Your effort, zoomed out: why your participation in the HEAL & CHARM studies matters more than you know
You’ve been there: staring at the ASA24 questionnaire, trying to remember exactly what you ate for lunch yesterday. You’re working through the ACT24, logging each block of your day in careful detail. It’s a lot. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s really worth it, today, on National Health and Fitness Day, we want to answer that question directly.
What you’re building
When you complete your HEAL questionnaires, your responses don’t exist in isolation. They join a growing dataset that, right now, includes over 13,500 participants, more than 16,500 completed 24-hour dietary records, and over 15,000 daily activity logs.
Together, this study will create a large-scale, real-world picture of how people across this country actually eat and move. It’s not in a controlled lab setting, but in their real lives and communities.
Why the detail matters
The HEAL study collects detailed dietary and activity data because the questions researchers are trying to answer are complex. Understanding how diet and physical activity connect to long-term health requires more than a simple survey. It requires the kind of careful, specific information that only participants like you can provide.
The depth of what you share is what makes the data meaningful. A broad dataset can reveal trends; a detailed one can reveal why.
For those who went even further: the CHARM study
Select HEAL participants have also been invited to join the CHARM study, which involves providing a fasted blood sample and an optional stool sample.
We recognize that’s a significant ask. If you’ve been chosen to participate, your contribution is helping researchers understand how diet influences our biology at a deeper level. This work could advance more personalized approaches to cancer prevention and health promotion.
Your legacy
Health research doesn’t produce results overnight. The breakthroughs that eventually shape public health programs, clinical guidelines, and community resources across Canada start here. They start with datasets built by people willing to take the time. They start with you.
On National Health and Fitness Day, we’re not just celebrating health, we’re celebrating the people behind this research. Thank you for every questionnaire completed, every detail recorded, every moment you chose to show up for something bigger than yourself.
Still working on your questionnaires?
Step-by-step participant guides are available to help you through the ASA24 and ACT24. You can download them anytime from the HEAL and CHARM studies website.