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INUVIK - The Healthy Foods North program is about to kick their initiative into a higher gear.

The facilitators and interventionists of the program met last week to talk about the upcoming phases of their plan.

Nutritionist Audra Donison took part in a battery of meetings last week to train new members of the Healthy Foods North program. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

The program is aimed at improving the eating habits of people in the North.

Canadian Public Health Association representative Elsie DeRoose said the meetings went well and were informative for the people on the front lines of the program.

She said the sessions followed up on previous training that took place earlier this year.

"We wanted to check on things and introduce new interventionists to the program," she said.

DeRoose said the gathering proved to be a good way to share news and information.

"We were given updates on local news and how things were going in the stores," she said.

In the past months, people may have noticed a change while shopping for groceries around the region.

In Inuvik and Tuk, there are labels on the shelves pointing out healthy choices for juices, soups and other foods.

DeRoose said the labels, which point out items lower in sodium and other smart choices, are the most visible of the promotional items posted throughout town.

"We like what the labels have been doing. We want to keep them up on shelves for people to use," she said.

The labels can be found in Arctic Foods, NorthMart and Stanton's in Inuvik.

The group has promoted healthy coffee-station substitutes like skim milk powder and made presentations about healthier snack ideas and is now promoting healthy beverages.

"It's good that we are working so closely with the stores," said DeRoose.

"Without their participation, this wouldn't be as effective."

Nutritionist Audra Donison was at the meeting on Friday to make a presentation to the group about artificial sweeteners, and preparation of traditional foods.

She explained that a pat of butter is equal to the small portion given at restaurants.

In a 300 gram bag of Cheezies, Donison said there are 20 pats of butter.

She then gave the participants a menu from which to choose a day's worth of eating.

"The options were just like a typical Northern menu," said Donison.

She said the average person was eating more than three times the daily recommended amount of sodium, adding reducing intake of sodium just takes some quick substitutions.

"Instead of getting canned corn, get frozen," she said.

"The difference is about 300 mg of sodium."

Donison said the one thing she wants people to remember from her presentation is small changes make a big difference.

"You can make a shocking difference," she said.

"I knew there would be a lot of sodium in regular diets, but it's more than I expected."