The Brazilian Food Guide – Revolutionizing The Way We Look at Food

Last year the Brazilian Ministry of Health did something pretty radical: they created a food guide that actually reflects healthful eating habits.

The new guide offers a holistic, comprehensive, and ethical approach to diet, and the result is an incredibly refreshing (and quite radical – more on that later) manual for living a healthy life. Rather than dividing foods into subgroups in the typical Western, reductionist manner – carbs, protein, veggies, fruit, protein – and recommending what, in the Canadian context at least, feels like a simultaneously restrictive and unattainable number of servings to consume each day, Brazil’s guide breaks down foods in a much more natural way. Their four food categories are:

1. naturally or minimally processed foods;
2. oils, fats, salt and sugar;
3. processed foods (these include bread, cheeses, cured meats and pickles); and
4. ultra-processed foods.