Healthy Eating Resources
Find Balance - Eat Healthily
This healthy eating resource was created by Caroline Lyster, Lap Soon Moo Young, Nycole Graff as part of the NURS 433 Remote Community Engagement Clinical program.
Eat Better. We’ve done the planning. All you need to do is cook.
What’s for dinner?
That’s a question that many of us don’t think about until 5:59 p.m. after a busy day of school or work. Leaving it this late often leaves take out or convenience foods as the only viable option, and while these do provide the calories that a body needs to get through the day they often also contain a lot of extra fat or sodium, and may not meet the Canada Food Guide recommendations in terms of their proportion of grains, protein, and vegetables or fruit.
Why does this matter? An unhealthy diet increases your risk of developing cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Making healthier choices, especially when you’re young, reduces these risks.
That being said: we know that being a student is stressful, and needing to (1) decide what you’re going to eat, (2) make sure it’s healthy, (3) buy all the groceries, and (4) cook the darn thing can be overwhelming and is often pretty low on your priority list during come final exam time. That’s where we come in!
We have created a sample week meal plan that covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. All of these recipes have been tested, and we’ve taken care to ensure that they have the right proportions of grains, protein, and vegetables or fruits. There are also vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options.
Finally, we made your shopping list: all you need to do is take it to the store and you’ll come home with everything that you need for the entire week!
Our hope is that all of this makes healthy eating seem a little more approachable and that knowing we’ve already done some of the work for you helps you be a little less stressed out during this exam season!