Diet and exercise are the cornerstone of good health.  We should get a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate to high intensity exercise 5 out of 7 days a week, or 1 hour of lower intensity exercise.  You can get ideas on the Participaction web site. 

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An excellent source of healthy diet information is the new Canada Food Guide, which is now science based with noticeably less food industry influence compared to prior ones.

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The recommendations of the new Canada Food Guide are quite similar to the "Mediterranean Diet" as promoted by Dr.Walter Willet of the Harvard School of Public Health, and which many studies support. The best source for information on this diet would be his book: "Eat, Drink, and be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating".  This has evolved into the Portfolio diet: click on your language for the English handout and here for the French handout.  Or go to the Canadian Cardiovascular Society website ccs.ca/portfolio-diet-resources/ There​ is also the portfoliodiet.app that can help you track your progress and has recipe ideas. 

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For people with Diabetes (and surely a healthy diet for those without as well!) - an excellent diet plan can be found in the book "Dr.Neil Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes".  Dr.Neil Barnard has published research articles on this diet.

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For heart disease (and again healthy for those without as well!) - an excellent diet plan can be found in the book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Dr.Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr.  Dr.Esselstyn has published research articles on this diet.

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​A great website with healthy recipes for a variety of cultural heritages is: OldWaysPT.org (select recipes from the top bar)​.

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A great website about what scientific studies have reported on nutrition is: NutritionFacts.org and this same group has a podcast called "Nutrition Facts with Dr.Greger".

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Note if you have chronic kidney disease you may need special diets that your kidney clinic nutritionists will talk to you about.

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