Eating a healthy, balanced diet is important for protecting your health and reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. A healthy diet includes eating plenty of vegetables and fruits, choosing whole grains, eating protein foods, limiting highly processed foods, drinking water as the primary beverage, and preparing meals at home using minimally processed ingredients. Following these dietary recommendations can help manage cholesterol and blood pressure levels, maintain a healthy weight, and control blood sugar.

1. How to eat healthy
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is one of the most important things you
can do to protect your health. In fact, up to 80% of premature heart
disease and stroke can be prevented through your life choices and habits,
such as eating a healthy diet and being physically active.
A healthy diet can help lower your risk of heart disease and stroke by:
improving your cholesterol levels
reducing your blood pressure
helping you manage your body weight
controlling your blood sugar.
What does a healthy, balanced diet look like?
Canada’s Food Guide recommends eating a variety of healthy foods each
day. This includes eating plant-based foods more often and choosing
highly-processed or ultra-processed foods less often.
A healthy diet includes:
1 .Eating lots of vegetables and fruit
This is one of the most important diet habits. Vegetables and fruit are
packed with nutrients (antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibre) and
help you maintain a healthy weight by keeping you full longer.
Fill half your plate with vegetables and fruit at every meal and snack.

2. 2 .Choosing whole grain foods
Whole grain foods include whole grain bread and crackers, brown or wild
rice, quinoa, oatmeal and hulled barley. They are prepared using the
entire grain. Whole grain foods have fibre, protein and B vitamins to help
you stay healthy and full longer.
Choose whole grain options instead of processed or refined grains like
white bread and pasta.
Fill a quarter of your plate with whole grain foods.
3 .Eating protein foods
Protein foods include legumes, nuts, seeds, tofu, fortified soy beverage,
fish, shellfish, eggs, poultry, lean red meats including wild game, lower fat
milk, lower fat yogurts, lower fat kefir and cheeses lower in fat and
sodium.
Protein helps build and maintain bones, muscles and skin.
Eat protein every day.
Try to eat at least two servings of fish each week, and choose plant-
based foods more often.
Dairy products are a great source of protein. Choose lower fat,
unflavoured options.
Fill a quarter of your plate with protein foods.

3. 4 .Limiting highly and ultra-processed foods
Highly processed foods — often called ultra-processed — are foods that
are changed from their original food source and have many added
ingredients. During processing, often important nutrients such as
vitamins, minerals and fiber are removed while salt and sugar are added.
Examples of processed food include: fast foods, hot dogs, chips, cookies,
frozen pizzas, deli meats, white rice and white bread.
Some minimally processed foods are okay. These are foods that are
slightly changed in some way but contain few industrially made additives.
Minimally processed foods keep almost all of their essential nutrients.
Some examples are: bagged salad, frozen vegetables and fruit, eggs,
milk, cheese, flour, brown rice, oil and dried herbs. We are not referring
to these minimally processed foods when we are advising you not to eat
processed foods.
Heart & Stroke funded research found that ultra-processed foods make up
almost half of Canadians' diets. Read more about it here.

4. 5 .Making water your drink of choice
Water supports health and promotes hydration without adding calories to
the diet .
Sugary drinks including energy drinks, fruit drinks, 100% fruit juice, soft
drinks and flavored coffees have lots of sugar and little to no nutritional
value. It is easy to drink empty calories without realizing, and this leads to
weight gain.
Avoid fruit juice, even when it is 100% fruit juice. Although fruit juice has
some of the benefits of the fruit (vitamins, minerals), it has more sugar
than the fruit and less fiber. Fruit juice should not be consumed as
alternative to fruits. Canadians should eat their fruits, not drink them.
When safe drinking water is not available, quench your thirst with coffee,
tea, unsweetened lower-fat milk, and previously boiled water.
Top 5 tips from the experts
Prepare most of your meals at home using whole or minimally processed
foods. Choose from a variety of different proteins to keep things
interesting. Using catchy names for each day can help you plan. Try
“Meatless Monday” with this meatless recipe.

5. Make an eating plan each week – this is the key to fast, easy meal
preparation. Check out our shopping tips here.
Choose recipes with plenty of vegetables and fruit. Your goal is to fill half
your plate with vegetables and fruit at every meal. Choose brightly
coloured fruits and vegetables each day, especially orange and dark green
vegetables (click here for more information). Frozen or canned
unsweetened fruits and vegetables are a perfect alternative to fresh
produce. Try this recipe.
Avoid sugary drinks and instead drink water. Lower-fat, unsweetened milk
is also a good way to stay hydrated. Keep a reusable water bottle in your
purse or car so you can fill up wherever you are going.
Eat smaller meals more often. Eat at least three meals a day with snacks
in between. When you wait too long to eat you are more likely to make
unhealthy food choices. Keep easy-to-eat snacks (like this) in your purse
or bag for emergencies.
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