Nutrient Value of Some Common Foods Booklet

More and more, Canadians are recognizing the important links between health and a proper diet. As a result, many Canadians are now following diets that restrict specific nutrients in order to improve their health or to address specific health conditions.

Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide provides recommendations on the amount and type of food recommended to ensure a healthy eating pattern. The Nutrient Value of Some Common Foods (NVSCF) booklet is a tool that has been developed to provide values for 19 key nutrients found in over 1000 of the most commonly eaten foods in Canada.

The booklet has been available for many years and is a tremendous resource for nutritionists and other health professionals in their work helping Canadians improve their health. It is also a valuable tool for Canadians with special dietary requirements.

The information found in the booklet is based on standard recipes for a given food. While there are always variations in recipes that would affect their nutritional value, the booklet can act as a good guideline for what can be found in commonly consumed foods.

However, it is important to note that this booklet does not represent a tool intended to advise Canadians on what is a healthy diet. Because the portion sizes used in the booklet represent what Canadians are actually eating (not necessarily what they should be eating) the booklet is intended simply as a reference tool. For information on a healthy eating pattern and reference serving sizes, Canadians should refer to the Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating.

Changes in the 2008 Booklet

In addition to updating the data contained in the booklet based on the latest scientific information, the new edition of the NVSCF booklet now focuses on multi-ingredient and pre-prepared foods rather than individual ingredients. This was done to address the increase in the consumption of pre-prepared foods given the busy lifestyles of so many Canadians.