Nutrition is a general term that includes the intake of food, digestion, and the body’s ability to convert it to energy to maintain overall health and well-being.
Tips & Links
Nutrition can be impacted by changes in your health and side effects to medications and treatments. Symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, pain, and changes in your emotional health can affect your appetite. Good nutrition can also be impacted by mobility restrictions, confusion or dementia, or limited income, access to groceries and food preparation.
Learn More
- Be aware that your nutrition can be impacted by changes in your health and side effects to medications and treatments. Symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, pain, and changes in your emotional health and taste can affect your appetite.
- Learn about healthy eating using the Canada Food Guide from the Government of Canada.
- Learn about how good nutrition contributes to healthy aging for seniors from Healthlink BC.
- Know that changes in your emotional health such as depression, loneliness, and inactivity can lead to a poor appetite and/or disordered eating.
- Be aware of disordered eating and its overall impact on your health from the National Eating Disorder & Information Centre.
Get Support
- Consider working with a dietitian for counselling, problem-solving, meal planning and help answering your diet and nutrition questions or concerns.
- For answers to your dietary and eating questions, you can Dial-a-Dietitian at 811 (or for Hard-of-Hearing 711) at Healthlink BC. They also provide specialized services such as oncology services.
- You can also email a Dietitian in BC for specific questions about your diet.
- Consider learning about holistic nutrition as an alternative approach to your diet from the Canadian Association of Holistic Nutrition Professionals.
- Learn about low income food support programs in your community like the list provided by the Fraser Health Authority.
Things You Can Do
- Consider ways you can address your needs such as a nutritional assessment by a dietitian, community delivery services, pre-made paid for home delivery, home care services that includes someone coming in to provide meal preparation, a home safety assessment, and calling on your care partners for support.
- Explore meal support services in your community that provide home delivery, ethnic choices, and volunteers who may include an emotional health check-in.
- Make a list of your favourite meals and special diet requirements. Share it with your care partners so they can make meals for your freezer – be sure to include your preferences of salt, spices, and flavours.
- Share with your physician or nurse practitioner any changes to your diet and all supplements, herbs and vitamins you are taking. Record all changes on your medication record.
Add your Dietitian to your My Health Care & Business Professionals PDF tool found in My People. Include their contact information and any questions you have for them. Save to your digital and print files.
Record all allergies and sensitivities to foods, vitamins, supplements, herbs, and special diet requirements on your Health Profile and Medication List in the activities in My Health Information.