Internet Adds Fresh Choices to a Healthy Menu

Variety may be the spice of life, but it can be awfully difficult to achieve if you’re campaigning to eat more healthfully. Eating the same things day in and day out--even if they’re wholesome foods that provide a good mix of nutrients--can get pretty boring. (If it’s Tuesday, it must be bean burrito with salsa and a dollop of sour cream day ...)

So if you’re ready, if not long overdue, for a few eating adventures, here’s some good news: There are plenty of cookbooks, magazines and Web sites that provide healthful, interesting recipes.

The American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org) is among the growing number of groups publishing cookbooks geared to eating healthfully. Other publishers include the American Diabetes Assn. (www.diabetes.org), the American Dietetic Assn. (www.eatright.org and the American Heart Assn. (www.deliciousdecisions.org). The American Institute of Cancer Research (www.aicr.org) posts some recipes on the Web.

Cooking Light magazine has gotten high marks for its good-tasting, healthy recipes. Search it free at www.cookinglight.com/cooking. Nutrition information is included.

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, an eating plan that emphasizes fruit and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and lean meat, poultry and seafood, worked as well as medication in recent research to lower blood pressure. Find some of its recipes at www.nhlb.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/newdash.pdf.

Eating Well magazine recently re-emerged as a quarterly featuring no advertising. Sample recipes are available free at www.eatingwell.com/recipes/eatingwellrecipesearch.htm.

Eat Right to Help Lower Your High Blood Pressure lists menu ideas and recipes to help you control weight and high blood pressure. This 30-page pamphlet can be downloaded free at www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cictext/food/low rblod/lowrblod.txt or purchased for $2 per copy from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, P.O. Box 30105, Bethesda, MD 20824 (Publication No. 3289).

Epicurious offers thousands of free, searchable recipes at www.epicurious.com. Click on “advanced search” to suit your needs and tastes.

Five a Day is the perfect place to find new, inexpensive, fast or tasty ways to get those important servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Go to www.5aday.gov/index-recipe.shtml.

Giant Food offers free, healthful recipes at www.giantfood.com/reciperesult.cfm?wellness(equals)1.

Heart Healthy Home Cooking African-American Style, posted by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, features free recipes at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/other/chdblack/cooking.pdf.

In Mama’s Kitchen provides home-cooked recipes from around the world at www.inmamaskitchen.com--although you’ll need to register (for free) and use some common sense, since not all of the recipes include nutrition information.

La Diabetes Recetas offers free recipes in Spanish for people with diabetes at www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cictext/food/d-recetas/recetas.htm.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a book of 40 recipes for healthful, inexpensive meals at www.cnpp.usda.gov/Pubs/Cookbook/thriftym.pdf. They can be purchased for $4.25 each through the Government Printing Office (GPO Stock No. 001-000-04680-2) or by calling (202) 512-1800.

The Vegetarian Resource Group posts a wide range of free vegetarian and vegan recipes at www.vrg.org/recipes.

Whole Foods Market lists free recipes--some with nutrition information--at www.wholefoods market.com/recipes.