among youth by sex, ethnicity, region, and BMI which may suggest differences in use of CFG and healthy eating behaviours.

Résumé

Objectif. Le Guide alimentaire canadien (GAC) contient des recommandations relatives à la saine alimentation pour la population canadienne. L’objectif était d’évaluer si les jeunes Canadiens connaissent le GAC et ce qu’ils ont appris à son sujet.
Méthodes. Des enquêtes transversales ont été menées en ligne auprès de 3 674 jeunes âgés de 10 à 17 ans au Canada en novembre et décembre 2019. Des modèles de régression logistique binaire ont permis d’examiner la connaissance du GAC, les apprentissages liés au GAC à l’école et les apprentissages liés à la saine alimentation à l’école au cours des 12 mois précédents.
Résultats. La plupart des participants ont déclaré avoir entendu parler du GAC (84,5 %), avoir appris des choses sur le GAC à l’école (86,6 %) et avoir appris des choses sur la saine alimentation à l’école (65,4 %) au cours des 12 mois précédents. La connaissance du GAC était plus élevée chez les filles (RC : 1,61; IC à 95 % : 1,32-1,96), les jeunes plus âgés (1,70; 1,39-2,07) et ceux du Canada atlantique (RC : 1,77; IC à 95 % : 1,10-2,84). Un nombre significativement plus faible de participants d’Asie de l’Est/du Sud-Est, d’Asie du Sud, d’origine latine et du Moyen-Orient que de participants blancs ont déclaré avoir entendu parler du GAC (p < 0,05 pour tous). Les participants dont l’IMC était non déclaré/manquant (0,56; 0,45-0,71) et vivant en Colombie-Britannique (RC : 0,61; IC à 95 % : 0,45-0,82) étaient associés négativement à la connaissance du GAC. Des résultats similaires ont été observés dans les modèles sur les apprentissages liés au GAC et à la saine alimentation à l’école.
Conclusions. Cette étude révèle des divergences dans la connaissance du GAC chez les jeunes selon le sexe, l’origine ethnique, la région et l’IMC, ce qui pourrait suggérer des différences dans l’utilisation du GAC et l’adoption de comportements alimentaires sains.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

References

1
FAO/WHO. Food-based dietary guidelines [Internet]. Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations. [cited 2021 Feb 3]. Available from: http://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-dietary-guidelines/background/en/
2
Government of Canada. History of Canada’s food guides from 1942 to 2007 [Internet]. 2007 [cited 2021 Feb 22]. Available from: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canada-food-guide/about/history-food-guide.html
3
Government of Canada. Canada’s food guide [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2021 Feb 22]. Available from: https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/
4
Slater JJ, Mudryj AN. Are we really “eating well with Canada’s food guide”? BMC Public Health [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2021 Feb 4];18(1).
5
St. John M, Durant M, Campagna PD, Rehman LA, Thompson AM, Wadsworth LA, et al. Overweight Nova Scotia children and youth: The roles of household income and adherence to Canada’s food guide to health eating. Can J Public Heal. 2008;99(4):301–306.
6
Kolahdooz F, Nader F, Daemi M, Jang SL, Johnston N, Sharma S. Adherence to Canada’s Food Guide recommendations among Alberta’s multi-ethnic youths is a major concern: findings from the WHY ACT NOW project. J Hum Nutr Diet [Internet]. 2018 Oct 1 [cited 2021 Feb 4];31(5):658–669. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29799655/.
7
Rossiter MD, Evers SE, Pender AC. Adolescents’ diets do not comply with 2007 Canada’s food guide recommendations. Appetite [Internet]. 2012 [cited 2021 Apr 20];59:668–672. Available from:.
8
Hammond D, White C, Rynard V, Vanderlee L. International food policy study: technical report - 2019 Youth Survey [Internet]. Waterloo; 2021 Mar [cited 2021 May 3]. Available from: http://foodpolicystudy.com/methods
9
De Onis M, Onyango AW, Borghi E, Siyam A, Nishida C, Siekmann J. Development of a WHO growth reference for school-aged children and adolescents. Bull World Health Organ [Internet]. 2007 [cited 2021 May 17];85(9):660–667. Available from: http://www.who.
10
Vanderlee L, McCrory C, Hammond D. Awareness and knowledge of recommendations from Canada’s food guide. Can J Diet Pract Res [Internet]. 2015 Sep 1 [cited 2021 May 19];76(3):146–149. Available from: https://dcjournal.ca/doi/10.3148/cjdpr-2015-014.
11
Mathe N, Van Der Meer L, Agborsangaya CB, Murray T, Storey K, Johnson JA, et al. Prompted awareness and use of Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide: a population-based study. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2015;28:64–71.

Supplementary Material

File (cjdpr-2022-019suppla.docx)

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

cover image Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research
Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research
Volume 84Number 1March 2023
Pages: 49 - 53
Editor: Naomi Cahill

History

Received: 28 May 2021
Accepted: 3 May 2022
Version of record online: 25 August 2022

Key Words

  1. Food guide
  2. food-based dietary guidelines
  3. Canada’s food guide

Mots-clés

  1. Guide alimentaire
  2. recommandations alimentaires
  3. Guide alimentaire canadien

Authors

Affiliations

Adèle Corkum MSc
School of Public Health & Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON
Lana Vanderlee PhD
École de Nutrition, Centre nutrition, santé et société (Centre NUTRISS) and Institut sur la nutrition et les aliments fonctionnels (INAF), Université Laval, Québec, QC
Christine M. White MSc
School of Public Health & Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON
David Hammond PhD
School of Public Health & Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cite As

Export Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

There are no citations for this item

View Options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Subscribe

Click on the button below to subscribe to Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research

Purchase options

Purchase this article to get full access to it.

Restore your content access

Enter your email address to restore your content access:

Note: This functionality works only for purchases done as a guest. If you already have an account, log in to access the content to which you are entitled.

View options

PDF

View PDF

Full Text

View Full Text

Media

Media

Other

Tables

Share Options

Share

Share the article link

Share on social media