A New Direction_ Food, Nutrition, Politics and Race

Welcome to my website. My name is Maisie Vanriel and I am now a retired Registered Dietitian. I am a graduate of The University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Food and Nutritional Science and a Diploma in Food Safety from the Guelph Food Technology Centre.

Now that I have retired, I have more time to spend on something that has always fascinated me, the politics of food. Everything about food has always been political but like so much else in Canadian culture we just pretend that this is not the case. Let me give you some examples: Canada’s Food Guide (CFG), so much outside lobbying from the packaged food industry, the food marketing boards, the agri-food industries and politicians looking out for their neck of the woods that after a while the food guide ended up being so generic people just ignored it. Don’t get me wrong, Health Canada can safely say that they were not pushed by any one group when updating the CFG, which is true, but lots of inputs from many groups means the final guide will try really hard to please all. Which means it will reflect lots of choices but will not address how people eat in their daily lives or what changes to make in their food preparation to improve their diet. It is great to have Chapatis, Dumplings, Tortillas included but if they are always prepared at home with lots of frying or lots of lard it is more helpful if the food guide shows you other healthier ways to prepare these favourites.

The existence of the “natural food” and “nutrition supplement industry” is another political choice to support large organizations making tons of money. If politicians/regulators said there is no science to back up these two industries and without solid science to back them up those industries should be closed down, can you imagine the uproar. People who are deficient in vitamins or minerals, pregnant or born with a condition like Celiac’s disease, can be helped with vitamin and mineral supplementation or in the case of Celiac’s disease-gluten free foods. Otherwise, foods called “natural” or “nutritional supplements” are not needed. Real food is both natural and supplements us nutritionally, if you are eating real food-don’t act confused, you know what real food is-there is no need to shop for natural food or nutritional supplements.

One thing that is not so much politics but still is in a way, is the issue of race and food. The focus of health and nutrition in Canada is White people, our health care system is aimed towards satisfying White people and is often truly awful to Black and Indigenous people. What White people eat is viewed as the norm and when White people decide a food is “good” or “healthy” it is treated as a fact. But, had White people not tried to genocide the entire indigenous population of Canada the diet of First Nations and Inuit people would be considered much more the norm and had White Canadians not enslaved Black people our diets would not have had to be adjusted downwards to what White people did not want to eat. An example, Wild Rice-a nutrient-rich food used pretty much only by First Nations people for centuries- but then it became known as a “gluten-free” food and White people’s obsession with gluten is well known so suddenly the price of Wild Rice shoots up and the supply starts to be limited. Then what begins to appear in grocery stores are new blends of Wild Rice, e.g. Wild/Brown Rice blends or Parboiled Wild Rice, more acceptable to a White audience and more profitable for the mostly White-owned grocery chains.

Another example, Oxtail, when I was a child I would go to Kensington market with my mother, a child was always needed to carry home the two and a half dozen egg carton wrapped in newspaper by the ‘egg-lady’. Oxtail was not then popular with White Canadians so while at the market my mother could get oxtail at low cost or even free -depending on whether the owner of the butcher shop was sitting at the door handing out tickets that day (nice old man-R.I.P). This was a bargain when you are a family of six with four fast growing kids. Now White people have decided Oxtail is a must, oxtail stew, jerk oxtail, oxtail patties etc., etc. Woe betides a growing family trying to eat oxtail today, with the rising costs of food (lots to come on this issue), you might as well be buying Beluga Caviar packed in Truffle oil.

So, join me and hopefully pick up a better understanding of food and nutrition or at the very least become more aware of the politics and misinformed hype that is in our current food and nutrition marketplace.