News

SIMCOE, ON, MARCH 2, 2007 – If you’ve got some good tips on how to cook up a fast but healthy meal, the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit wants to hear from you.

In conjunction with National Nutrition Month, The Health Unit is offering prizes and a chance to have your tips printed in local newspapers if you enter the Cook It Up Healthy Contest by its March 23 deadline.

“We want tips on two basic questions,” explained the Health Unit’s Kathy Page, a Public Health Dietitian. “How do you get your family together to share a meal and how do you prepare healthy meals when time is tight? Both of these goals are getting more difficult to achieve due to the faster pace of life and the challenge of balancing home and work life.”

National Nutrition Month is an initiative of Dietitians of Canada. This year’s theme is Cook It Up Healthy and focuses on helping Canadians realize the pleasures and benefits of home-cooked, healthy meals prepared and eaten with family.

Health Unit contest participants will receive a free gift and are entered in a draw for the Dietitians of Canada cookbook, Simple Great Food, which has a $30 value. Top tips will be published in local papers in April.

To enter, a participant should send his or her name, town, phone number and tips by March 23 to Cook It Up Healthy Contest, Attention: Health Action, Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit, P.O. Box 247, 12 Gilbertson Dr., Simcoe ON N3Y 4L1. You can also enter by email at [email protected] or fax at 519-426-9974. For more information, people may call Page at 519-426-6170 Ext. 3247.

“People want to eat well but it can be challenging to come up with a quick meal that is also healthy,” Page pointed out. “In fact, it’s tough enough these days to even get the whole family to sit down at the same time to have a meal. We want local residents to help the Health Unit and the community as a whole by sharing their own practical solutions to these challenges.”

The contest ties in with the Simple Great Food cookbook, which itself contains 250 recipes that are nutritionally balanced and delicious while offering food solutions to help family cooks manage their time in the kitchen.

There are a number of resources with practical food solutions to help consumers make healthier food choices. At www.dietitians.ca/eatwell, individuals can assess their food choices based on the revised Canada’s Food Guide. The new guide contains nutritional information based on age, gender and activity level. Consumers can create a one-day menu with Let’s Make a Meal and analyze their favourite recipes with the Recipe Analyzer.

Media contact:
Kathy Page, RD,
Public Health Dietitian, Population Health Team,
Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit,
519-426-6170 Ext. 3247 or 905-318-6623 Ext. 3247