Canada's Heart & Stroke Foundation Report Card

By Peter Liu
[Health & Your Life]
A new report on the heart health of Canadians has been released, full of scary facts and figures.  Peter Liu pours through the numbers to decipher who the real bully is.
For the majority of young adults, eating the foods they want shouldn’t be an issue.  After all, their bodies still have room for growth, they haven’t fully matured and their metabolisms run like a well-oiled machine.  But this was before the dawn of the obesity epidemic.  Since then, children, adolescents, teens, adults, the middle-aged and even the elderly have had to carefully watch what they eat.  In our current society of epicurean pitfalls, it’s easy to be led astray.  If we’re to try to find a cause for all of this madness, it’s a good idea to begin with the almighty dollar.

In some food industry circles, it has become acceptable to utilize the addictive nature of eating a certain food in order to bring in profit.  Add to that trend the ever-growing amount of luxuries around us that allow us to work without moving around and the lack of government intervention to assist those people plagued by the obesity epidemic and you have the overflowing population of people at risk for heart disease in North America today.

Bad Report Card

In late January, the Heart and Stroke Foundation released an updated report on the heart health of Canadians and shared some rather unfortunate statistics.  Today young adults are officially part of the group of people who are at risk for heart disease.  With over a decade of research from 1994 to 2005, the report warns us that a disaster flood of heart disease cases will come about if Canadians don’t change their habits and behaviours for the better.

Statistics from the report stated that between 1994 and 2005, blood pressure rates rose 77 per cent, diabetes rates increased by 45 per cent and obesity levels went up 18 per cent.  Considering those Canadians who don’t exercise, who smoke, who have diabetes or high blood pressure and who are obese, the Heart and Stroke report card makes some frightening projections.  Over 250,000 Canadians in their 20s and 30s have high blood pressure, whereas the middle-aged group between 35 and 49 years of age have all seen increased percentages in obesity, blood pressure and diabetes, at 20 per cent, 127 per cent, and 64 per cent respectively.  Baby boomers and women are also seeing increased heart disease risk factors, as over 1.7 million women between 20 and 34 don’t really engage in much physical activity and at least a million of those women are overweight.  The report states that currently, half the population in every single province and territory is at an unhealthy weight.

The Demands

The Heart and Stroke Foundation included a list of suggestions of what the government could do to help further reduce the spread of obesity and help Canadians work towards a healthier life free of the risks of heart disease.  Included on that list are calls for regulating trans fat on the federal level, standardizing portion sizes, placing mandatory calorie counts on menu boards and making healthy food less expensive and available to all communities across the country, especially in disparaged areas.  Government support on treating and preventing childhood obesity, increased educational awareness about cardiovascular health and an idea for a facility dedicated to researching vascular health were also listed.

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