Nutrition & Healthy Eating

Primary Care 204-388-2053 Email

There are great benefits to leading a healthy lifestyle. Eating healthy and being active are two things you can do to lower your risk of disease, increase energy, maintain a healthy body weight, build stronger muscles and bones and improve your overall health. Families and caregivers play an important role in creating a positive eating environment. The early years are a great time for young children to discover new foods and develop a love of eating healthy. Our teenagers also need to eat healthy because they are still growing and developing. For more information on healthy eating, access the Canada Food Guide available in 10 different languages.

Registered Dietitians – here to support you!

Registered Dietitians are essential members of the health care team and are located across the region in hospitals, personal care homes, community settings, primary care centres and clinics. Registered Dietitians are part of the Chronic Disease Education Teams and My Health Teams.

Dietitians provide support through outpatient nutritional counseling, group facilitation on topics including: balanced eating and portion control, reading nutrition labels, grocery shopping, meal planning and healthy cooking.

Would you like to see a registered dietitian in your community for nutrition counseling, but don’t know where to go? Call Manitoba’s Dial-a-Dietitian hotline 1-877-830-2892 to find out where you can access a registered dietitian or receive personal, professional and free nutrition information.

Resources

• Chronic Disease Self-Referral Form
• Eating Disorders
• Nutrition News
• Craving Change Sessions

School Health

Health promotion staff known as healthy living facilitators work with schools and school divisions to support healthy school communities. Facilitators work on primary prevention initiatives including analysis of issues and using evidence-informed approaches in health promotion.

Public health nurses also provide support to schools by connecting you to other Southern Health-Santé Sud community resources. Schools are invited to connect with a public health nurse for current information on a variety of health-related topics such as substance use, healthy relationships, positive well-being, reproductive health, communicable disease and sexually transmitted infections. Dependent on the needs identified by the school community, the public health nurse may spend time at the school on a regular basis to enhance access to health information and services to the students. Public health nurses also provide the provincial immunization school-based program in schools.

Supporting students

One-on-one health counseling is also available for students through a self-referral, referral from a school guidance counsellor or teacher. If you are a student, you are welcome to contact a public health nurse directly to arrange a confidential discussion in which case parental permission or consent is not required. If applicable, the public health nurse may refer you to another health care provider such as Mental Health and Addictions. We are here to support you.

Resources

• Manitoba Healthy Schools