Does Canada's Food Guide promote weight gain?

An interesting article written in the Globe & Mail today entitled "Canada's Food Guide needs a does of reality".  The first comment that stuck out for me was "First of all, nobody is really clear on what a "serving" is any more." I concur whole-heartedly. As one small example, the Canada Food Guide (CFG) is lumping all vegetables together and that adult Canadians are recommended to eat anywhere from 7-10 servings per day. AND if the article is correct in saying that "the most consumed vegetable in Canada, by far, is the potato" and it alone "accounts for 40% of all our veggies" then we clearly have an issue. My first thought is how can we put a potato and kale for example in the same serving bucket?

Another interesting tidbit they found is "When you tally up the differences between the theoretical ideal and the practical reality, Freedhoff argued, an adult woman who roughly followed the food-guide recommendations would probably consume about 3,300 calories a day, not 1,800." The 1,800 calories was mentioned earlier in the article whereby Hutchinson (the scientist defending the CFG) said "a sedentary adult woman should get 1,800 calories daily."

It is also noted that the article doesn't touch on corporate influence which you can well imagine would be an insanely heated subject.  

For the full article online, visit http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/why-canadas-food-guide-needs-a-dose-of-up-to-date-reality/article17618278/