A prominent Ontario doctor is demanding transparency from the government on how it landed on the recommendations laid out in its Healthy Eating Strategy — specifically revisions to the Canada Food Guide and the introduction of nutrition labelling.

As the strategy stands today, it’s “very bad science,” Dr. Andrew Samis, general surgeon and critical care specialist at Quinte Health Care, told iPolitics. “I don’t know where this is coming from.”

Samis said the technical report informing the Food Guide’s guiding principles would be an appropriate bureaucratic review for something that doesn’t involve human disease, but that’s not the case here.

“It wouldn’t even pass as a fourth-year honours project in a bachelor of science program. It’s not appropriate. It’s staggering,” he said. “When food overlaps with health concerns, like the treatment or prevention of disease, we need to use science and it needs to be transparent.”

The draft recommendations hint at moving toward a plant-based diet with less emphasis on animal proteins. Additionally, they suggest limiting intake of foods high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat – predominately meat and dairy products.

Samis said picking a specific dietary plan for all Canadians is the wrong approach and that, like all clinical processes, treatment should be considered based on individual patient needs.

“What we know from the literature is that of the six standard dietary regimes — low-fat, low-carbohydrate healthy fat (LCHF), Mediterranean-style, DASH-style, plant-based or vegan, and ancestral, paleo diet — not one is better than the other,” he said. “Why is Health Canada dogmatically picking one of the strategies when we’re in a state of scientific equipoise?”

Samis was speaking on a panel at the Canada 2020 Health Innovation Summit in Ottawa Wednesday, with a theme of diet, data, and drugs.

In February, Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam released information around front-of-package (FOP) warning labels for foods high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat based on the Guide’s guiding principles.

“High intakes of saturated fat, sugars, and sodium are linked to chronic conditions and diseases, such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes,” as stated in the proposed amendments published in the Canada Gazette I.

Alternatively, Samis noted that he’s heard from hundreds of family doctors using LCHF diets to actually help patients with Type 2 diabetes and that there’s “good” evidence behind this strategy.

If implemented, foods like cheese, yogurt, chocolate milk, and some meats would have Health Canada labels plastered on them.

“What this means is that your family doctor could potentially be putting you — as a Type 2 diabetic — on a diet to make you healthier, that does work, that’s going to be mostly things with red labels from Health Canada saying ‘don’t eat this.’”

The notion of FOP labelling has raised concerns from industry groups like the Dairy Farmers of Canada, who say it could scare consumers off of products they know to be either neutral or even beneficial to one’s health. From an economic perspective, it’s equally as unfavourable.

Health Canada remains adamant that its findings are reliable after years of “robust” consultations and reviews both domestically and internationally.

“The bottom line is we are really committed to using the very best available evidence in the revision to the food guide,” said Dr. Hasan Hutchinson, direct general for the Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion at Health Canada.”What we identified is where you saw relationships that were strong and convincing.”

Hutchinson said, from his research, the evidence is clear that reducing saturated fat is positive to one’s overall health, so long as it’s replaced with unsaturated fat.

“People are different with respect to what works for them but it’s the consistency in the long rung that brings about results. What we’re talking about as we go forward with our Food Guide is what is the best basic diet going forward for people’s health to make sure that they get enough of the nutrients that one does need.”

It’s this type of dietary prescription that Dr. Sami refutes. He’s quick to note that the Minister and the advisory committee are not to blame here, but that they’re being severely misinformed.

“They need to open the doors of Health Canada and say, ‘you’re giving us bad advice.'”

Where to go from here?

“If I had a dream for the Food Guide, it would have an evidence-based approach, it would have an overall module about healthy eating, whole foods, food preparation and then it would have sub-modules on the six dietary strategies.”