A new farmers market is taking root in East Vancouver. Following a successful pilot season last fall, the Hastings Park Market at the PNE is back until April, and it’s one way that health-conscious Vancouverites can stock their fridges and pantries.

“We are so lucky here on the coast to have a long growing season and a lot of excellent farmers who are really pushing the boundaries of what they can grow and what’s available year-round,” Vancouver Farmers Markets’ operations manager, Roberta LaQuaglia, says in a phone interview. “When we started our winter market in 2006, people were wondering what was going to be there; they figured it would just be potatoes. But right from the start, growers started thinking outside of the box.”

Taking place between the Agrodome and the Forum, immediately east of the Hastings Skatepark, the Hastings Park Market will carry a vast range of products, from organic fruit to artisan bread.

Part of the appeal of farmers markets is the chance to take a pause from life’s hectic pace.

“Farmers markets are popular in both urban settings and rural settings, so we can’t say that their popularity is because city people are feeling disconnected and need to get together with their neighbours, but that’s certainly part of it,” LaQuaglia says. “The pace is a little slower, and it’s an opportunity to make an event out of a weekly chore. You can bring the whole family, too.”

Though you may have a fridge full of fresh, fantastic produce, people still face some common challenges when it comes to healthy eating.

“The major stumbling blocks to healthy eating are time and misconceptions about how complicated it is to eat better,” says registered dietitian Colleen McGuire of At the Table Nutrition Inc. “Many people think that they’re unable to make healthy eating work in their busy schedules, and while eating healthy does take more effort, even thinking ahead just one day can put a person on the road to eating better.

“Tonight, think about what you will have for dinner tomorrow,” she says. “You can determine which ingredients need to come out of the freezer, which need to be soaked, or what needs to be purchased on the way home. Once this becomes a habit, it will be easier to shop based on what meals you’ll be eating for the week.”

And when you buy fruits and vegetables, McGuire adds, take the time to chop them up for use throughout the week: “Having some prechopped watermelon in the fridge, for instance, will make you less likely to reach for a sugary snack that seems more convenient.”

Registered dietitian Vashti Verbowski, who writes the Your Kitchen Dietitian blog, says she still sees a lot of people skipping breakfast even though the message of it being the most important meal of the day has been hammered home.

“Many people don’t recognize that if they skip breakfast because they’re too busy or in an effort to reduce calorie intake for weight loss, they’ll make up for it overall in caloric intake during the rest of the day and even into the evening,” she says by phone. “If you’re not well-fed when you need the energy, you keep munching in the later hours of the day and, especially unfortunately, when you don’t need the energy.”

Another common stumbling block is people’s desire to cut out grains from their diet because of all the hype around wheat- and gluten-free diets and the portrayal of carbohydrates as an enemy.

“Let’s say at breakfast you have an omelette, then at lunch a salad with chicken; those are both good things, but if you don’t have some source of carbs, you tend to have pretty low energy,” Verbowski explains. “Carbohydrates are what give us energy. If you’re not getting a healthy dose, your sugar cravings will really pick up. If you skip carbs at lunch and have low energy in the afternoon, you might opt for a sugary coffee drink or a cookie, so you’re getting more sugar and, inadvertently, more carbs than if you had had two slices of bread or a cup of rice or quinoa along with your salad.”

That sugar cravings are a problem was underlined recently by the World Health Organization’s call for people to reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10 percent of their total energy intake, with a further reduction to below five percent being ideal. Health problems associated with high sugar intake include obesity and tooth decay.

Items that are high in sugar, McGuire notes, include beverages like pop, energy drinks, and “fancy” coffees; some cereals; fruit-flavoured yogurt; granola bars (which she calls “glorified chocolate bars”); and low- or no-fat foods.

Healthy meals and snacks should contain protein and fibre, McGuire says, to give you “staying power”. A quick, wholesome breakfast might consist of sprouted-grain toast with natural nut butter and a piece of fruit (more fibre). “This will keep you going for at least three hours, whereas if you have white toast and jam, you will be hungry again in about 30 minutes,” she notes.

Healthy snacks include fresh fruit with nuts, a slice of cheese, plain yogurt, and raw veggies with hummus.

That last is one that Verbowski is fond of, and she says to make healthy snacking at work easy, leave a container of hummus and some chopped-up vegetables in the fridge at the start of the week.

“Do the same with a tub of yogurt so you only have to think about it once a week,” Verbowski says.

Other good snack options are an apple with two tablespoons of goat cheese or a quarter-cup of walnuts, a banana with a small amount of peanut butter, and salsa with baked tortilla chips. Keeping in mind portion size, put a handful of those chips in a Ziploc bag or Tupperware container so you don’t end up eating half a big bag.

“I always keep a bag of nuts in my drawer at work and put them in a small dish, like a soy-sauce dish,” Verbowski says. “That way I know how much I’m eating. Opt for unsalted nuts. If they’re not salty, you tend not to eat as much.”