France Food Guideline Urges Citizens to Eat Less Meat, Go Easy on Dairy

France recently updated its recommendations on diet and healthy lifestyle, urging its citizens to increase their intake of fruit and vegetables and reduce meat and dairy consumption. The French National Health and Nutrition Programme (PNNS) provides food guidance in three categories: “increase” (fruit and vegetables, legumes and pulses, and nuts), “go towards” (olive oil, organic food products, seasonal and locally-produced foods, and a modest amount of dairy) and “reduce” (meat, sweet foods, sugar-added drinks, and alcohol). The 2019 guide also has a new focus on unsalted nuts, legumes and pulses, and whole-grain products, specifically recommending adults consume a small handful of unsalted nuts every day. And, for the first time, the guide draws attention to a Nutri-Score logo to help make healthier decisions when buying processed food products. The logo is based on a five-color scale from dark green to dark orange, combined with letters from A to E, which aims to categorize the product’s nutritional quality in an easy-to-read format. Canada’s new 2019 Food Guide follows a similar trend in promoting plant-based protein while demoting meat and dairy.