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Content Map Terms
Healthy Eating & Physical Activity Categories
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Active for Health
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Age and Stage
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Infants, Children and Youth
- Child Who Is Overweight: Evaluating Nutrition and Activity Patterns
- Child Who Is Overweight: Medical Evaluation
- Eczema and Food Allergy in Babies and Young Children
- Food Allergy Testing
- HealthLink BC Eating and Activity Program for Kids
- Healthy Eating for Children
- Helping Your Child Who Is Overweight
- Interactive Tool: What Is Your Child's BMI?
- Reducing Risk of Food Allergy in Your Baby
- Snack Ideas for Preschoolers
- Your Toddler: Nutritious Meals for Picky Eaters
- Physical Activity for Infants, Children and Youth
- Older Adults
- Living well during your pregnancy
- Menopause and Perimenopause
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Infants, Children and Youth
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Being Active
- Health Benefits of Physical Activity
- SMART Goal Setting
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Getting Started
- Getting Started: Adding More Physical Activity to Your Life
- Quick Tips: Fitting Physical Activity Into Your Day
- Quick Tips: Getting Active as a Family
- Fitness: Adding More Activity To Your Life
- Getting Started With Flexibility and Exercise
- Fitness Machines
- Fitness Clothing and Gear
- The Three Types of Physical Activity
- Overcoming Barriers: Adding More Physical Activity to your Life
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Choosing Your Activity
- How to Choose Safe Equipment
- Exercising While Sitting Down
- Fitness DVDs and Videos
- Tips for Picking the Right Activities
- Quick Tips: Getting in Shape Without Spending Money
- Fitness: Walking for Wellness
- Walk Your Way To Health
- Tai Chi and Qi Gong
- Water Exercise
- Yoga
- Bob's Story: Biking for Health
- Exercise and Physical Activity Ideas
- Fitness: Choosing Activities That Are Right for You
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Staying Active
- Fitness: Getting and Staying Active
- Fitness: Making It a Habit
- Quick Tips: Having Enough Energy to Stay Active
- Quick Tips: Staying Active at Home
- Quick Tips: Staying Active When You Travel
- Physical Activity in Winter
- Quick Tips: Staying Active in Cold Weather
- Quick Tips: Staying Active in Hot Weather
- Injury Prevention and Recovery
- Fitness and Exercise Learning Centre
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Conditions
- Diabetes and Hypoglycemia
- Eating Disorders
- Eating Right When You Have More Than One Health Problem
- Being Active When You Have Health Problems
- Physical Activity and Disease Prevention
- Anemia
- Arthritis and Osteoporosis
- Physiotherapy for Low Back Pain
- Low Back Pain: Exercises to Reduce Pain
- Cancer
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Digestive
- Managing Constipation in Adults
- Healthy Eating Guidelines for People with Diverticular Disease
- Fibre and Your Health
- Lower Fibre Food Choices
- Eating Guidelines For Gallbladder Disease
- Healthy Eating Guidelines for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Lactose Intolerance
- Healthy Eating Guidelines for People with Peptic Ulcers
- Bowel Disease: Changing Your Diet
- Celiac Disease: Eating a Gluten-Free Diet
- GERD: Controlling Heartburn by Changing Your Habits
- Food Allergies
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Heart
- Cardiac Rehabilitation
- Coronary Artery Disease: Exercising for a Healthy Heart
- DASH Diet Sample Menu
- Healthy Eating Guidelines for People Taking Warfarin Anticoagulants
- Healthy Eating to Lower High Blood Pressure
- Healthy Diet Guidelines for a Healthy Heart
- Heart Arrhythmias and Exercise
- Heart Failure: Eating a Healthy Diet
- Heart Failure: Track Your Weight, Food and Sodium
- Heart-Healthy Eating
- Heart-Healthy Eating: Fish and Fish Oil
- Heart-Healthy Lifestyle
- High Blood Pressure: Nutrition Tips
- High Cholesterol: How a Dietitian Can Help
- Modify Recipes for a Heart-Healthy Diet
- Peripheral Arterial Disease and Exercise
- Physical Activity Helps Prevent a Heart Attack and Stroke
- High Blood Pressure: Using the DASH Diet
- Healthy Eating: Eating Heart-Healthy Foods
- Heart Health: Walking for a Healthy Heart
- Exercise and Fibromyalgia
- Kidney and Liver
- Lupus: Healthy Eating
- Mutiple Sclerosis
- Parkinson's Disease and Exercise
- Spinal Cord
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Food and Nutrition
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Eating Habits
- Developing a Plan for Healthy Eating
- Drinking Enough Water
- Emotional Eating
- Food Journaling: How to Keep Track of What You Eat
- Healthy Eating: Getting Support When Changing Your Eating Habits
- Healthy Eating: Making Healthy Choices When You Eat Out
- Healthy Eating: Making Healthy Choices When You Shop
- Healthy Eating: Overcoming Barriers to Change
- Healthy Eating: Starting a Plan for Change
- Healthy Eating: Staying With Your Plan
- Plant-based Foods
- Sugary Drinks and Other Beverages
- Sodium
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Nutrients
- Added Sugars
- Antioxidants
- Antioxidants and Your Diet
- Carbohydrate Foods
- Carbohydrate, Proteins, Fats and Blood Sugar
- Choosing a Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
- Cholesterol and Triglycerides: Eating Fish and Fish Oil
- Comparing Sugar Substitute
- Dietary Fats and Your Health
- Dietary Guidelines for Good Health
- Dietary Reference Intake
- Eating Protein
- Calcium and Your Health
- Food Sources of Vitamin K
- Getting Enough Calcium and Vitamin D
- Getting Enough Fibre
- Getting Enough Folic Acid
- Getting Enough Iron
- Getting Enough Potassium
- Healthy Eating: Cutting Unhealthy Fats From Your Diet
- Healthy Eating: Taking Calcium and Vitamin D
- High Potassium Eating
- High Potassium Foods
- Iron and Your Health
- Iron in Foods
- Low-Potassium Foods
- Major Nutrients in Food
- Minerals: Their Functions and Sources
- Non-Milk Sources of Calcium
- Quick Nutrition Check for Protein
- Quick Nutrition Check for Protein: Sample Menus
- Quick Nutrition Check for Vitamin B12
- Types of Fats
- Vitamins: Their Functions and Sources
- Food Labels
- Plan, Shop and Prepare
- Food, Water and Beverage Safety
- Canada's Food Guide FAQs
- Food Security
- Vegetarian Diets
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Eating Habits
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Healthy Weights
- About Healthy Weights
- Genetic Influences on Weight
- Screening for Weight Problems
- Unplanned Weight Loss
- Quick Tips: Cutting Calories
- Physical Activity for Weight Loss
- Weight Loss by Limiting Calories
- Tips for Maintaining Weight Loss
- Choosing a Weight-Loss Program
- Boosting Your Metabolism
- Exercise Helps Maggie Stay at a Healthy Weight
- Healthy Eating: Recognizing Your Hunger Signals
- Hunger, Fullness, and Appetite Signals
- Weight Management
- Weight Management: Stop Negative Thoughts
- Maggie's Strategies for Eating Healthy
- Maggie: Making Room for Worth-It Foods
- Maggie's Story: Making Changes for Her Health
- Weight Management Centre
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Policies and Guidelines
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Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools
- Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales: Making Bake Sales Delicious and Nutritious
- Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales: Boosting the Sales of Nutritious Food in Schools
- Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales: Food Fundraiser Ideas for Schools
- Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales: Involving Everyone in Implementing the Guidelines
- Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales: Selling Food and Beverages at School Sporting Events
- Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales: Planning Healthy Cafeteria Menus
- Healthier Choices in Vending Machines
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Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools
- Provincial Nutrition Resource Inventory
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Forms and Tools
- Walking Log
- Exercise Planning Form
- Physical Activity Log
- Par-Q+ and ePARmed-X+
- Target Heart Rate
- Interactive Tool: What is Your Target Heart Rate
- Borg-Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale
- Overview of BC Provincial and Federal Nutrition Benefits Programs
- Body Mass Index (BMI)
- Body Mass Index (BMI) for Adults
- Interactive Tool: Do Your BMI and Waist Size Increase Your Health Risks?
- Measuring Your Waist
- Body Fat Testing
- Fitness: Using a Pedometer, Step Counter, or Wearable Device
- Email a HealthLinkBC Dietitian
- Email a Qualified Exercise Professional
British Columbia Specific Information
Healthy eating is important to your child’s growth and development. To learn about breastfeeding, formula feeding, your baby’s first foods, feeding your toddler, food allergies and food safety, visit our Healthy Eating Infants and Children web page. Canada’s Food Guide recommends a balanced diet that includes choosing a variety of different foods. For more information on choosing a balanced diet, visit Canada’s Food Guide.
Physical activity goes hand in hand with a balanced diet to provide a healthy lifestyle for your child. For information on physical activity guidelines for children, visit HealthLinkBC’s Physical Activity for Everyone webpage, the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines: For the Early Years (0-4 Years) or For Children and Youth.
You may also call 8-1-1 to speak to a registered dietitian, Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., or you can Email a HealthLinkBC Dietitian.
How to know if your child is overweight
"Overweight" and "at risk of overweight" are terms sometimes used when referring to children who weigh more than expected. Doctors use growth charts or the body mass index (BMI) to measure a child's weight in relation to his or her height. To find out your child's BMI, use this Interactive Tool: Is Your Child at a Healthy Weight?
If you have concerns that your child is overweight or at risk of becoming so, first ask your doctor to review your child's growth charts and medical history with you.
- If your child's BMI has been high on the growth chart from birth, this may be his or her healthy size and growth rate. He or she may simply be bigger than other children of the same gender and age.
- If your child's BMI pattern has suddenly jumped from a lower range to a higher range on the growth chart, your child may be at risk of becoming overweight. Your doctor will carefully track growth over time, watching for a change in therate of weight gain.
- If your family has a history of obesity, your child has a higher risk of becoming overweight.
Sometimes a child's BMI and weight can increase without a child being at risk of having too much body fat. For instance, before and during puberty it is normal for children to have a significant gain in weight before they begin to grow in height. Also, children who are very muscular (such as children who are very active in sports), may have a high BMI but have normal or even lower-than-normal amounts of body fat.
If your child's BMI and growth pattern suggest a weight problem, your doctor will give your child an examination that looks for health problems that can cause weight gain. This may include questions about eating and physical activity habits. Regular checkups for health problems will also be important over time.
Health Tools
Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health.
Weight management goals for your child who is overweight
Your job is to offer nutritious food choices at meals and snack times. You decide what, where, and when your family eats. Your child's job is to choose how much he or she will eat of the foods you serve. Your child even gets to decide whether to eat.
Do not restrict food. Food restriction causes children to ignore their internal hunger gauges. Children who have their food restricted often end up heavier, because they become anxious about food and eating. Anxiety about not getting enough to eat will often lead a child to overeat whenever he or she gets a chance. This causes the child to become less in touch with how hungry or full he or she is, and the child becomes more likely to eat more than his or her body needs. This can also happen when children or teens follow weight-loss diets. It doesn't work to put a child on a diet—you get the opposite effect.
Pay attention to behaviours that may be adding to weight gain, and then work to correct them. Then trust that your child will end up at the weight that is right for him or her.
If you are concerned about your child's weight, talk to your child's doctor. He or she can tell you if your child is gaining weight too quickly and can give you steps to take to help your child have a healthy weight.
How you can help your child
As a parent, your job is to give your child the tools for a healthy lifestyle and remain as relaxed as possible about the result.
To help your child eat well, use the same healthy eating approach with everyone in your family:
- Eat together as a family as much as possible. The entire family, regardless of each family member's weight, should be offered the same food choices at meals.
- Choose water instead of sugary drinks, such as sport drinks, soft drinks, fruit juices, and fruit-flavoured drinks. For some kids, cutting back on sugary drinks makes a big difference in balancing the calories that they take in and burn off.
- Remember that all foods, even less nutritious foods in small amounts, can fit into a healthy diet. Do not make any food item completely off limits. This may increase the desire for the forbidden food and can lead children to overeat when they get the chance.
- Avoid power struggles over food. Your job is to provide healthy choices at specific snack and mealtimes. It's your child's job to choose to eat or not eat.
- Have a regular meal and snack routine instead of snacking throughout the day. Schedule snacks for when your child is most hungry, such as after school or exercise.
- Offer nutritious food choices.
- Keep foods moderate in calories to help your child avoid getting too many calories. But don't make meals so low-calorie that your child can't feel full.
- Avoid using food as a reward, whether for an achievement or for "eating all your green beans." (The "nutritious food, then dessert" tactic makes the healthier food seem like a less desirable food.)
- Serve dessert as part of the meal to avoid the "dessert struggle." Offer healthier desserts, such as yogurt and fruit, more often than rich desserts. When you serve a rich dessert, it's okay to set out a single portion for each person.
To help your child develop a balance between the calories he or she takes in and burns off:
- Shift the focus away from weight and toward a healthy lifestyle by avoiding weighing your child every day. Think about not even using the bathroom scale.
- Move more. Make fun physical activity a part of your family's daily life.
- Set limits on your child's daily television and recreational screen time. Encourage outdoor play as often as possible. Children should have at least 1 hour of moderate to vigorous activity each day. The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) recommends limiting TV and recreational screen time to less than 1 hour a day for children 2 to 4 years old.footnote 1 Aim for 2 hours or less a day for children 5 years and older.footnote 2 And it's best for children younger than 2 to not watch TV, watch movies, or play games on a screen.footnote 1
As for any child with health concerns, make sure your child has all of the routine checkups and treatment that your doctor recommends.
Helping your child with social and emotional concerns
It doesn't take long for children to figure out that our culture and their peers idealize thinness. Children who are overweight are especially at risk of being teased and feeling alone. This can cause low self-esteem and depression.
For information about helping a child who is being teased, see the topic Bullying.
To help your child have greater health, confidence, and self-esteem, you can:
- Avoid talking in terms of your child's weight. How you talk about your child's body has a big impact on your child's self-image. Instead, talk in terms of your child's health, activity level, and other healthy lifestyle choices.
- Be a good role model by having a healthy attitude about food and activity. Even if you struggle with how you feel about your own body, avoid talk in front of your child about "being fat" and "needing to diet." Instead, talk about and make the same healthy lifestyle choices you'd like for your child.
- Encourage activities, such as sports and theatre. Physical activity helps build physical and emotional confidence. Try different types of sports and activities until your child finds one that he or she likes. Theatre can help a child project strength and confidence, even if he or she doesn't feel it at first.
- Encourage social involvement in community, church, and school activities, which build social skills and confidence.
- Help your child eat well by providing healthy food choices. Consider seeing a registered dietitian for guidance and new food ideas.
- Forbid any child (yours included) to tease another child about weight. Talk to your child's teachers and/or counsellors, if necessary.
Related Information
References
Citations
- Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (2016). Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (0-4 years): An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep. Available online: https://csepguidelines.ca/early-years-0-4.
- Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (2016). Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (ages 5-17 years): An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep. Available online:https://csepguidelines.ca/children-and-youth-5-17.
Credits
Current as of: March 1, 2023
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
John Pope MD - Pediatrics
Thomas M. Bailey MD - Family Medicine
Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine
Kathleen Romito MD - Family Medicine
Martin J. Gabica MD - Family Medicine
Rhonda O'Brien MS, RD, CDE - Certified Diabetes Educator
Current as of: March 1, 2023
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:John Pope MD - Pediatrics & Thomas M. Bailey MD - Family Medicine & Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine & Kathleen Romito MD - Family Medicine & Martin J. Gabica MD - Family Medicine & Rhonda O'Brien MS, RD, CDE - Certified Diabetes Educator
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Learn how we develop our content.
Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
Contact Physical Activity Services
If you have questions about physical activity or exercise, call 8-1-1 (or 7-1-1 for the deaf and hard of hearing) toll-free in B.C. Our qualified exercise professionals are available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm Pacific Time. You can also leave a message after hours.
Translation services are available in more than 130 languages.
HealthLinkBC’s qualified exercise professionals can also answer your questions by email.
Contact a Dietitian
If you have any questions about healthy eating, food, or nutrition, call 8-1-1 (or 7-1-1 for the deaf and hard of hearing) toll-free in B.C. You can speak to a health service navigator who can connect you with one of our registered dietitians, who are available 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. You can also leave a message after hours.
Translations services are available in more than 130 languages.
HealthLinkBC Dietitians can also answer your questions by email.