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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The new Canada’s Food Guide: Goodbye four food groups and serving sizes, hello hydration

Health Canada’s updated manual for healthy eating offers fewer hard-and-fast rules and broader advice about how to live better. Ann Hui shares some of the highlights:

  • The four main food groups have been reduced to three: fruits and vegetables; whole grains; and proteins (replacing the milk and alternatives, and meat and alternatives).
  • Gone are the specific number of serving sizes across the groups, as well as what makes up a serving size.
  • The emphasis is on proportions: eat roughly half fruits and vegetables, and half whole grains and proteins. 
  • Water is encouraged as the beverage of choice.
  • The new guide warns against processed and prepared foods as well as alcohol consumption.  

Opinion: Canada’s new Food Guide is a good upgrade, but skirts around issues of inequality, André Picard writes. “The symbolic fruity/nutty/grainy plate is actually out of reach for many who struggle with poverty, food insecurity and health illiteracy.”

Canada’s revamped Food Guide has finally caught up with scientific evidence, Leslie Beck writes. “Advice to ‘be mindful of your eating habits,’ ‘cook more often,’ ‘enjoy your food,’ ‘eat meals with others,’ ‘use food labels’ and ‘be aware of food marketing’ encourage food skills that support healthy eating.”

The 2019 Academy Awards: the nominations, the biggest snubs, Canadian connections and more

Oscar voters showered Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite with a leading 10 nominations to the 91st Academy Awards. With Black Panther, Marvel has the first superhero movie nominated for best picture, while Netflix scored its first best picture nomination with Roma (for subscribers).

Much of the talk today, however, is about who was snubbed. “This year, the names left off the ballot seem especially egregious,” Barry Hertz writes,, including director Barry Jenkins, his film If Beale Street Could Talk, actress Toni Collette (Hereditary) and the Mr. Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Canadians in the running for Oscars this year include entries in the animated short film, live action short film, sound mixing and production design categories.

And for fans of eighties cult classic Withnail and I, Richard E. Grant received his first nomination, as best supporting actor for Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Opinion: This year’s Oscars race is now certified as the wildest – and ugliest – in recent memory, Barry Hertz writes (for subscribers). “Going host-less for the first time in three decades – and compounded by a series of inside-baseball controversies roiling its membership – the Academy Awards is thick in the middle of an identity crisis.”

The Academy Awards take place Feb. 24.

The latest on Canada-China tensions

The United States has informed the Canadian government that it plans to proceed with a formal request to extradite Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on allegations of banking fraud related to violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. David MacNaughton says (for subscribers)

In apparent retaliation following Ms. Meng’s arrest in Vancouver on Dec.1, Beijing detained two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, and imposed a death penalty on a third, Robert Schellenberg.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has accused a group of academics and former diplomats of interfering with Beijing’s sovereign rule, after nearly 150 people signed an open letter calling for the release of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor.

More Ontarians say they’re struggling with mental health, CAMH survey shows

One in 10 Ontario adults say they are struggling with their mental health, Wency Leung writes. In an annual survey from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 11.7 per cent of respondents reported experiencing frequent mental distress in 2017, up from 7.4 per cent the previous year. That represents an estimated 1.2 million adults who struggled with issues such as stress, depression and problems with their emotions, on at least 14 out of the past 30 days.

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MARKET WATCH

On Wall Street, stocks took another step lower today in the wake of a report from the Financial Times that the United States had turned down an offer of preparatory trade talks from China. Still, trading was volatile in the last hour of trade as White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC the report was not true, causing a sharp move off the lows.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 301.87 points to 24,404.48, the S&P 500 lost 37.81 points to close at 2,632.90 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 136.87 points to 7,020.36.

Canada’s main stock index also fell, snapping a 12-day long rally, with energy shares leading losses on the back of lower oil prices. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 120.40 points at 15,233.76.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

U.S. singer Chris Brown and two other people were ordered to remain in custody in Paris today after a woman filed a rape complaint, French officials said.

Netflix is apologizing to the people of Lac-Mégantic after actual footage of the 2013 rail disaster that devastated the town was used in dramas Bird Box and Travelers on the streaming service.

Dellen Millard, convicted of murder in three cases, is appealing his first-degree murder conviction and sentence for the death of his father, arguing the outcome of his case was unreasonable.

James Dyson, the billionaire Brexit supporter who revolutionized vacuum cleaners with his bagless technology, is moving his head office to Singapore from Britain.

Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was fined almost 19 million euros ($21.6-million) for tax fraud, but will avoid serving a 23-month prison sentence after agreeing a deal.

TALKING POINTS

Donald Trump’s ‘blame the Fed’ game gets dangerous

“The unusual presidential assault on the central bank for pursuing a sensible course of gradual monetary tightening sparked fears it may not be able to maintain its essential independence from political interference in the Trump era and beyond. Without that assurance, currency, debt and equity markets will rightly wonder whether the Fed can continue crafting credible policies, especially in a crisis.” - Brian Milner

Membership in the Davos billionaires' club now comes with a stigma

“The refusal of the ultrawealthy to see that they are part of the problem will trigger a backlash, and no amount of charity spending will forestall it. A backlash seems to be forming already.” - Eric Reguly (for subscribers)

Eat more plants – but don’t ignore our food heritage

“Reminding the world that our habits ought to change has merit, but it can be overdone. The plant-based diet narrative is overpowering everything else, including remembering where we came from. As we progress as a society and understand how we can feed more people on this planet, it is critical to value our food heritage, too.” - Sylvain Charlebois, professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University

LIVING BETTER

You don’t want to be that person on an airplane. Here are some tips to brush up on travel etiquette ahead of your next flight (for subscribers). Don’t force other people to listen to your music: Test your headphones or earbuds to make sure the sound isn’t bleeding out. Don’t jam your seat pocket full of bulky items - the person sitting in front of you can totally feel it: If it’s a long-haul flight, bring a plastic bag you can toss trash into and eventually hand over to the attendant. And remember other people need the bathroom: That’s not the place to apply makeup, fix your hair or text.

LONG READS FOR A LONG COMMUTE

The $450,000 car Ford still builds by hand in Ontario

Ford GT fans, rejoice. When Ford announced three years ago that it was engineering a second-generation Gran Turismo, inspired by the original ’60s-era racing car, it capped production at just 1,000. More than 7,000 fans of the sleek two-seater applied to buy one - at a starting cost of US$450,000 - and this past fall, Ford decided to increase production by 350 units, pushing the run into 2022, Judith Pereira writes.

Each Ford GT is handmade by Multimatic of Markham, Ont., which specializes in one-off racing cars and other exclusive vehicles - it built James Bond’s most recent Aston Martin DB10, plus Aston’s CC100 roadster and One-77. But staffing up and learning how to assemble a vehicle at higher production volumes was a challenge. In 2017, Multimatic only managed to produce 138 GTs. Now the 85 workers who painstakingly put together the carbon-fibre, twin-turbo-charged, 647-horsepower cars have an extra couple of years to satisfy buyers clamouring for one of the exclusive rides.

Despite Multimatic’s production woes, the contract has been a boon for Ontario manufacturers: More than 350 local suppliers make parts for the Ford GT.

Open this photo in gallery:

(Photo by Nick Busato)nick busato

Canadian musicians sign letter backing opponents of Coastal GasLink pipeline

A group led by Canadian musicians has issued an open letter to back hereditary chiefs fighting against a natural gas pipeline project in the B.C. Interior – taking sides in the complex dispute between Indigenous protesters and TransCanada, Brent Jang writes.

The open letter comes two weeks after the RCMP arrested 14 protesters on Jan. 7 at a police checkpoint along a remote B.C. logging road that leads to the Unist’ot’en blockade. Unist’ot’en is affiliated with Dark House, one of 13 hereditary house groups belonging to the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

Nearly 300 people, including a who’s who of Canadian indie music and others such as audio staff expressing their concerns, including singers Sarah Harmer and Tanya Tagaq; two members of Arcade Fire (Tim Kingsbury and Richard Reed Parry); and two members of the Arkells (Max Kerman and Anthony Carone).

Open this photo in gallery:

Hereditary Chief Ronnie West, centre, from the Lake Babine First Nation, sings and beats a drum during a solidarity march after Indigenous nations and supporters gathered for a meeting to show support for the Wet'suwet'en Nation, in Smithers, B.C. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press

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