It’s an exciting time for us here at Healthy Food Guide – we’ve just published our 100th issue!
It’s quite a milestone for the magazine, and for me personally – I can still remember planning what we were going to put in the very first issue. And the feeling of slight panic when we’d finished that one, thinking of getting started on the next issue! (Back then I was new to monthly deadlines.)
Now, eight and a bit years on, looking at the 100 covers on the wall of my office I can see at a glance the nutrition trends that have come and gone, the stories that have resonated with readers (and the ones that haven’t) and the recipes that have become tried-and-true favourites. What I can’t see on those covers though, is what makes the magazine, and what makes my job so rewarding: our amazing readers.
Recently at Fieldays we were lucky to meet lots of lovely people who stopped by our stand. One lady who stood out was a great example of why we do what we do. After chatting for a minute, she shyly revealed that she’d lost over 20kg in the space of a year, just by changing the way she cooked. And all she’d done was started cooking recipes from Healthy Food Guide. She hadn’t followed a diet – just our regular recipes. She’d made a commitment to change, and no doubt hard work and discipline had applied, too – you don’t get that kind of weight-loss without it. But the main thing she attributed her weight-loss to was our recipes, and she wanted to thank us. That kind of feedback is incredibly humbling and satisfying to receive, and we get it regularly, whether it’s in person, online or on social media. It’s one of the reasons why we love what we do.
Another reason we love creating Healthy Food Guide for you is that there’s always so much to learn. Whether it’s a new ingredient we get to experiment with and introduce to you, or new nutrition research that gives insight into how to eat better and be healthier, the subject of healthy eating never gets boring! There’s so much interest in healthy eating out there, and so many passionate people working in the field, from scientists and educators to food producers and manufacturers. There’s new stimulation all the time.
That said, the same tried-and-true advice we started out with still holds true. I don’t know how many different ways we’ve written: ‘keep your portions reasonable’ and ‘eat more vegetables’, but those things are as important now as they ever were. As you all know, at Healthy Food Guide we're not about the latest fad diet or food trend. We're about helping you get a healthy dinner on the table every day. We're about nutrition advice we know works, backed by science. We're about small changes you can make every day, to eat better and be healthier. And that won’t be changing any time soon.
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