The Three Keys to a Healthy Lifestyle:
Physical activity, healthy eating and living smoke-free

Whoever said bad things come in threes couldn’t have been talking about leading a healthy lifestyle! In terms of positive lifestyle choices, ‘the big three’ refers to the three keys to living well and achieving health benefits: healthy eating, living smoke-free and regular physical activity, including participating in sport.

The Link Between Physical Activity and Good Nutrition

For children, a nutritious diet and daily physical activity are particularly crucial to healthy growth and development. In fact, this combination remains vital to good health throughout all stages of life.

Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide has long been the standard for healthy food choices. It’s designed for all Canadians over the age of two to help them feel and perform their best. The Food Guide does this by recommending a pattern for selecting foods to meet our needs for energy and essential nutrients. 

The amount of food you need every day from the four food groups depends on your age, body size, whether you are male or female, pregnant or breast-feeding and, of course, your level of physical activity. To learn more about the Food Guide, visit www.healthcanada.gc.ca/foodguide.

Canada’s Physical Activity Guides for children, youth, adults, older adults are available free of charge and recommend the amount and intensity of physical activity needed for different age groups. To access Canada’s Physical Activity Guides, please visit www.paguide.com or call 1-222-334-9769 (toll-free).

Using Canada’s Food Guide in tandem with Canada’s Physical Activity Guides is an excellent way to practice being active and eating well, so feeling good about yourself is easy! 

The Link Between Physical Activity and Tobacco Use

Not getting enough regular physical activity and tobacco use are two of the major preventable risk factors for a variety of chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Research studies show that for adolescents and young adults, those who participated in sports or other leisure-time physical activity were less likely to smoke. This link also exists for middle-aged and older adults.

Other studies show that children and youth who are physically active are less likely to start smoking in the first place. If you do smoke, one of the best and most important steps anyone can take on the road to better health is to quit smoking. Regular physical activity can make quitting easier.

If you want to stop smoking or want to prevent yourself from relapsing once you’ve decided to quit, use regular physical activity as a way to help you succeed. Increasing physical activity is also used by former smokers to stay smoke-free.

Smoking cessation programs that involve physical activity are helpful when trying to quit. For many, weight gain is often cited as a barrier to stop smoking. There is good evidence, however, that people who quit smoking and increase physical activity at the same time are more successful and less likely to gain weight as opposed to those who don’t combine physical activity with smoking cessation.

Smoking also affects your decision to start and maintain physical activity. For example, older adults who smoke are less likely to become active or maintain activity levels as they age. For more information and support to help you quit, please visit www.gosmokefree.ca.

SummerActive 2008 Helps Canadians Live Healthier Lifestyles

SummerActive is an initiative organized by the Government of Canada in collaboration with the Provinces and Territories. It is designed to encourage Canadians improve their health by adopting healthier lifestyles, including physical and sport activities, healthy eating and living tobacco-free.

The official SummerActive website also offers free tips, tools and information about being healthy in the summer. SummerActive focuses on physical activity, healthy eating, living smoke-free, participating in sport, as well as information specifically related to various population groups, such as children, youth, seniors and Aboriginal Peoples.

Canadians from every province and territory are eligible to win a variety of great prizes by registering a SummerActive event or recording how they participated in a SummerActive event between May 8th and June 20th on the official SummerActive website.