Healthy Eating

It's Your Health

This article was produced in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Help on accessing alternative formats, such as Portable Document Format (PDF), Microsoft Word and PowerPoint (PPT) files, can be obtained in the alternate format help section.

On this page:

• The Issue
• Background
• Canada's Food Guide
• Understanding Food Guide Servings
• Minimizing Your Risk
• Government of Canada's Role
• Need More Info?

The Issue

Healthy eating plays an important role in promoting health and in reducing the risk of  chronic diseases.

Background

Food nourishes the body and gives you energy to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. Healthy eating is important to good health. It is a key element in healthy human development, from the prenatal stage to later life stages. Following Canada's Food Guide by having the recommended amount and type of food will help you meet your nutrient needs, reduce your risk of chronic diseases, and contribute to your overall health and vitality.

Canada's Food Guide

Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide defines and promotes healthy eating for Canadians. It describes the amount and type of food that Canadians, age two years and older, should eat.

Canada's Food Guide recommends choosing a variety of foods from each of the four food groups: Vegetables and Fruit, Grain Products, Milk and Alternatives, and Meat and Alternatives, as well as including a specific amount and type of oils and fats. The recommended number of servings from each of the four food groups is different for people at different stages of life, as well as for males and females. Canada's Food Guide also offers tips to help you make the best choices in each food group. Eating a variety of foods within each food group, and following the tips in Canada's Food Guide, will help you get the nutrients you need.

When it comes to vegetables and fruit, include at least one dark green and one orange vegetable every day. For example, broccoli is rich in folate, while sweet potato has high amounts of vitamin A. It is also important to choose vegetables and fruit more often than juice to help meet your fibre needs. Fibre may help you feel full and satisfied, therefore reducing the risk of overeating.

Canada's Food Guide also recommends making at least half your grain products whole grain each day. Include a variety of whole grain choices such as barley, brown rice, whole grain bread, oats, quinoa and wild rice in your meals. Starting your day with a bowl of oatmeal, whole grain cereal or whole wheat toast is a great way to incorporate whole grains into your diet. Having breakfast every day may also help control your hunger later in the day.

In addition, Canada's Food Guide recommends drinking 500 ml (2 cups) of milk or fortified soy beverage each day for adequate vitamin D. Drinking skim, 1%, or 2% milk is a good way to help you meet your nutrient needs and to limit the amount of saturated fat and calories that you consume. Canada's Food Guide also suggests drinking water regularly. It satisfies thirst without adding calories to the diet.

Another way to limit the amount of saturated fat is to choose meat alternatives often, such as beans, lentils, and tofu. Canada's Food Guide suggests eating at least two Food Guide Servings of fish each week to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Fish, such as char, herring, mackerel, rainbow trout, salmon, and sardines have high amounts of omega-3 fats that may contribute to heart health.

Following Canada's Food Guide means limiting foods and beverages high in calories, sugar, salt (sodium) and fat (while including a small amount of unsaturated fat). Unsaturated fats include vegetable oils used in cooking, salad dressings, mayonnaise, and soft margarine.

In addition to following Canada's Food Guide, everyone over the age of 50 should take a daily vitamin D supplement of 10 μg (400 IU). Women of childbearing age should take a multivitamin containing folic acid every day. Pregnant women also need additional amounts of some nutrients such as folic acid and iron. A health care professional can help you find the multivitamin that's right for you.

Understanding Food Guide Servings

A Food Guide Serving is simply a reference amount. It helps you understand how much food is recommended each day from each of the four food groups. In some cases, a Food Guide Serving may be close to what you eat (e.g., an apple is one Food Guide Serving from the Vegetables and Fruit group). In other cases, such as rice or pasta, you may be serving yourself more than one Food Guide Serving at one sitting. A good way to learn about Food Guide Servings is to keep track of the amount of food you eat for a day or two. Then compare the amount you eat in a day to the recommended number of Food Guide Servings for your age and sex. You may wish to use the My Food Guide Servings Tracker tool to help you keep track of the amount and type of food you eat each day. You may also wish to use the My Food Guide online tool to create a printable personalized version of the information found in Canada's Food Guide. My Food Guide can be printed in English, French, Arabic, Chinese (traditional or simplified), Farsi, Korean, Russian, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, or Urdu.

Minimizing Your Risk

Eating well will promote good health and help minimize your risk of many chronic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain types of  cancer, and osteoporosis. Use Canada's Food Guide to help you plan your meals, shop for groceries, prepare food, and to make wise choices when eating out. For example:

Meal Planning

Refer to Canada's Food Guide to help plan your meals. Write down your meal ideas throughout the week. Use these ideas to help make your grocery list.

Plan to cook and eat with family or friends to make preparing meals more fun and less work. Involving other people can also make meal time more enjoyable, and helps reinforce positive eating habits.

Another idea is to prepare some meals in advance, and keep them in the freezer. For example, frozen soups, stews, lasagna, cooked ground beef, cooked rice or pizza dough are often helpful in getting a healthy meal on the table in a hurry.

Include vegetables and fruits in recipes, at all meals, and as snacks to help you meet the recommended number of Food Guide Servings per day. When planning your meals, choose foods and beverages prepared with little or no added fat, sugar or salt, lower fat milk and alternatives, and lean meat and alternatives.

Grocery Shopping

At the grocery store, read the Nutrition Facts table on food packages and compare the calories, fat, sugar, and sodium content of different brands or varieties of food. Choose products that are lower in fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and sodium.

Keep in mind that the calories and nutrients listed in the Nutrition Facts table are for the amount of food found at the top of the table. For example, the calories and nutrients listed might be for 250 ml (1 cup), while the package may have two times more (500 ml or 2 cups). Therefore, if you eat the whole package, you will consume double the amount of calories and nutrients listed in the Nutrition Facts table.

At the grocery store, skip the aisles with cookies and baked goods, chips or other salty snack foods, soft drinks, and other high calorie beverages. These foods are often expensive and are low in nutrients. Stick to the four food groups and buy the basics.

Stock up on canned goods and other non-perishables when they are on sale. Canned goods and other non-perishables can be useful in preparing a quick and easy meal.

When buying your vegetables and fruit, choose those that are in season and freeze extras for later. Canned or frozen vegetables and fruit are affordable and nutritious options to help meet your daily recommended number of vegetable and fruit servings.

Eating Out

You can enjoy eating out while following Canada's Food Guide. Many cafeterias, fast food chains, and restaurants now offer healthier choices as part of their menu items. Foods such as steamed vegetables, lower sodium vegetable soups, fresh fruit salads, berries with lower fat yogurt, and salads with dressing on the side are just a few of the healthier options. Look for or ask for the nutrition information on menu items to help you make healthier choices. In addition, restaurant portions are often much larger than what you would serve at home; therefore you may want to order smaller portions, share with a friend or family member, or take the leftovers home.

Government of Canada's Role

Health Canada supports the nutritional health and wellbeing of Canadians by working collaboratively to define, promote, and implement evidence-based nutrition policies and guidance, such as Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide. In addition, Health Canada and the  Public Health Agency of Canada develop, publish, and promote various resources on nutrition and physical activity to help Canadians make informed choices about healthy eating and being active. See below for Web links to these resources.

Need More Info?

• For a copy of Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide, please visit the Canada's Food Guide web section

In this section, you will also find additional resources on healthy eating, such as:

• Take the Guided Tour for an interactive tour showing highlights of Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide.
• My Food Guide for an interactive tool that will help you personalize the information found in Canada's Food Guide.
• My Food Guide Servings Tracker to help you keep track of the amount and type of food you eat each day.

Also, see the following:

• Health Canada's Interactive Nutrition Label and Quiz
• Health Canada's Mercury section for information on mercury & fish
• Public Health Agency of Canada -  Tips to Get Active
•  Dietitians of Canada

And, see these related It's Your Health articles:

• Nutrition Labelling
• Sodium
• Trans Fat
• Obesity

• For additional articles on health and safety issues, please visit the It's Your Health web section

You can also call toll-free at 1-866-225-0709 or TTY at 1-800-267-1245*

Original: April 2010
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Health, 2010