EatingWell April 2013

Are you a little tired of hearing about what’s wrong with our food? I am. I just want to feel good about my food. I want to know that it’s healthy, affordable and sustainable. The good news? This may be getting easier. This spring the First Lady and the Partnership for a Healthier America are launching an initiative aimed at helping consumers find healthier options that meet the MyPlate guidelines for nutrition. The MyPlate logo will start to appear on partner recipes, meals and menus that meet the criteria, helping consumers know what truly is “healthy,” without having to pore over the data. Having worked with the USDA on developing MyPlate meals, we’re proud to say that most EatingWell recipes meet these nutritional guidelines. (To learn more, visit eatingwell.com/go/myplate.) Take one look…

Shaun Dreisbach Fitness Guru As someone who has written and edited stories on food and fitness for magazines ranging from American Baby to Glamour, Shaun Dreisbach was the perfect person to write “Feed Your Strength” (page 25), which shows us how to beat sarcopenia (the loss of muscle strength) through diet and exercise. A few years ago, Dreisbach traded “the grey, honking whir of Manhattan” for Vermont, where she lives, works, eats well and works out with her husband and two kids. Patricia Green & Carolyn Hemming Quinoa Queens Sisters Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming are the bestselling authors of Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood and Quinoa Revolution. Their passion for quinoa (see page 70) has connected them with scientists, quinoa farmers and families in South America and, of course, with quinoa lovers everywhere. Their…

What I Know I read Diane Goodman’s Nourish essay, “What I Know,” in your February issue and was truly moved. I think, in the end, cooking is about giving and connecting. Her essay reminds us that the very act of preparing a meal is a gift of love that at least two benefit from—the diner and the cook. Thank you, Ms. Goodman! —Peter Bergh Peas, Please! I loved the attention given to frozen peas in your February issue! When my children were small, they would beg for a cup of frozen peas to snack on before dinner. I never let on that they were not getting a “treat.”—Patrice Kilham Creamy Goodness, Minus the Cream Your “Creamy Winter Comfort” article was great! My fiancé is lactose-intolerant and we were hesitant about how the “Cream Sauce without…

Each spring, color returns to our food: vibrant spring greens, ruby-red radishes, the fresh orange of the first baby carrots and, of course, the rainbow of dyed Easter eggs. All these colors awaken both our eyes and palate. That we also eat with our eyes is a fact not lost on food manufacturers. Americans consume five times more food dye now than in 1955. Today, dyes make white bread look more like whole wheat, add eye-popping color to cereals and mimic fruits or vegetables in processed foods. They are sometimes even sprayed on oranges to brighten them up. Commonly used synthetic dyes, such as Red 40, may pose a “rainbow of risks,” including cancer (at least three dyes indicate a risk in animal studies), hyperactivity in some children and allergic reactions, according…

A new crop of online farmstands is providing family farms and small-scale food vendors with an aggregated venue to sell their products online. With no membership requirements, minimum orders or commitments, these sites give you a way to get the best local farms and food artisans have to offer with just a few clicks of your mouse. You pay by credit card and your selection is delivered to your doorstep or a convenient pick-up location. The websites are sprouting faster than spring peas. Former Wall Streeter Todd Greenfield has created the most ambitious to date, americasfarmstand.com, with nationwide farms and delivery. Greenfield spends two weeks of each month visiting and selecting the small family farms and artisans that appear on the site. Rob Spiro, a former soft ware techie with Google,…

Breakfast often gets the short end in the morning dash out the door. But skipping breakfast primes your brain to seek out high-calorie foods and means you’ll eat more later. While you probably know a breakfast sandwich from a fast-food chain isn’t a great option either, you’d be surprised by just how unhealthy it can be. A recent study found that eating even one typical fast-food breakfast sandwich can actually change how your arteries perform. Doctors at the Montreal Heart Institute had 28 men eat a sausage, cheese and egg sandwich with hash browns—loaded with 50 grams of fat, most of it saturated. Then they checked how well their blood vessels dilated, a function that is linked to the risk of developing heart disease. Within hours, the participants’ arteries dilated…