Food Guide Facts: Background for Educators and Communicators
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9. Making the Vitality Message Come Alive
This fact sheet focuses on how Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating
promotes the Vitality concept. This is done visually through the
silhouette figures on the bar side of the Food Guide and through the slogan:
Enjoy eating well, being active and feeling good about yourself. That's
Vitality.
What is Vitality?
Vitality is a program by Health Canada and Fitness Canada with
support from ParticipACTlON. The program is geared to help all Canadians
enjoy well-being through the integration of:
- eating well,
- being active, and
- feeling good about themselves.
The program name, Vitality, was chosen to reflect this integrated
approach to life. It projects the images of energy, action, good health
and a zest for living. These are the benefits that Canadians can enjoy
by adopting a Vitality approach to living. It's a fresh approach
to life that will lead to an enhanced quality of life and maintaining
a healthy weight.
From Weight Control to Vitality
Vitality evolved in response to issues around body weight, but
it is about overall well-being and not just about weight.
Over the last few decades, Canadians have become preoccupied with their
weight and body image. Billions are spent each year on losing weight.
Yet, weight loss programs are seldom successful and weight remains a problem
for many Canadians. Eating disorders, especially among young women, are
on the increase. This relentless and unrealistic pursuit of thinness in
our society is taking its toll on the physical and mental health of those
who struggle with weight in unhealthy ways.
Vitality was born out of the recognition that Canadians need
to shift their current focus on body weight to a more positive approach
to health...eating well, being active and feeling good about themselves.
One of the first steps in adopting the positive principles of Vitality
is to help
consumers view their own weight and the weight of others more realistically.
This can be done by positioning one's weight within a range of healthy
weights, using the method known as the Body Mass Index or BMI.
This method of plotting weight for height into a weight range does not
establish one "ideal" weight. Rather, it acknowledges that weight
naturally varies, even among people of the same height, because body builds
and shapes vary.
Whether they are at a healthy weight or they need to work toward one,
the Vitality program will help consumers focus on health and well-being...not
just weight.
The Vitality Approach
The three positive life choices that make up the Vitality approach
to living are described so that you can help consumers bring Vitality
into their lives.
Enjoy Eating Well
This is the very essence of Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating.
As part of the shift away from a preoccupation with weight to a more
positive approach to food, the message is healthy eating instead of dieting.
Eating well means:
- choosing a variety of foods from the four food groups: Grain Products,
Vegetables & Fruit, Milk Products, Meat & Alternatives;
- choosing whole grain and enriched products more often;
- choosing dark green and orange vegetables and fruit more often;
- choosing lower-fat foods more often, including lower-fat milk products,
leaner meats and foods prepared with little or no fat; and
- limiting salt, alcohol and caffeine.
Enjoy Being Active
There is a new philosophy about being active. It involves a growing acceptance
of the joy and value of all kinds of physical activity and movement. The
message is on physical activity instead of exercise.
The Vitality approach to being active is to engage in activities
that fit comfortably and conveniently with the usual routines of daily
life...at home, at work, with family and friends or during leisure time.
Being active means:
- ride a bike
- work off the day's stress by walking or wheeling home from work
- dribble a basketball
- mow the lawn
- wash the car
- shovel snow
- toboggan or skate
- walk the dog.
Being active is for everyone, at any time or place.
Feeling Good about Yourself
This aspect of Vitality is about people appreciating the importance
of taking charge of their lives and learning to like, accept and respect
themselves.
People with a healthy self-image and body image will have a stronger
sense of themselves, have more control over their lives and tend to feel
and look happier.
Here are some points you can make to consumers:
- Emphasize that building a positive body image is a long-term project.
Focus on enjoyable eating and being active to help gain greater body
acceptance and confidence.
- Encourage consumers to avoid using "thinness" as a measure
of success, and to start taking pride in their experiences and accomplishments
in life.
- Explain that feeling good about yourself means:
- to see yourself as more than a body - to look at the inside as
well as the outside;
- to define yourself by means other than the bathroom scales;
- to discover the joys and challenges of being active;
- to find pleasure in food and healthy eating; and
- to take time for relaxation during and after a hectic day.
Vitality in Action
The following vignette will help illustrate the Vitality approach
to everyday life.
John enjoys lunch in the cafeteria at work where most days, he joins
a group of friends. The conversation is never dull. Once or twice a week
John buys lunch from the cafeteria but today he opens a bagged lunch he
brought from home: a salmon sandwich on whole wheat bread, a couple of
fruit-filled cookies and an orange. As usual he buys a carton of milk
to go with lunch.
With 20 minutes left in the lunch break, John and a friend decide
to continue their conversation while taking a brisk walk.
John values his mid-day walk because it makes him feel good and energetic
for the rest of the afternoon.
In summary, the Vitality approach to living is making a psychological,
social and cultural shift away from body weight, dieting and exercise
to a focus on eating well, being active and feeling good about yourself.
For more information about the Vitality program, contact:
Nutrition and Healthy Eating Unit
Health Products and Food Branch
Health Canada
7th Floor
Jeanne Mance Building
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1B4
Telephone: (613) 957-8329
Special Projects Unit
Fitness Canada
Fitness and Amateur Sport
365 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0X6
Telephone: (613) 992-9204
Enjoy eating well, being active and feeling
good about yourself.
That's VITALITY
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