Dr. Yoni Freedhoff had a Rick Mercer-type rant in his Weighty Matters blog. What sparked his anger? The Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation’s decision to place their Health Check logo on four Harvey’s menu items. – veggie, chicken and meat burgers and a chicken salad
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Health Check’s goal is to “ensure Canadians have healthy choices when dining out”. Their logo signifies a healthy menu choice.
Yet based on information supplied by Harvey’s, the amount of salt in these items range from 690-950 mg. Health Canada recommends 14-50 year olds keep their daily sodium intake to 1500-2300 mg. The over-50 crowd should consume even less – 1300 mg daily.
So eating any of those four Harvey’s products will account for a big chunk of your daily allowance of salt, which is why Freedhoff is sounding off.
But that’s not the only thing he questions. Several prepared foods like pizza and sugary juices and candy also carry the Health Check logo.
“No self-respecting dietitian or health organization would ever claim that encouraging eating out in restaurants, drinking juices containing 10.5 teaspoons of sugar per glass, and eating faux-fruit candies that contain more sugar than actual candy could possibly be good for living healthy lives,” said Freedhof in his blog. “And yet that’s exactly what the Heart and Stroke Foundation is actively teaching Canadians with their disgraceful, and nutritionally unethical, Health Check program”.
Freedhoff also goes on to say that because so many of us put our faith behind the expertise of the Heart and Stroke Foundation we may be unwittingly making poor food choices.
Looks like the Heart and Stroke Foundation is trading its reputation for the hard earned cash paid by companies for the right to display the Health Check logo on their products.
