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Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living launched Sandra Kelly, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, today attended the provincial launch in St. John's of the new Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living. Produced by Health Canada and the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, the guide provides the first set of Canadian guidelines for physical activity. The provincial launch coincided with a national launch in New Brunswick and Ottawa. "The Recreation and Sport Division of my department is coordinating an extensive distribution plan that includes direct mailouts to approximately 2,000 contacts across the province: schools, recreation committees, town councils, community health boards and other health professionals, fitness leaders and dozens of provincial organizations and associations," Minister Kelly said. The guide provides information to help Canadians understand how to achieve health benefits by being physically active. It is designed to complement the popular Canada Food Guide and is a lively, easy to use document which provides concrete examples of how to incorporate physical activity into daily life. The release of the guide comes after a recent national study by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute which showed that two-thirds of Canadians are so inactive that they are at serious risk for heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, adult-onset diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke, depression and colon cancer. "The launch of Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living is timely," said the minister. "Canadians need to become more physically active for the good of their health and we are pleased to assist and support them with this goal by distributing and promoting the guide." Departmental staff will also be doing presentations to groups at regional recreation seminars across the province and will be partnering with provincial associations and organizations as part of the distribution and communications plan for the guide. In Newfoundland and Labrador, there are regional mini-launches and/or endorsement events taking place in Gander, St. Anthony, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Grand Bank and Springdale over the next few days. The guide is also available through our five regional recreation and sport consultants and at headquarters in St. John's. The guide is designed for adults and recommends 60 minutes of physical activity every day to stay healthy or improve your health. As a person progresses to more intense activity, they can cut down to 30 minutes, four days a week. The guide also suggests Canadians can add up their activities in periods of at least 10 minutes each, starting slowly and building up. Federal, provincial, and territorial governments have targeted a 10 per cent reduction in the number of inactive Canadians by the year 2003. The launch and distribution of the guide is a major step toward building the knowledge and awareness necessary for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and all Canadians to achieve this goal. Media contact:
1998 10 21 2:00 p.m.
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