Canada’s Food Guide is a document most people in this country are familiar with. After having first been introduced to this guide in elementary or middle school, many students learn about it as if it were the sole source of nutritional information. Students are taught that it should not be disputed, as it is the foundation of a healthy life.

However, this document has been greatly neglected. It hasn’t been updated since 2007, and since 1992 before that. It no longer represents, if it ever did, the nutritional needs of the Canadian population, and is only a small glimpse into requirements for a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, it gives no options for the many people who cannot abide by its unrealistic and often unnecessary standards.

First of all, by lumping foods into four extremely broad categories — vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk and alternatives, and meat and alternatives — the Food Guide actually provides little nutritional guidance. Just because we read that we “require” two servings of milk and alternatives doesn’t mean we understand the amount of calcium or calcium sources our bodies require on a daily basis. Furthermore, it doesn’t take into account the disputing information over whether or not dairy is the healthiest source of calcium.

Canada’s Food Guide needs to adapt to the people it was supposed to represent.

Additionally, many groups of people are ignored from the equation when it comes to the food guide. It offers little to no alternatives for people who have different dietary needs and constrictions — from celiac disease to the prominent dairy intolerance, from people whose bodies require less calories to people who choose to be vegetarian or vegan, many are excluded from the discussion. If we were to base our eating habits solely on what the Food Guide recommends, there would be few choices for many people.

Likely, there will never be a perfect solution to creating a food guide that can work for everyone. Does that mean we should scrap the idea altogether and instead educate our children on how to make healthy decisions based on their individual choices and circumstances? That might be a better alternative. A basic infographic such as this Guide cannot accommodate the diversity of the Canadian population, and it’s time for us to stop pretending that it can.

Canada’s Food Guide needs to adapt to the people it was supposed to represent. If it is going to be used and respected, it needs to be a realistic representation of the nutrition the Canadian people should consume, and take into account the many other ways in which Canadians can contribute to their own physical and mental well-being.