Healthy Nutrition

Throughout our lives, nutritious foods are essential for optimal growth, development and overall health.

Healthy nutrition is important in maintaining health and ensuring a vibrant and productive population. Making healthy food choices is becoming increasingly challenging, due to many social, economic and physical factors that influence what foods are available and accessible as well as people’s ability to make healthy choices.

The Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMOH) has a long history of supporting and promoting good nutrition by working with pregnant women, families, children, youth, schools, and communities.

Healthy eating means eating a variety of nutritious foods to feel good and maintain your health. Eating well, along with being active can also lower your risk of disease and help you reach--and maintain--a healthy weight.
 

How to eat healthy

Healthy eating is more than the foods you eat.  It is also about where, when, why and how you eat.

Follow these steps to help you eat healthy:

• Be mindful of your eating habits
  - Take time to eat
  - Notice when you are hungry and when you are full
• Cook more often
  - Plan what you eat
  - Involve
• Enjoy your food
  - Culture and food traditions can be part of healthy eating
• Eat meals with others

Healthy food choices

Make it a habit to eat a variety of healthy foods each day.

• Eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and protein foods.  Choose protein foods that come from plants more often.
  - Choose foods with healthy fats instead of saturated fats
• Limit highly processed foods.  If you choose these foods, eat them less often and in small amounts.
  - Prepare meals and snacks using ingredients that have little to no added sodium, sugars or saturated fat
  - Choose healthier menu options when eating out
• Make water your drink of choice.
  - Replace sugary drinks with water
• Use food labels.
• Be aware that food marketing can influence your choices.

Visit https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/ for more information and tips on healthy eating.

Drinking water regularly throughout the day is the best way to stay hydrated, especially in warm weather and when being physically active. While water is the best choice for staying hydrated, vegetables, fruit and milk also contain a lot of water and are healthy choices.

Our bodies lose water by sweating, breathing and getting rid of waste. If you lose more fluid than you take in, you get dehydrated. You need to replace what is lost. Young children and seniors are at higher risk of becoming dehydrated.

Water is a healthy, calorie-free way of staying hydrated. It helps your body work in a number of ways:

• maintains your body temperature,
• helps break down food so that your body can absorb the nutrients,
• helps get rid of waste,
• acts as a cushion between cells, muscles, and joints, and
• keeps your bowels "regular”.

Here are some tips to keep you and your family hydrated and healthy

Make water your drink of choice:

• Carry a reusable water bottle when you are out
• Drink it hot or cold
• Ask for water with your food when eating out
• Keep sugary drinks out of the house
• Keep a pitcher of cold water in the fridge
• Drink water with your meals
• Bring sliced fruit to sporting events for a snack
• Add slices of fresh fruit or herbs to your water for extra flavour
• Be a role model – make healthy drink choices in front of your children

Offer healthy drink options other than water, including:

• White milk (unsweetened lower fat milk)
• Unsweetened fortified plant-based beverages such as soy beverage
• Unsweetened coffee and teas

For more information on healthy drink choices, visit https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/