CDA Essentials 2015 • Volume 2 • Issue 5

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9 Volume 2 Issue 5 |
CDA at Work
In 2014, Health Canada held consultations
with health organizations and Canadian
parents to explore how nutrition labels
could be improved to help consumers make
healthy choices. While CDA and other health
organizations applauded the government’s
initiative, they expressed concerns that
the ministry’s proposed changes could be
confusing and unintentionally lead to poor
food decisions.
The government’s proposed changes in-
clude placing a threshold on daily consump-
tion of total sugars. Yet this could
“confuse consumers, possibly
deterring them from consuming
more healthy foods that contain
naturally occurring ‘bound sugars’,
such as whole unprocessed
unsweetened vegetables, fruits,
nuts, legumes, and lower fat milk,
yogurt and milk alternatives,” CDA
and its fellow health organizations
explained in a joint letter to Minis-
ter Ambrose.
“CDA recognizes the impact of
poor nutrition on both oral health
and overall health,” says Dr. Gary
MacDonald, CDA immediate past-
president. “That is why we are committed
to partnering with government and other
health organizations, to empower consum-
ers so they can make healthy food choices.”
The group of health organizations also
suggested that the definition of added
sugars be extended to include free sugars,
so consumers do not assume that packaged
foods sweetened with fruit concentrates, for
example, are de facto healthy choices.
The letter suggested an approach to Minis-
ter Ambrose to address both the issues the
group previously raised and the govern-
ment’s concerns about compliance, enforce-
ment and trade issues. This approach was
defined as follows:
• Having a single line in the nutrition facts
table for sugars, which would focus on
the presence of added/free sugars only.
This would exempt naturally occurring
“bound sugars”
that can be found
in packaged
unsweetened
vegetables and
fruits (frozen or
canned); unsweetened
milk, yogurt and milk
alternatives; and unsweetened nuts and
legumes (dry or canned).
• Having accompanying %DV declaration
for sugars based on a reference value
that is low enough to promote limited
consumption of free sugars—so Canadi-
an don’t limit their vegetable intake for
fear of exceeding the suggested value,
for example. This value should be in line
with the World Health Organization’s
target of a maximum of 10% daily energy
intake from added/free sugars.
• Restricting the use of the “no sugar add-
ed” claim. This claim could still be used
for healthy foods that are exempted from
declaring sugars (i.e., unsweetened foods
with naturally occurring “bound sugars”).
• Opting for a more intuitive reporting of
sugars on the ingredient list which cap-
tures added/free sugars, as proposed by
Health Canada. The health department
has suggested that all sugars be grouped
under the common name “sugars” and
then listed in parenthesis, explaining that
“this approach would give consumers
an idea of how much added sugar there
is in their food compared to the other
ingredients.” a
CDA Adds its Voice to Debate on
Sugars and Nutrition Labelling
CDA recently joined
with several other
health organizations
in asking Minister of
Health Rona Ambrose
to refine the federal
government’s proposed
updates to food labels
◗ Bariatric Medical Institute
◗ Canadian Dental Association
◗ Canadian Diabetes Association
◗ Canadian Medical Association
◗ Canadian Nurses Association
◗ Dietitians of Canada
◗ Heart and Stroke Foundation
◗ University of Toronto,
Department of Nutritional
Sciences
Letter signatories
To learn more about Health Canada’s
proposed changes to food labels, visit