Albertans tops in making healthier eating choices: Loblaw survey

Albertans are tops when it comes to making healthier eating choices, while other prairie provinces and Quebec are ranked the lowest.

In Loblaw’s livelifewell national online survey results showed that overall two-thirds of Canadians (67 per cent) said they are making healthier eating choices than one year ago, according to a press release.

"While healthier eating behaviours and perspectives vary across the country, overall the survey reveals that Canadians are eating more fresh foods and trust dietitians and doctors for advice on healthy living.  However, there is still progress to be made as price and food label confusion remain the top barriers to achieving healthier diets," says Alexis Williams, dietitian for Loblaw said in a press release.

Other findings from the survey by Vision Critical of 1,004 randomly selected Canadians include:

-Manitoba and Saskatchewan residents made the fewest changes to their eating habits over the past year; Albertans made the biggest change, with 81 per cent of respondents saying they are making healthier eating choices;

­­-Quebec residents reduced their fat intake more than any other province (37 per cent);

-Canadians over 55 years of age reduced the sodium and fat in their diets at the highest rate (both at 38 per cent);

-Canadians aged 18 to 34 are most likely to have made changes to their eating habits in the past year, reporting at 70 per cent compared to 67 per cent of Canadians aged 35-54 and 64 per cent of Canadians 55 years and older;

-the most common change (39 per cent) Canadians report is adding more fresh foods;

-almost one in three Canadians (32 per cent) are also working to reduce the amount of fat (32 per cent), sugar (31 per cent) and sodium (30 per cent) in their diet;

-the most common perception is that healthier food is more expensive; 41 per cent of respondents reported price as a barrier to making healthier eating choices.

With half of Canadians looking to food labels for information to help them make healthy lifestyle choices and certain brands take a lot of the guesswork out of the decision making for customers, Loblaw has newly designed its PC Blue Menu products, featuring new plus (+) and minus (-) symbols for customers to identify nutritional attributes.