Christina Tucker and the dietitians at Health Canada have big plans for Nutrition Month

Leading up to Nutrition Month, Dietitians of Canada will catch up with dietitians and nutrition students to find out how they’ll be promoting and celebrating this year. Get inspired, then start planning your own Nutrition Month activities and events! Visit www.nutritionmonth2020.ca for details. 

We spoke with Christina Tucker, a dietitian with the Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion at Health Canada to find out what her team is planning for March.

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DC: What are you planning for Nutrition Month, Christina?

Christina​: Our team of dietitians at Health Canada are very excited for Nutrition Month! This year’s theme aligns well with the new Canada’s Food Guide, which goes beyond food and emphasizes that healthy eating is more than the foods you eat.

At Health Canada, we are planning to provide Canadians with actionable tips to help apply Canada’s Food Guide in every day life, both on social media and in our monthly e-newsletter.  At the same time, we will also be working to promote Nutrition Month to our colleagues.

We are thrilled to have dietitians across Canada spread the word that healthy eating is so much more than food, and we can’t wait to see how they will embrace this year’s theme!


DC: Do you have any advice for dietitians as they plan their Nutrition Month activities?

Christina: There are so many different ways to promote how healthy eating is about more than food. I would encourage dietitians to take advantage of the Food Guide resources. Whether you are looking for guidance to support your policies and programs, or information to share with your clients, the Food Guide has a lot to offer. 

Canada’s Dietary Guidelines provide important information on food skills, which directly connects to this year’s theme. The Food Guide Snapshot emphasises that healthy eating is more than the foods you eat, but is also about where, when, why and how you eat.  In addition to recommending a variety of healthy foods each day, the Food Guide recommends being mindful of your eating habits, cooking more often, planning what you eat, enjoying your food, and including culture and food traditions as part of healthy eating.   

Each healthy eating recommendation has its own webpage that provides actionable tips on how to apply it in every day life.  We also have a series of webpages on topics such as grocery shopping, healthy eating on a budget, and diets and food trends. My personal favorites are the “healthy eating anywhere” and “healthy eating for life stages” webpages. With topics like healthy eating at home and at work to healthy eating for teens and for seniors, they make the healthy eating recommendations relevant no matter who or where you are!  
If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you and your patients to check out Canada.ca/FoodGuide and subscribe to our Food Guide monthly e-newsletter for updates, tips and other resources.


Read more about what other dietitians have planned for Nutrition Month:
Nola Thompson celebrates Nutrition Month with a cooking club
In-store dietitian and food photographer Cindy Bekkedam gets ready for Nutrition Month
Ken Mullock and fellow students celebrates Nutrition Month with a program for faculty
Sally Ho to hold workshop on emotional eating to highlight 'how we eat' as part of Nutrition Month


Want to share your Nutrition Month plans with us? Contact nutritionmonth@dietitians.ca.