Healthy Eating
Canada’s food guide can be used to make healthy food choices. The food guide encourages Canadians to:
- Make it a habit to eat a variety of healthy foods each day
- Make half of their plate vegetables and fruit at meals and include a vegetable or fruit with every snack
- Choose whole grain foods including whole grains like quinoa and brown or wild rice, and whole grain products such as pasta and bread
- Eat protein foods such as eggs, lean meat and poultry, nuts and seeds, fish and shellfish, lower-fat unsweetened dairy products, beans, peas and lentils as well as food and beverages made from soy
- Make water their drink of choice
- Limit highly processed foods that contain added sodium, sugar and saturated fat such as sugary drinks, fast food, fried food, frozen entrées, processed meats, and baked goods such as pastries, muffins, and cakes
- Use food labels and be aware of food marketing
Eat Well Plate is a tool that helps you follow Canada's food guide when planning. The tool shows proportions of food to eat and shows how to create a balanced meal.
Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide - First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
Unlock Food is a website for reliable nutrition information, healthy recipes, and more.
| Nutrition referral |
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The following resources offer information regarding nutrition services and programs that are available in our community:
Talk to a Registered Dietitian for free by calling Health Connect Ontario at 811 (TTY: 1-866-797-0007). Grand River, St. Mary's and Cambridge Memorial hospitals provide medical Nutrition Therapy on an out-patient basis to clients who have a referral from a health care provider (e.g. family physician, nurse practitioner). |
| Nutrition standards for schools |
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A Healthy School Nutrition Environment exists when a school promotes healthy eating through words and actions. Following the below guidelines encourages a healthy environment for your school: |
| Nutrition questions |
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Ask a Dietitian Health Connect Ontario connects Ontarians directly to Registered Dietitians. Talk to a Registered Dietitian about nutrition and healthy eating for free, by calling 811 (TTY: 1-866-797-0007). The focus of the service is health promotion and disease prevention. It is not intended to provide a counselling service or address clinical nutrition needs of individual situations. The contact centre will provide service in English and French, as well as accommodate many other languages. How to access the services of a Registered Dietitian Although Public Health employs Registered Dietitians, dietetic services to individual clients are not provided by Public Health. Clients seeking dietetic services may do so in one of two ways:
*For more information on dietetic services provided by local hospitals, download a copy of the Directory of Nutrition Services for Waterloo Region. How to request a nutrition presentation The Region of Waterloo Dietitians do not routinely conduct nutrition presentations. Group leaders wanting a nutrition presentation may consider the following two options:
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Want to promote healthy eating but don’t have the time? We’ve made it easy for you with our Healthy Eating Communications Corner newsletter that gets delivered straight to your inbox. Get access to FREE resources, newsletter content and sample social media posts with photos that you can copy and paste! The newsletter will also feature reliable websites, best-practices, nutrition updates, upcoming events and pre-made healthy eating messages that you can share with clients and employees. |
Additional Resources
- Best Buys: Using Canada's food guide
- Better Foods to Buy
- Buying Healthy Food through a Group Purchasing Organization
- Diet Quality in Waterloo Region
- Donating Healthy and Safe Food
- Everything in Moderation
- Guide for Serving Food and Beverages at Meetings and Events
- Guide to Eating Fish
- School Lunch your Kids Will Munch
- Using Willpower to Make Food Choices
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