One year, 10,000 Canadians: help us reach our next HEAL study goal
April 2026 marked one full year of HEAL data collection. And what a year it’s been!
Within twelve months, over 10,000 Canadians said yes.
- Yes to recalling meals in careful detail.
- Yes to sharing a full day’s worth of movement.
- Yes to showing up, more than once, for research that takes time because the questions it’s asking are worth answering.
A year of firsts
When the HEAL (HEALthy Eating and Supportive Environments) study launched, it set out to build a real, detailed, population-level picture of how people eat, move, and live. While similar work has been done in clinical and population studies, HEAL is the first to capture this level of detail of everyday life, across every province – spanning tens of thousands of households, communities, routines and experiences.
That’s what you’ve been building with all the meals you recalled through ASA24 and every hour you logged in ACT24. Whenever it feels like you’re answering questions you’ve already answered, those are contributions to a longitudinal dataset that doesn’t exist yet in Canada.
The goal ahead
Year one brought 10,000 participants. Year two has a new target: 50,000.
This is an ambitious target. But we know that a larger, more diverse study means researchers can ask deeper questions, such as:
- Does sharing meals with others impact what and how we eat?
- How can policies support healthy food access across all communities?
- How does access to parks, sidewalks, and recreation spaces influence physical activity?
Every participant who joins between now and our two-year anniversary helps make those answers more reliable, and more representative of what Canadians eat and how they move.
If you haven’t signed up yet, this is your moment!
If you’re a participant with a regional cohort at CanPath and haven’t received your HEAL invitation, it’s on its way. And if you’ve received it and haven’t completed your first questionnaire, there’s still time. Please visit the HEAL and CHARM studies webpage for more information or reach out to your regional cohort.
To everyone who’s already here
Thank you! This research and all of its outputs like scientific papers and policies will be because of you; based the time you gave, the details you shared, and your decision to be part of something that takes years to show its results.
Thank you for your generosity, and here’s to year two!