Grant: Project Grant

More than two-thirds of the Canadian diet comes from packaged, processed food items and food consumed away from home in restaurants and fast-food settings, which are typically of little nutritional value, and can lead to weight gain and chronic disease. Poor diet and obesity increase a person's risk of developing many health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and also reduce the overall quality of life and number of years a person will live. There are a number of proposed food environment policies that will impact the nutritional quality of the Canadian food supply, including guidelines for the food industry to reduce sodium in processed foods, and the addition of calorie information to restaurant menus. Our findings will inform policies to improve food environments, helping consumers make healthier food choices. In this research, we will look at changes in the nutritional quality of the food supply before and after these two policies have been put into place. For example, we will look changes to the amount of sodium and calories in packaged and restaurant foods. We will also look at what Canadians are eating and how their diets might change, as a result of the changes to the food supply. Finally, we will also try to understand whether these changes to the food supply and dietary intakes could result in fewer diseases and deaths in the Canadian population. We have created a group of leading Canadian scientists and policy collaborators from government and professional organizations who will use our research to help develop policies, programs and educational tools to improve the health of Canadians.