Stay active and healthy in the new year

Stay active and healthy in the new year

Physical activity helps maintain a healthy heart, and strong muscles and bones, and ease stress

I found a supreme parking spot!” my husband noted as he arrived at the mall with our younger daughter. She nodded and grinned. Then she began eyeing the food court for a snack. Parking a distance from your destination is a common recommendation for increasing your physical activity. Winter tends to push that recommendation out

Doctor taking measures of overweight mid-adult woman

Malnutrition has many faces

Overweight people now outnumber the hungry

The issue of malnutrition makes feeding the world decidedly more complicated than boosting the amount of grain farmers grow or the number of calories in people’s diets. Undernutrition affects nearly 800 million people, accounting for approximately 12 per cent of deaths worldwide. In developing countries, 60 per cent of deaths in the under-five age group


Setting the table for a radically different Food Guide

Setting the table for a radically different Food Guide

Canada’s Food Guide needs to be revamped to reflect the nation’s shifting eating habits, 
our varied cultural needs and our growing obesity

Canada’s Food Guide is a big deal – but it can be much more influential. On the whole, the guide is a symbol of Canada’s food-related values. Public institutions, schools, universities and community-based organizations look to it to reflect our fundamental nutritional principles. But past guides have failed us. Health Canada says that more than

The view of ruins that once formed the centre of the Roman Empire from the rooftop terrace of the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy. The empire failed for many reasons, but declining health of its population was among them.

Radical transformation of food system needed

The focus of future investments in the food system must be on nutrition — not calories

From its offices overlooking centuries-old ruins of the fallen Roman Empire, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is grappling with an issue many consider a threat to modern civilization. Global rates of malnutrition are growing at an unprecedented pace, despite progress that has been made reducing hunger and poverty. Sandwiched between the two extremes

The “good” fat that makes up a large part of canola and high-oleic canola oil can help reduce belly fat and decrease blood pressure.

Canola oil can help trim inches off the waist

Researchers found a significant decrease of belly fat in a 
clinical trial of obese subjects who consumed canola oil

Canola oil can help reduce belly fat, a new study has found. About 20 per cent of adults in Canada have metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions — including belly fat — that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Researchers at the University of Manitoba, Laval University, and Penn State University tested


VIDEO: What’s in your wheat?

VIDEO: What’s in your wheat?

Cigi Analytical Services investigates gluten and more

Sprout damage and gluten strength are perennial topics in Canadian wheat production, as well as at the Canadian International Grains Institute in downtown Winnipeg, where comprehensive testing can answer questions about quality. “Here in the lab we do mainly quality testing on wheat, flour, semolina, as well as some pulse crops,” said Robyn Makowski, a

Too much or too little copper in feed rations can both cause health problems for sheep.


Balancing copper content a challenge for shepherds

Some soils provide too much, some too little, and both can be deadly

Varying rates of copper in the soil across Canada has been giving sheep producers a tough go. In September, the Manitoba Sheep Association reported that through June and July, processing plants in Ontario saw an increase in the number of adult carcasses being condemned due to jaundice. “Copper toxicity is what is causing the jaundice

Dried legumes and cereals on a white background

Pulse crops fight for consumer attention

Somehow these healthy options are overlooked even in a world 
suddenly concerned about healthy food

Pulses have an image problem. They’re healthy and hearty fare. At times they can even seem like a wonder food, contributing to lower cholesterol, overcoming dietary fibre shortages and perhaps even slowing the spread of some cancers. Despite this, however, they’re also seen as unglamorous and even at times something to be a bit embarrassed


Young soccer player enjoying halftime snack

Opinion: The disgrace of food shaming

A few days ago a friend told me snacks had been banned from their six-year-old’s soccer games. The team was forced to, because some parents had taken to social media to shame other families, because their snacks did not measure up to the shamers’ idea of social acceptability. Food shaming impacts almost all consumers. What

Maria Fernanda Peyronel-Svaikauskas, a research associate working on the project, demonstrates how to calibrate the imaging equipment.

Edible fat structure key to function

Canadian researchers are trying to understand what gives 
edible fats their texture

How are edible fats “built?” What gives them their unique textures? Nobody’s really sure, and that’s fuelling a research project by scientists at the University of Guelph, with the assistance of the United States Department of Energy and their Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Lemont, Illinois. The researchers hope to replace unhealthful trans and saturated