Your Health Your Way... or the highway!

The Ontario Government has designated the month of March as "Nutrition Month". I don't know if this is some crazy gimmick dreamed up by the new Harper Government or not, but this is the first year I have heard of this. So since my company is a healthcare company and is "committed to helping improve the well-being of its employees", they have launched a new cafeteria food program in conjunction with our food services provider called "Your Health Your Way" (YHYW).

The program, supposedly "approved by Health Canada, is designed to make healthy eating simple, delicious and affordable. In fact, three different YHYW meals will be available every day for the low, low cost of just "two toonies" each." All the meals are developed by leading professional dieticians and executive chefs, and meet the following nutritional guidelines:

• less than 30% calories from fat
  
• no more than 3 grams of saturated fat
  
• less than 100 mg of cholesterol
  
• less than 1000 mg of sodium
  
• less than 600 calories
  
• at least 3 grams of fibre

If good health was not incentive enough, our company has turned this into a contest of sorts by supplying each employee (and contractors like me) a voluntary participation card with a record of YHYW meals on one side and fitness activities on the other. The idea is that every time you purchase a YHYW meal or participate in 30 mins of exercise from now until April 7th, you get a stamp. Once you have 10 meal stamps you get a free meal, and once you get 10 activity stamps you can enter into the draw for prizes such as a bike or catered meal for 8.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Today was the first day and while I was standing in line for a Southwest Turkey Burger on Whole Grain Bun with Pineapple Salsa, I heard two people ask if they were still serving "regular burgers" on "non-birdseed bread". When taking my burger to the cash to pay my $4 and get a stamp, I also saw a person walk past 5 different YHYW options and go to the one counter that was serving full fat seafood risotto with cream sauce and some crispy fried thing on top that I couldn't make out.

This is terrible! Why would anyone consciously choose to eat unhealthy when healthy items are staring them in the face? I guess that can be said of anyone in any food situation, but this atrocity was particularly evident today.