Your Care Instructions

Eating healthy foods can help lower your risk for disease. Healthy food gives you energy and keeps your heart strong, your brain active, your muscles working, and your bones strong.

A healthy diet includes a variety of foods from the food groups: vegetables and fruits, whole grain foods, and protein foods. Choose foods with healthy fats instead of saturated fats. Some people may eat more of their favourite foods from only one food group and, as a result, miss getting the nutrients they need. So, it is important to pay attention not only to what you eat but also to what you are missing from your diet. You can eat a healthy, balanced diet by making a few small changes.

How can you care for yourself at home?

Look at what you eat

• Keep a food diary for a week or two and record everything you eat or drink. Go to Canada's Food Guide at https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/ to check to see if you are eating a variety of foods.
• For a balanced diet every day, eat a variety of:
  • Vegetables and fruits. Be sure to include a variety of colours including pears, apples, berries, broccoli, cabbage, and leafy greens.
  • Whole grain foods. Enjoy a variety of whole grains including quinoa, whole grain pasta, whole grain bread, oatmeal, or brown rice.
  • Protein foods. Try protein foods like eggs, beans, fish, poultry, lean meat, peanut butter, milk, fortified soy beverages, yogurt, and cheese.
  • Healthy fats. Choose foods with healthy fats like nuts, seeds, avocado, fatty fish, and corn or olive oil.
  • Water. Make water your drink of choice.
• Learn how to read food labels for serving sizes and ingredients. Fast-food and convenience-food meals often contain few or no vegetables or fruits. Make sure you eat some vegetables or fruits to make the meal more nutritious.
• Look at your food diary. This will give you an idea of how much you are eating from each food group. See if you can find some ways to change your diet to make it more healthy.

Start small

• Do not try to make dramatic changes to your diet all at once. You might feel that you are missing out on your favourite foods and then be more likely to fail.
• Start slowly, and gradually change your habits. Try some of the following:
  • Use whole grain bread instead of white bread.
  • Use skim or low-fat milk instead of whole milk.
  • Eat brown rice instead of white rice, and eat whole grain pasta instead of white-flour pasta.
  • Try low-fat cheeses and low-fat yogurt.
  • Add more vegetables and fruits to meals and have them for snacks.
  • Add lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and onion to sandwiches.
  • Add fruit to yogurt and cereal.

Enjoy food

• You can still eat your favourite foods. You just may need to eat less of them. If your favourite foods are high in fat, salt, and sugar, limit how often you eat them, but do not cut them out entirely.
• Eat a wide variety of foods.

Make healthy choices when eating out

• The type of restaurant you choose can help you make healthy choices. Even fast-food chains are now offering more low-fat or healthier choices on the menu.
• Choose smaller portions, or take half of your meal home.
• When eating out, try:
  • A veggie pizza with a whole wheat crust or grilled chicken (instead of sausage or pepperoni).
  • Pasta with roasted vegetables, grilled chicken, or marinara sauce instead of cream sauce.
  • A vegetable wrap or grilled chicken wrap.
  • Broiled or poached food instead of fried or breaded items.

Make healthy choices easy

• Buy packaged, prewashed, ready-to-eat fresh vegetables, such as baby carrots, salad mixes, and chopped or shredded broccoli and cauliflower.
• Buy packaged, presliced fruits, such as melon or pineapple.
• Make water your drink of choice and stay hydrated without calories.
• Blend low-fat yogurt and frozen fruit or drained, canned fruit to make a smoothie for breakfast or a snack.