In all but the most constrained social contexts today, household food spending is discretionary. This means that while there are social forces that shape population dietary behaviour under economic constraints, demography is not destiny. Drawing from national examples in how they address plant and animal proteins, the objective of this presentation is to provide an overview of the role of government food-based dietary guidelines and other information-based policy instruments in influencing individual and population diets.
Dr. Catherine L. Mah MD FRCPC PhD is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Promoting Healthy Populations in the School of Health Administration at Dalhousie University. She is internationally known for her scientific work in nutrition and food insecurity policy, with a particular interest in the consumer food environment and its role in social equity, population diet, and food affordability. Dr. Mah was an appointee to Health Canada’s Nutrition Science Advisory Committee (2020-2023) and the inaugural Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council (2020-2022). Since 2024, she has served on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Council of Canadian Academies. In 2022, Dr. Mah was the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal from Nova Scotia.