What we know, what we eat

We know we shouldn’t be eating junk food. But the fact is, too many of us are. 

Canadians are still getting more than half their calories from ultra-processed foods (think packaged cold cuts, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, soda pop and all that stuff in the snack aisles of the supermarket). These mass-produced foods are heavy in salt, saturated fat and sugar. Only 22 per cent of kids are getting their recommended daily intake of what we know is healthy—fresh fruit and vegetables.

There are many reasons—from cost to marketing to convenience—why we so often opt for unhealthy food.

But several Western researchers are working to understand why these foods are chosen so often and designing programs to promote making healthier choices.

One is Danielle Battram, who heads up Western’s Brescia School of Food and Nutritional Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding why we eat what we eat (a discipline called food behaviours) and on promoting programs that help children and adolescents understand how to eat healthy.

A registered dietitian, Battram has introduced a number of programs—from school lunchbox information to teaching food skills to teenagers—to help families develop healthy food practices that are easy to embrace.

“We teach them to focus less on trying to adhere strictly to one particular diet and instead to find ways to eat a variety and balance of whole, nutrient-rich foods. A bag of cheese puffs, for example, is not whole, nutrient-rich food.”

Battram is working with Growing Chefs!, a London, Ont. not-for-profit organization that provides food education to children, schools and community groups with the goal of getting kids excited about healthy eating. The focus is on promoting local food that’s good for you, while keeping things simple and fun. Kids learn where their food comes from, practise preparing healthy recipes and talk about taste, texture and the cultural aspects of food.

Like Battram, Jamie Seabrook believes this notion of understanding healthy eating and learning how to prepare it is essential in carrying healthy habits into adulthood.

Seabrook is a professor at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. His research has shown the strongest predictor of food skills in university students is learning how to prepare meals during adolescence. Having taken formal nutrition education courses was also very important.

“We call it ‘food literacy.’ If you’re exposed to it when you’re young, you’re less likely to turn to fast food and pre-packaged meals as a young adult.”

Learning about food early can make a difference, but that doesn’t always translate into action. Battram says knowledge alone isn’t enough.

“We can’t assume that lower income families have lower food literacy,” she says. “Instead, what we are seeing is a disconnect between knowing what to eat and the ability to eat it.”

Seabrook and his team conducted a recent study exploring the factors that influence the consumption of ultra-processed foods in Canada. Aside from food literacy, they also considered the availability of fast-food restaurants versus supermarkets in lower-income neighbourhoods, the cost of pre-packaged meals compared to healthier food and the skills and time required to cook a meal.

Their conclusion: resistance to healthy eating is not just about food literacy or motivation.

Seabrook says price is the core of the problem. In Canada the cost of food rose 19.1 per cent from 2018 to 2022, according to Statistics Canada.

“Food price is the number one determinant of food choice for those living in poverty,” says Seabrook. “This is why we need to tackle people’s ability to get healthy food, as well as food literacy. Many just can’t afford to eat well.”

This leads to another crucial factor—food insecurity. The World Food Programme (WFP) defines it as a state in which people don’t have “access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development, and an active and healthy life.”

You can’t put the Mediterranean diet in a pill, because eating healthy is about more than just the food.

Food insecurity is global, and it’s on the rise. The WFP estimates that in 2024, 673 million people experienced hunger. Almost 17 per cent of Canadians were considered food insecure in 2022, up from 13 per cent the year before.

As challenging as the food insecurity problem is, Canada took an important step forward in the spring of 2025 when the federal government made good on a $1-billion budget promise and launched a National School Food Program to provide meals for up to 400,000 students each year. Prime Minister Mark Carney has since announced plans to make the program permanent. That’s good, say advocates, but not enough.

“It’s an encouraging start, but lasting change will only come with a universal program that ensures every child, regardless of background, has access to healthy food at school every day,” says Seabrook.

 But access to food is only part of the story. Equally important is having clear, reliable guidance about what to eat. In today’s online world, children and families are constantly exposed to conflicting advice, marketing and food trends that can make healthy choices feel confusing or out of reach.

That flood of misinformation is exactly what Dr. Saverio Stranges, a public health physician and chair of epidemiology at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, is pushing back against. His research underscores the power of evidence-based eating: plant-based diets rich in fruits, vegetables, fish and healthy fats, like the Mediterranean diet, are proven to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes.

He also looks at the use of dietary supplements in North America. He says the lack of formal nutrition education in schools coupled with a slew of social media influencers touting their products has led to an epidemic of nutrition misinformation.

“One of the challenges in public health is that we live in an era where there are multiple sources of information, including social media and marketing, and people pick and choose what they want to believe, which may not align with current recommendations based on the best available evidence.”

He says people are eager to find a quick fix to counteract their unhealthy eating habits—whether that’s adhering to a super-restrictive diet or buying supplements online without consulting their health-care provider.

“But you can’t put the Mediterranean diet in a pill, because eating healthy is about more than just the food,” he says. “It’s the social context that’s key. The skills you learn, the habits you develop and whether families and communities have the access and support to put those lessons into practice.”

 

Continue reading:

● Farming the future →
● Politics of the plate →
● What we know, what we eat →
● Scraps and solutions →

 

Next: