Northern Health Promotes Healthy Eating in the Workplace
Prince George, B.C. – Northern Health is encouraging healthy eating in the workplace this month.
The Eating 9-5 campaign ties in with Nutrition Month, which is celebrated annually in March.
“The workplace really is an ideal setting to promote healthy eating,” says Marianne Bloudoff, a registered dietitian with Northern Health’s population health team. “We spend one third of our day if not more at the workplace and that doesn’t include our commute time, so it’s a significant portion of our day.”
She says the goal of the program, which includes weekly themes, is to get Northerners thinking about food choices during the workday.
“To look at making some positive changes, even if it’s just one little change, that’s great. Sometimes our only option is a vending machine, so then we want to make a choice in that vending machine that might be a better option.”
Bloudoff says it doesn’t mean swearing off on snacks either.
“It’s not about having a cookie every once in a while, because we all need treats during our day, it’s just taking a critical look at our workplace and eating environment.”
And while she doesn’t have statistics comparing the health of Northerners to others in the province, she admits there are some barriers to healthy eating up here.
“Some very specific challenges, just with geography and healthy living. If you live in a more remote community, it can be harder to get in fresh vegetables and fresh fruit, those kinds of things,” she says.
“Or if you have a job that keeps you on the road a lot and you’re having to stop at convenience stores or fast food restaurants.”
Though the contest started the beginning of this month, she says it’s not to late to participate.
You can learn more here.
Comments
There is a team that can be deleted.. The northern health population health team.. Talk about a make work project.
is it make work or job justification????
Must of finished counting paper clips
Wow, what would we do without Northern Health telling us to eat right, or the RCMP telling us to drive safe in the winter. Thank goodness for the news telling us to drink lots of fluids when it’s hot out as well.
The previous 4 posters; Next time you’re out in public take a moment to look around you & count the morbidly obese people around you. Not the heavy set or mildly obese, the truly heart attack waiting to happen morbidly obese. I guarantee you will be shocked. Now do the same at your place of employment. Obesity is at an all time high, diabetes is rampant, all of this can be traced directly to eating habits. Somebody wants to promote healthy eating & living & all you 4 can do is criticize? Wow. Personally I get PO’d when I’m standing in line at the grocery store watching the truly obese person ahead of me with a couple of obese kids in tow stocking up with a cart full of junk food. That’s my tax dollars that are going to pay for someone & their kids’ future health problems that easily could be curbed with a little education.
UHNBC sells smokies, hotdogs, pepperoni pizza’s and perogies smothered in bacon, onions, butter and sour cream in their cafeteria. Now these are heart health meals.
Good points detoe44. I too can’t believe how many times I have seen a person who generally looks unhealthy stocking up on all the wrong things. If you are child of this person this becomes your norm. Some need people from the outside to point them in the right dirrection in many different ways. The fact is we are not all well educated in a diversity of life skills.
Maybe have Northern Health Lobby the Government for a $15 an hr. min. wage and many families can eat a lot healthier.
Detoe44. Do you actually think people don’t know about nutrition and health ? There is so much information out there about it, the Internet etc. If people still choose a unhealthy life style all the promotion, education you try is just wasted on them.
Also heart health label is a joke.. Pay enough and you get the label.. Same with organics.. It’s just a reason to charge more.. Every province, every state has a different definition of what organic is.. Lots of chemicals are still used to grow this produce as some provinces and states still permit their use and they fall under the organic umbrella. I laugh at the people buying organic food thinking it’s better…lol
detoe, good comment, I agree with you, but aren’t you worried that your statement could hurt somebody’s feelings?
oldman1, if people would actually take the time and put in even the tiniest bit of effort, they would find that it is actually a lot less expensive than one might think to feed a family healthy meals! Potatoes carrots, onions and celery are cheap! A pack of pork chops or some ground beef can go a long way for not a lot of money. A small roast, potatoes, carrots, onions, perhaps a salad and some buns is easily far less expensive than a meal made with pre-packaged foods or even a trip to McDonalds! Unfortunately, some people aren’t willing to put in the time and effort to cook a healthy meal! Perhaps you might wish to focus your attention on those individuals instead of constantly blaming our Provincial or Federal Governments, or are you just one of those people that want to blame Government for everything??
Hart guy.. you are correct… so many people go for fast and easy.. either to lazy to cook or not enough time. Anything processed is bad.. salt content through the roof to give it flavour.. we all know how bad fast food is.. but still a line up at them all during feeding time.
A home cooked meal is far superior to anything offered at a fast food place.. may take some prep time and clean up time..but its definitely worth it when it comes to taste.
Hart Guy- No governments are not wrong all the time but I am smart enough to recognize when people are being dumped on and smart enough to know when we need a change in government. The price of ground beef is not cheap – check it out, fresh vegetables including celery is expensive when not in season. And a small beef roast is not cheap – you would be fortunate to find one under $25 to feed a family of four unless one wants tough old horse meat.
Oldman you can’t feed a family of four at a fast food place for under $25 and there is no nutrition and no leftovers. When cooking lower cuts of meat that’s what the slow cooker is for :)
P Val- I am talking money here. For some people it is very hard to eat healthy at $10 an hr after you pay rent,utilities and maybe fuel for the car if you can afford one. Might not be enough money left over to buy a slow cooker and you will find yourself cooking a squirrel over an open fire in your back yard.
P Val; “Detoe44. Do you actually think people don’t know about nutrition and health ? There is so much information out there about it, the Internet etc.” . Yes, I think people do not know enough about nutrition & health & the internet is one of the biggest culprits. There is so much misinformation out there that is being touted as “science & fact” that it is down right scary. I hear a varied theme almost constantly from friends & colleagues of how no matter how much that they exercise they cannot shed mass or their waistline is not decreasing…as they down an entire container of HagenDaaz or stop of at McDonalds on their way home from the gym. Constantly I hear ” Oh I read on the ‘net that because I exercise regularly I can ” cheat” “, yet if they were to confess their dietary habits to a nutritionist, said nutritionist would poop the proverbial egg roll. I think that any true & tried information that can get through to our society to get us to change our eating habits is a good thing.
I do agree about the so called “heart check” scam that is being perpetrated on us. Unfortunately a lot of people believe it & the sad thing is the producers who truly are marketing healthy alternatives are being painted with the same brush.
detoe44 and all – HUGE difference between a registered dietitian (minimum 4yrs university and 1 year unpaid internship – if you are adept enough to get one – if not 4yrs down the drain!) and a nutritionist online in as little as 6 months)! just sayin’
That’s a good point Iwonder. Truly one of the saddest things about our society’s dietary crisis is that most healthy eating is plain old common sense, the kind of eating advice that we got from our grandparents ( minus the extra gravy & apple pie;). Using fresh ingredients, eating until you are not hungry, getting regular exercise & sleep. In our day & age with so much processed food & like P Val stated, taking the easy, quick alternative, it is difficult sometimes to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Northern Health is a joke , I got a letter that stated after 2 and a half years they recently disc0vered thaterrors had been occurring in the cleaning steps following the use of certain endoscopes and the use of colon,bile ducts, esophagus, stomach and small intestines. My dr. sent me to the lab on reading this letter . Now I hear they won an award .
There’s been a decent amount of research showing that junk food is the perfect combination of ingredients to trigger the pleasure receptors in our brain and create addiction. We all know drugs are bad, tobacco is bad, too much alcohol is bad, but, we still have people going to excess, and now we have junk food that is similar. Education is almost pointless on an addict. And to add to the problem, junk food is relatively cheap compared to healthy food.
Junk food is killing us and I agree with detoe44 the obesity epidemic is going to cripple our economy as more people leave the workforce due to obesity related illness, leaving fewer to carry the load. As a side issue, the health budget is so huge now, there is little wiggle room for governments on the issues of Education, Safety, and other areas we feel they under spend, forcing them to either continue deficit spending, or cut in any area but health.
I wonder if we should adopt a tobacco type strategy with junk food, taxing it to the point where it’s no longer the most economical choice.
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