March is Nutrition Month, a public awareness campaign on the importance of healthy eating. This month, we delve into the newly-released Canada Food Guide and highlight healthy recipes, tips and practices to support overall health and wellbeing.

Welcome to Canada’s new and improved food guide

It’s a simple idea: that eating should be a simple pleasure. The new Canada Food Guide embraces more of a holistic approach to food and nutrition. It focuses on the context of eating, including what, when and how we eat, and less on food groups and servings. The guide has also evolved to emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grain foods and protein.

The new food guide encourages you to:

• Explore the new features of Canada’s food guide
• Learn how to adopt and maintain a healthy eating pattern
• Make it a habit to eat a variety of healthy foods each day
• Discover three ways to practice healthy snacking and why healthy snacks are good for you

Sharpen your food skills

Because food preparation skills don’t come naturally, it can be challenging to prepare healthy foods. But like any other skill, it just takes practice and guidance. Developing your food prep skills can be the key to creating meals from fresh ingredients.

If you’re fairly new to cooking, start small and simple to boost your abilities and confidence. Even seasoned home cooks may learn a thing or two from the following resources:

• How-to kitchen technique videos (safefoodTV)
• Simple and fun cooking videos (Everyday Food with Sarah Carey)
• Quick and easy recipe videos (Jamie Oliver’s FoodTube)
• Minimalist Baker recipes require 10 ingredients or less and can be done within 30 minutes or less. 
• Veggie and tofu stir fry (My Recipes)

Feed your food knowledge

Purchasing minimally processed foods and prepping your own meals and snacks are the best ways to keep your nutritional health in check. Here are some Nutrition Month recipes and resources to help you in the kitchen:

• How to cook more often 
• Learn how to limit highly processed foods 

Eat more plant proteins, drink more water

The new food guide also incorporates a greater variety of protein sources and emphasizes mindful eating, drinking water and awareness of food marketing and food labels. It’s not about portion but about proportion. Here are some healthy tips:

• Water is the drink of choice to quench thirst. 
• Discover protein foods 
• Be mindful of your eating habits 

Will you be making some changes based on the new Canada Food Guide?

*Reposted with permission by UBC HR. This article first appeared in the Healthy UBC Newsletter on March 4, 2019.