Ottawa – Nutrition Month is celebrated each March to remind us all of how essential good nutrition is to our health and well-being. This year’s theme “We Are Dietitians!”, and this month we celebrate the important role Dietitians play in helping us achieve good nutrition, as well as the benefits of making healthy eating choices to improve our quality of life.
Healthy eating matters, and is important at every age. It can help us feel good. It provides energy to power our bodies and minds to do the things that bring us joy and fulfilment. It provides essential nutrients to maintain our overall health. And, it helps prevent chronic diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. But, it isn’t always easy to know how to make healthy food choices, or how to achieve healthy eating habits in our busy lives. That’s where Dietitians come in.
Dietitians working at Health Canada have played a key role in shaping many of our Healthy eating strategy initiatives, including Canada’s food guide and the new front-of-package nutrition labelling regulations, that can help people make informed food choices.
Health Canada continues to develop new tools and resources to promote healthy eating. For example, the food guide snapshot, which provides people with a quick glance of what a healthy meal should consist of, has been translated into more than 30 languages—including 9 indigenous languages. There are more than 100 recipes in the food guide kitchen, and the Department issues a monthly food guide newsletter that delivers healthy eating tips to more than 70,000 subscribers. This includes work to support the nutritional needs of vulnerable populations, to ensure that people with unique dietary needs have access to high-quality, safe and nutritious foods.
Health Canada is also piloting the Food guide friendly initiative. This is a voluntary initiative that encourages publicly funded institutions to create healthier food environments by increasing the availability of nutritious foods and beverages and improving their appeal, with a current focus on post-secondary institutions and recreation settings.
This Nutrition Month, learn more about the Department’s food and nutrition initiatives, and for Dietitians Day on March 20, familiarize yourself with our tips for healthy eating. – Mark Holland