Canadian Health Minister Lake and Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick recently joined Half Your Plate ambassador chef Michael Smith in a cooking demonstration in British Columbia. 

The healthy eating initiative, aimed at encouraging people to make half their plate fruit and vegetables, was created by the Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA).

The organization says it says provides simple and practical ways to add a variety of produce to every meal and snack.

It was successfully launched on social media in the summer of 2014, and has made its way into retail stores across Canada.

“The Half Your Plate message is a simple and straightforward way to focus on adding more fruit and vegetables to our meals – it makes it easy to know how much we need to stay healthy and help prevent chronic disease,” said Lake.

“B.C. has a number of programs that help people make the healthy choice the easy choice at home, at the grocery store and in their communities.”

February is Heart Month and making healthy choices like eating more fruit and vegetables, as well as increasing physical activity, stopping smoking and reducing stress can lessen the chance of chronic diseases including heart disease and stroke.

“Choosing fresh and local B.C. fruits and vegetables can be a great recipe for a healthy plate, a healthy lifestyle, and a healthy economy,” said Letnick.

“Serving B.C. produce on “half your plate” offers great tasting options that are good for you, and good for the farmers and food supply security in our communities.”

British Columbia is working to increase the proportion of people who eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables per day, under the province's Guiding Framework for Public Health.

The region also has a number of community-based programs to support families including the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon program, Food Skills for Families, and the BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program.

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