Today’s focus is on eating a balanced diet for overall long-term health. It is the message that the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check program wants us to embrace…and recent data suggests that it’s working!

According to ISA, a Montreal-based nutritional counseling firm, Canadians are changing their food habits at an unprecedented rate. In the most recent phase of a four-part survey (October 2007), investigators found that a staggering 92% of Canadians surveyed had changed their eating habits because of the specific risks or benefits associated with food. Of this group, 66% reported that their motivation to change was mainly “to reduce the risk of developing a specific health condition or illness.” Pretty sound thinking considering that 75% of deaths in Canada are caused by four key disease categories – cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory – and Health Canada lists unhealthy eating as a key risk factor for all four!

“Canadians are making changes in their diets, but it takes a long time for the whole population to embrace new behaviour – whether it is due to income and access to healthy foods, competing priorities, or how to implement the knowledge in a practical way,” says Katie Jessop, Registered Dietitian with Health Check. “These recent study findings are very encouraging – it’s what we’re all working toward at Health Check.”

The program
Health Check, established by the Heart and Stroke Foundation almost 10 years ago, is an unbiased, third party food information program designed to help consumers make healthy food choices. Every food in the program is evaluated by the Foundation’s dietitians and must meet specific nutrient criteria before companies can use the Health Check symbol on food packaging or on restaurant menus. The program is based on Canada’s Food Guide. It aims to help Canadians improve their eating habits by clearly identifying a variety of products and menu items that contribute to an overall healthy diet.
Today there are over 1,300 products on grocery store shelves and more than 75 restaurant menu items that participate in the Health Check program. “Ours is a practical program for eating healthy,” reports Jessop. “Canadians are quite familiar with the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Health Check program. We have earned their trust, so when we review a product and add the symbol, it means something.”
The Health Check criteria reflects the approach and key messages of Canada’s Food Guide, but also takes into account labelling regulations, nutrition trends, Canadians’ eating habits, market realities and technological challenges that occur over time.
Registered dietitians evaluate every product to ensure they meet the nutrient criteria. They consider total fat, saturated fat, fibre, sodium, calcium and other vitamins and minerals depending on the food category.
Participating products are part of a healthy diet. All Health Check products include the Health Check symbol, along with a message explaining why it’s part of a healthy diet and a Nutrition Facts table printed on the package. The program is monitored to ensure that companies continue to meet the program’s criteria. If an ingredient changes, the manufacturer or restaurant owner must submit the product or menu item for review.

Making it simple & easy
Part of the Health Check objective is to educate consumers about healthy eating. In fact, the volume of information available about nutrition and eating habits is overwhelming to the average person. Add to the mix a growing number of food-industry generated ‘healthy’ logos on food from private food manufacturers and it’s easy to see why it might be easier to stick to old habits.

The Health Check approach seems to be about simplifying and streamlining the message. A variety of handy tools and resources are available at the website (www.healthcheck.org) including an archive of healthy recipes and shopping list templates such as a family meal planner, and an annual healthy living calendar. Parents can download a booklet specifically about making healthy choices for their children – it includes a colourful, easy-to-follow mix and match chart for meals so kids can get involved.

Additional resources can be found on Health Canada’s website (www.hc-sc.gc.ca) including Canada’s Food Guide (download a guide customized to your age and gender), regulations, labeling information, etc.

The key
Make your new behaviour simple and easy:

1. It’s as easy as 2, 3, 4 – make sure you have 2 food groups at snacks, 3 food groups at breakfast and 4 food groups at lunch and dinner.
2. Plan your breakfast – people who eat breakfast regularly tend to have a healthier weight than those who skip breakfast.
3. Learn how to read a label – Ingredients and Nutrition Facts tables have a lot of information, so know what you’re looking for.
4. Know when less is more – choose foods with lower % Daily Value (10% or less) of fat, saturated fat, trans-fat and sodium.
5. Get lots of the good stuff – aim for higher % Daily Value (25% or more) for nutrients such as fibre, calcium and iron.
6. Involve your children – inject some fun by making a tracking chart so they can keep track of how many servings they eat in each food group. You’ll see them start to make different snack choices to earn more checkmarks!
7. Choose wisely – know how to make healthy meal choices when eating out.

Stepping out
The fact is that Canadians are spending increasingly less time cooking at home.  According to a 2006 study of eating patterns in Canada, the average Canadian household visits a restaurant for a meal or snack 536 times each year. Unfortunately, what we gain in convenience, we most often lose in nutritional value. Learning how to make healthy food choices in restaurants seems to be an essential survival skill.
To this end, Health Check expanded its program into restaurants two years ago.  Feedback from participating restaurants and consumers has been very positive according to Jessop. “Consumers feel like we’ve done the work for them. They tell us that they are 70% more likely to go to a restaurant offering Health Check items – even it they have never been to the establishment before.”
Every ingredient of a meal is reviewed to ensure that the finished product meets the Health Check criteria and dietitians must be assured that the recipe will be made the same way every time. Similar to the grocery program, if an ingredient in the recipe changes, the recipe is reviewed. 
To date, four key restaurant chains have embraced the program and offer Health Check items on their menus – Swiss Chalet, Boston Pizza, Druxy’s Famous Deli and White Spot in addition to Healthy Heart Food Delivery company. “We certainly see the program growing because consumers want healthier food choices,” says Jessop.  “Restaurants recognize that by offering the consumer what they want, they have a competitive advantage.”  H&L

January is Health Check month......
Visit www.healthandlifestyle.ca homepage to get your 2008 Healthy Living Calendar and to learn how you can use Health Check to make eating healthier easy.

Astro BioBest • www.feelgoodinside.ca
Canadian Egg Marketing Agency • www.eggs.ca
Dare’s Simple Pleasures • www.darefoods.com