Blog Posts by The Editors of EatingWell Magazine

By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D., Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

More than 16,000 nutrition studies were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals in 2011. So it's no wonder our understanding of food and health is expanding and shifting. In fact, in the last 10 years, we've seen many new perspectives emerge (some former truths have now even become myths).

Related: 13 of the Biggest Nutrition and Food Myths Busted

For EatingWell Magazine's July/August issue (our 10th anniversary!), we decided to look back some of the top nutrition revelations of the past decade, as reported by Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D.

1. True or False: A calorie is just a calorie.
False. You've heard it a million times: to stay weight-stable, calories in must equal calories out. (Find out how many calories you really should be eating here.) Now we're learning that may not always be the case. In a 2010 Food & Nutrition Research study, researchers asked volunteers to eat either a sandwich

By Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D. Associate Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

If you find yourself overindulging throughout the day--second breakfast in the morning, ravenously snacking in the afternoon, a little too much dessert at night--we have news for you. New research sheds light on tips and tricks that may help you to curb overeating throughout the day. Tori Rodriguez reported on these studies for the July/August issue of EatingWell Magazine to help you keep overeating in check:

8 a.m.: Fatten up your breakfast.
Participants who were given a higher-fat (61%) breakfast ate less at their next meal than those who ate a calorically equal, but lower-fat, breakfast, in a study in the April 2011 issue of Appetite. Get some healthy fats at breakfast by spreading avocado or peanut butter on your toast.

Recipes to Try: Breakfasts That Fight Fat

1 p.m.: Focus on your food.
Make a point to take note of how your lunch looks, smells and tastes. Women who did

By Penelope Wall, EatingWell Writer/Producer for Social & Interactive Media

When summer picnic season rolls around, potato salad is king in our house. But not just any potato salad. The constant request from my husband is for this one Creamy Potato Salad recipe in particular (see below) because of, he says, the secret ingredient: pickles.

More Recipes to Try:
Potato Salads That Won't Pack on the Pounds
16 Fresh Potato Salad & Pasta Salad Recipes

The pickles (capers too) really are a genius addition, but there are some other tricks to the secret sauce beyond pickles that take potato salad to the next level. The best part is that the same tricks the EatingWell Test Kitchen devised to make your potato salad taste delicious also make it much healthier than classic versions. People will ask you for this recipe. I guarantee it. Happy picnicking!

Related: Summer BBQ Picnic Foods Made Healthier

5 Must-Have Potato Salad Secrets:

1. Use waxy potatoes (i.e., fingerlings, red

By Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

I love sweet summer corn, but if I'm in a rush it's often not the fastest choice. It's not that it takes a long time to cook, but the shucking combined with the painstaking duty of removing all the straggling silks left on the cob makes it a little high-maintenance in my book. Unless you cook it in your microwave. Yes, your microwave.

Don't Miss: The Best Ways to Cook 20 Vegetables

Cooking corn in the microwave eliminates pre-shucking since it's cooked right in the husk. And once it's done, the husk and silk slip right off--like magic--making it by far the fastest (and least messy!) way to cook corn. Here's how you do it, plus two more great ways to perfectly cook corn on the cob.

Must-Try: Mexican Grilled Corn, Corn & Basil Cakes and More Easy Corn Recipes

How to Microwave on the Cob: Place corn one at a time (in the husk, untrimmed) in a microwave-safe dish. Microwave on High for 5 minutes. Use a towel

By Wendy Ruopp, Managing Editor of EatingWell

My sister and her husband have a lot of parties and they have the perfect setting: a big, beautifully restored barn in the Finger Lakes region. They have enough glasses, plates and silverware to entertain dozens of people--plus that special platter designed to hold dozens of deviled eggs, with an indentation for each creamy white-and-yellow oval. My sister makes a killer deviled egg, too, and they disappear about as fast as she can fill the platter.

More Crowd-Pleasing Recipes:
Bobby Flay's Baked Beans and More Celebrity Potluck Favorites
Tomato-Basil Skewers and More 100-Calorie Finger Foods

Popular as these two-bite appetizers are, they're not typically healthy. Classic deviled egg recipes are loaded with fat and calories. I may not be as popular as my sister, but when I make EatingWell's healthier version of deviled eggs, which has about two-thirds the calories of a classic recipe, half the total fat and about 25% less

By Matthew Thompson, Associate Food Editor for EatingWell Magazine

Has this ever happened to you? You're planning a summer get-together with friends--just something casual, maybe a picnic by the lake or a backyard cookout--when someone asks you to stop by the supermarket to "pick up a few things."

Don't Miss: 15 Tricks to Save Money at the Grocery Store

It's easy for a backyard picnic to get expensive. Fortunately, there are a few equally easy ways to control costs. We talked with eco-expert Pablo Päster about whether "eco-friendly" picnic items are worth the extra expense for the July/August issue of EatingWell Magazine and did some price comparisons of our own on which popular cookout foods will set you back the most. The results were often surprising.

Don't Miss: Best & Worst BBQ Foods to Eat & Avoid

Here are 5 things you definitely don't need to buy for your next cookout.

1. Skip: Fancy Picnic Sets - Reusable cups, plates and picnic baskets (or fancy sets

By Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

Even though I've cooked meat on the grill (and on my stovetop) one zillion times, I still get a little anxious about cutting into it once it's off the heat in case it's not done-especially if I'm serving people other than my immediate family. There's nothing worse than taking meat off the grill only to sheepishly return soon after and put your partially cooked steak, chicken or burger back on the flames. It's downright embarrassing.

Don't Miss: EatingWell's 13 Best Grilling Tips

I could use a thermometer, but since I work as an associate food editor at EatingWell Magazine, quite frankly I feel I should "just know" when my meat is done. This is foolish pride speaking here, because I want to stress that the only way to know if your meat is really cooked is to use a thermometer. But if you want to try your hand at looking cool, here are a few ways to know if your meat is cooked and more about using that trusty

By Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D. Associate Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

It's grilling season and chances are you'll be making that ever-important cookout decision: hot dog or hamburger? Some people, no doubt, are cheering "Both!" But if you're trying to make a healthier choice, then the registered dietitian in me knows that "both" is not the answer. So which one is the healthier pick? See how a hamburger compares nutritionally to a hot dog before you tell the grill master your order.

Recipes to Try: Healthy Hot Dog & Hamburger Recipes

HAMBURGER

What You Get in a Typical Burger
There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to burgers: How big is it? What kind of beef is it? What are you putting on it? A typical burger is in the 1/3 - ½ pound range (about 6 to 8 ounces) and made from 85%-lean ground beef.
Served with a bun, it can pack as much as 620 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat (that's nearly half your daily limit)…before toppings.