Healthy Living

Tips and Recipes for Quantity Cooking: Nourishing Minds and Bodies
Tips and Recipes for Quantity Cooking: Nourishing Minds and Bodies has been created to assist people who prepare food for sale to students – such as food services staff, chef instructors, caterers, school teams, students, Parent Advisory Councils and others. It includes tips on how to choose healthy recipes, substitutions to make favourite recipes healthier…
Bake Better Bites: Recipes and Tips for Healthier Baked Goods
BakeBetterBites2014 is for parents, community volunteers, school staff, and students to use when preparing baked goods for sale to students. It includes recipes that meet the Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools, as well as tips to make favourite recipes healthier. For more information, success stories and resources visit the Healthy Eating…
Inviting Activity into Public Spaces
Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the Healthy People Healthy Places 2014 event in Vancouver. It highlighted the great work being done by the City of Vancouver, but also pointed to New York’s accomplishments in creating a healthier city for its residents. The interesting pieces for me were: the role of partnerships in…
It’s Never Too Late!
Did you ride your bike last week for Bike to Work Week? Well, if you don’t feel comfortable or ready to ride to work yet, we’ve got a few tips for you AND there’s still time to get on board with the Commuter Challenge! What I like about the Commuter Challenge is that there’s something…
Making Health Fun(ny) in a Viral Age
Do we know how to talk to people about health? I think we still have a lot to learn about how to create fresh and approachable health messaging from professional marketers. We know that marketing to kids is a real and present health issue. But every once in a while there’s a bit of marketing…
Putting a Positive ‘Spin’ on Inactivity Rates
When I was going to university, I used to ride my bike and walk everywhere. The decision to do so was mostly economical and partly motivated by health and convenience. In other words, I was broke most of my years at school but I gave frugality a positive ‘spin’ with the explanation that I was…
Investing in Prevention Saves Lives and Costs
Over the past ten years, across BC there has been a rise in the number of people living with preventable conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in every part of the province. But the good news is that the growth rate for heart disease is slowing. There are early…
Decade of Data Shows Prevention Can Save Lives and Costs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 12, 2014 (Vancouver) – Today, the BC Alliance for Healthy Living (BCAHL) is releasing ‘On the Path to Better Health,’ a report that examines BC trends in chronic disease over the past decade and outlines future opportunities for prevention. It looks at factors that can either reduce or raise the risk…
E-Cigarettes
BCAHL has made youth vaping one of three top priorities because of the health risks that vaping poses to a whole generation of young people. The Alliance is deeply concerned about youth and non-smokers who are trying and using electronic nicotine delivery systems, not only because of evidence that shows increases in the likelihood that…
Calories Front and Centre Can Lead to Better Choices
I would like to make a confession to the blog audience – I am a big fan of the peanut butter cookie. It’s one of those decadently unhealthy options that I find hard to pass up. The other day I was running between work and picking kids up for soccer practice and found myself in…
Let’s Get Physical! Programs and Policies to Get BC Moving
BCAHL joined a group of 90+ enthusiastic participants for a webinar on how to get BC families moving together on February 19th. We heard from a range of speakers on what’s new in BC, and best practices in programs and policies to engage families in increasing their activity levels ¬ – whether in the pool,…
BCAHL Celebrates Targeted Tobacco Taxes to Reduce Use
Smokers in BC took a hit to the pocket book as the BC Government announced the new provincial budget. Along with our colleagues at the Canadian Cancer Society, BCAHL agrees 100% with raising the price of tobacco products in order to deter BC youth from smoking or starting to smoke. When coupled with other tobacco…

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