The best ingredient in a healthy life is good, fresh information.
This section is a portal that will take you into the world of information about how to eat healthy and live actively in fun and meaningful ways. There's everything from strategies to create a healthy eating and living plan, to information about organizations that are promoting just that. There are resources to help you find fun activities to do alone or with friends and family, and great information about nutrition.
What follows are tidbits of what you'll find in the guide or site, then a link to more. It's food for the brain to help you live the happiest, healthiest life possible. Please Note: The information sources and links contained on this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors of this website and are provided for information only.
Health Canada's Guide to Healthy Active Living helps you make wise choices about physical activity that will improve your health, help prevent disease and allow you to get the most out of life. The site includes links for older adults, children and youth.
Health Canada's Physical Activity Guide for youth provides both an online and downloadable guide to help get you started on a more physically active lifestyle focusing on endurance, flexibility and strength.
Health Canada's Guide to Food and Nutrition provides information on food safety and nutrition. Maintaining the safety of Canada's food supply is a shared responsibility among government, industry and consumers. Eating a nutritious and balanced diet is one of the best ways to protect and promote good health. This site also provides links to information on Canada's Food Guide, nutrition labeling, bottled water, chemical contaminants and food allergies.
Dial-A-Dietitian offers easy-to-use quality food and nutrition information and resource for good self-care. The website also provides a program called EATracker that lets you track your day's food and activity choices and compares them to the guidelines laid out by Health Canada, and a recipe analyzer tool to find out the nutrients in your favourite recipes. The program also provides a toll-free number for a personal, confidential consultation with a registered dietitian.
The Senior Chef: Cooking for One or Two is a free recipe book for seniors. This handy book has practical nutrition and cooking information for seniors and a lot of good, simple recipes. You will find the whys and hows of planning the kinds of meals you need to develop and maintain good health.
The ActNow BC website sponsored by the BC government provides a wide range of helpful information on active living, healthy eating, and maintaining a healthy weight.
The Brand Name Food List provides nutrition ratings for packaged and franchised foods and beverages to help you find “Choose Most” and “Choose Sometimes” items that meet BC's nutrition standards for schools and public buildings.
The Air Quality Health Index reports that the average person takes about 20,000 breaths a day, which means an amazing 10,000 litres of air passes pass through your lungs every 24 hours. The site provides daily reports on air quality in communities throughout BC.
The Canadian Cancer Society (BC/Yukon) website provides useful information on the role healthy eating and physical activity can play in preventing cancer.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation website provides a range of helpful information on healthy eating and active living and useful tools for assessing your health risk like a personalized blood pressure action plan.
ParticipAction website provides good tips and ideas to help all age groups to start and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle for better health.
Concerned Children's Advertisers has produced PSAs that speak directly to children on problems and issues they may face in their everyday lives — including recent spots on healthy active living. You can view these PSAs online. For parents, the site provides tips and tools to help kids eat smart and move more. (Click on the “Parents” link.)
Healthy Eating: Cheap and Easy is about how eating healthy is the best thing you can do for you and your family every day. When you eat well, you feel better, have more energy, and lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. Many healthy foods like breads, cereals, fruits and vegetables cost less than other foods like chips and pop. So you can eat well without spending a lot of money or a lot of time. The booklet covers the basics of planning meals, shopping and preparing foods — also listing places where you can find good recipes.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation's Healthy You, Healthy Weight offers an encouraging, realistic, 6-step weight loss plan that takes you from assessing yourself to setting goals to getting fit.
Healthy Eating for Seniors (available in English, Chinese and Punjabi) is an interesting, informative and useful resource that includes information about what food and supplements are most important, gives tips on how to prevent or manage common chronic diseases, provides simple advice on ways to eat with less salt and fat and advice how to read labels among other things. Seniors and dieticians from across BC share tips and recipes.
The Healthy Living Guides by ActNow BC (for K-3, 4-7, 8-9 and 10-12) are based around the idea that the habits and patterns formed in childhood affect us for the rest of our lives and that even small changes in our lifestyles today can make a world of difference for our children tomorrow. The guides provide information on how to choose healthy food that kids of each age will like, and how to encourage age-appropriate, enjoyable physical activity — some just for them and some that include the whole family. Visit the ActNowBC website for more information.
Health Canada's Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion serves as a focal point and authoritative source for nutrition and healthy eating policy and promotion in Health Canada. The Office of Nutrition and Promotion defines, promotes and implement evidence-based nutrition policies.
The BC Ministry of Health produces a Healthy Snack for Adults guide in a number of different languages. Check their website to find your language of choice.
