Healthy Eating

The Population & Public Health Program works with partners across the province to promote healthy eating.

Our activities

The Population and Public Health Program works with partners at PHSA and a variety of stakeholders across the province to promote healthy eating by:

Facilitating dialogue and partnering with other sectors to identify problems, implement solutions and evaluate impact of healthy eating initiatives and programs
Providing timely, credible and relevant information and resources on healthy eating
Supporting the development of food literacy by encouraging the sharing of food, food skills, practices and knowledge, within and across communities
Supporting the creation of food environments that provide opportunities to make healthy food choices where British Columbians live, learn, work and play
Informing and influencing nutrition policy development

Our current focus areas include:

Coordinating the development of provincial healthy eating resources using a culturally safe and health equity lens
Increasing food literacy through the delivery of the Food Skills for Families program
Identifying gaps in nutrition knowledge and assessing needs for nutrition resources in public health and primary care
Managing Informed Dining in Health Care

Provincial healthy eating resource development

In collaboration with the BC Ministry of Health, HealthLinkBC, First Nations Health Authority and the regional health authorities, we manage the development of provincial healthy eating resources for health professionals, educators and the general public, which include but are not limited to the following:

Pediatric Nutrition Guidelines (Birth to Six Years) for Health Professionals

The BC Pediatric Nutrition Guidelines (Birth to Six Years) for Health Professionals are evidence-informed nutrition and feeding guidelines for healthy full-term infants and children from birth to six years of age. Health professionals can use the guidelines to provide high-quality care related to feeding and to identify potential nutrition risk. The BC Pediatric Nutrition Guidelines (Birth to Six Years) for Health Professionals were updated December 2022..

Teach Food First

Teach Food First is a toolkit for educators developed by the BC Ministry of Health and the BC Centre for Disease Control in partnership with public health dietitians, BC teachers, and Indigenous Knowledge Keepers.

The toolkit promotes a food exploration approach that supports life-long eating competence as a key goal for nutrition education for students in grades K-8. It includes:

Practical tips for educators
Grade-specific lessons that connect to BC curriculum
Lessons that explore Indigenous foods and the lands, waters and forests they come from
Answers to frequently asked questions about teaching Canada’s food guide
Suggested responses to common questions students ask about nutrition
Additional activities and educator resources

Vitamin D Recommendations for Perinatal women

‎This background paper discusses the current scientific evidence for vitamin D’s role in health for perinatal women and healthy term infants (birth – 12 months), as well as provides information on sources of vitamin D for British Columbians. This paper supports health professionals in providing informed recommendations to their clients to ensure adequate vitamin D intakes for perinatal women and healthy term infants. A practice support tool was created for health professionals to complement the background paper.

Provincial healthy eating programs

BCCDC manages the following healthy eating programs:

Food Skills for Families

Food Skills for Families (FSF) is a hands-on skill building program developed by dietitians and educators. It is offered as a six-session, community centred program. It strives to create welcoming environments where food, food knowledge, practices, skills and traditions are shared amongst and between participants and FSF facilitators. With a focus on developing healthy relationships with and through food, the program engages the following priority populations: lower income, newcomers, Punjabi, Indigenous and seniors. All participants experience the rich social benefits of cooking and eating together while learning and sharing cooking skills, food knowledge and basic nutrition.

Informed Dining in Health Care

The Informed Dining in Health Care program requires retail food service establishments located in health care facilities to provide customers nutrition information with a focus on calories and sodium. The program was developed in consultation with BC's health authorities and has been fully implemented since 2016.

Reports & resources

Food Skills for Families Program Evaluation – 2019/2020

Evaluation report highlighting findings related to program impact and its influence on healthy eating patterns and food literacy and based on feedback from program participants, community facilitators and host organizations. The evaluation was led by the Food Skills for Families team as part of the Population and Public Health Program at BC Centre for Disease Control, in consultation with the BC Ministry of Health. Released January 2021.

2019/2020 Evaluation Report

BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program Evaluation – 2017/2018

Summary report highlighting key findings related to program awareness among students, teachers/coordinators and families, awareness of and perceptions on local foods, program impact on students and their families, and program use by teachers to support the delivery of the BC Curriculum. Released November 2018.

Summary Report

Informed Dining in Health Care Evaluation

In 2017, an evaluation of Informed Dining in Health Care was conducted to assess the impact of the program on health care food retail customers. The evaluation was led by the Population and Public Health Program at BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), in consultation with the BC Ministry of Health and food services representatives from the regional health authorities. Released April 2018

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Provincial Health Services Authority