The quality of the diet of people who consume more local products is not substantially better than that of the average Quebec population, shows a study published in the Nutrition Journal by a team from Laval University. “There is therefore reason to question the relevance of promoting the consumption of locally produced foods as a public health measure to improve the quality of food in Quebec,” underlines the head of the study, Benoît Lamarche, professor at the School of Nutrition at Laval University.
The research team, attached to the Nutrition, Health and Society Center (NUTRISS) and the Institute on Nutrition and Functional Foods at Laval University, carried out this study with the help of 834 people registered in the NutriQuébec project, a vast survey on diet and health undertaken in 2019. The responses provided by these people to dietary questionnaires made it possible to calculate, for each of them, two indices developed at the Center NUTRISS: a healthy eating index, which reflects adherence to the recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide, and a local eating index called the Locavore SF index.
“The Locavore SF index integrates two dimensions,” explains Professor Lamarche. It reflects, on the one hand, the geographical origin of the food consumed and, on the other hand, their provenance, for example whether they come from the participants’ vegetable garden, a family farmer or a public market. To make it easier for respondents, the questions only ask about three vegetables, carrot, lettuce and tomatoes, but the Locavore SF index is a good indicator of local food in a person’s overall diet .”
The analyzes carried out by the research team indicate that the Locavore SF index is very weakly correlated with diet quality. In fact, this index would explain less than 1% of variations in diet quality.
“Eating well is a complex issue and we would like a simple concept like local food to help people make good choices for their health, but that is magical thinking,” comments Professor Lamarche. Until proven otherwise, our data suggests that promoting local food would not be a good lever as a public health measure.”
— Benoît Lamarche, on good reasons to eat local food
That said, it would be wrong to claim that eating local is useless, he insists. “There are several good reasons to promote local food. “It’s an excellent way to support Quebec agricultural producers, encourage the local economy and ensure Quebec’s food resilience.”
This study was carried out as part of the master’s work of Marianne Rochette. The other signatories of the study published in Nutrition Journal are Gabrielle Rochefort, Catherine Laramée, Annie Lapointe, Simone Lemieux, Ariane Bélanger-Gravel, Sophie Desroches, Véronique Provencher and Benoît Lamarche.
