Unfulfilled promises on nutrition

By Letter to the Editor on August 21, 2017.

When my father was a boy he would be lucky if he got one orange in his Christmas stocking. Nowadays, we can eat oranges to our heart’s content. This is just one of the countless improvements in our diet over the past century. Study after study has shown the direct link between good nutrition and good health.

Good nutrition is critically important during a child’s earliest years when the brain is still developing. Missing this small window of opportunity can have a profound effect on a child’s entire life such as their ability to learn, complete school and are likely to earn power 20 per cent less than their peers who were well-nourished when they were young.

It is just as important that the mother be well-nourished during pregnancy. But often this is not the case due to economic and cultural gender biases. Canada aims to address these biases with its new Feminist International Assistance Policy.

According to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, empowering women and girls is “a matter of basic justice and also basic economics.” Unfortunately, practically no new money was announced to implement this major policy change. It seems that the size of our deficit is only surpassed by our growing pile of unfulfilled promises.

Stephen St. Denis

Ottawa

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