Vegetarian recipes and useful tips? I’m sold.
I am an admirer of nutrition-related blogs that have delicious sounding vegetarian recipes and relevant nutrition information, and the blog Lettuce Have Lettuce is a healthy balance of the two. The name alone set the tone for the blog; it’s simple yet effective and invites in readers from any nutritional background with its humor and casual tone. Kristen Sedovic RD LD, and Laurie Knauf RD LD created this blog to, as Laurie Knauf so perfectly states it, “reach as many people as I can with the tools and information needed to make simple, healthy choices.” I feel passionate about this as well and am glad I came across this blog that matches my interests and vegetarian diet.
Lettuce Have Lettuce has an easy-to-navigate user-friendly design and is filled with visually stimulating pictures. If you scroll down the home page you’ll find their latest recipes and links to useful nutrition information and tips. The detailed pictures of delicious-looking food draw you in, and the text they choose to type in bold catches your eye. For example, while scrolling down the home screen you’ll see a picture of baked sweet potato mash like this:
http://www.lettucehavelettuce.com/
Then you’ll see words in bold about the importance of vitamin A that grab your attention like, “This protective nutrient also aids the body in fighting infection and keeps skin glowing and healthy.” I find this a rather effective way to disseminate the most important information to their readers who may not get a chance to read the entire blog post. It’s like they are highlighting their post for you.
Those who would benefit the most from Lettuce Have Lettuce would be individuals who do not know much about nutrition but have an interest in improving their diets. The tone is informal and causal and is quite easy to read. This allows readers from a wide range of educational backgrounds to read and understand the information. Also, the writing makes you feel comfortable, welcome, and connected to the authors like when Laurie Knauf states, “if you’re like my family, you’re going to need all the oven space you can get on Thanksgiving Day!” when giving tips for preparing a recipe.
Another method the authors use to disseminate information quickly and easily is the use of categorized lists. For example, they have a blog post titled, Afternoon Snack Attack which includes a list of healthy foods that are 200 calories or less, and the foods are placed into either a “savory and salty” or “sweet” category. Readers can obtain ideas for healthy snacks at a glance.
Over all I think Lettuce Have Lettuce has a lot of strengths, but one area of improvement would be for the authors to cite the sources of nutritional information. I only found one citation on the site, and I feel it would be beneficial for them to do this more consistently. For example, when they say that sweet potatoes “are ranked as the #1 highest source of vitamin A in the American diet,” it would only strengthen the validity and impact of the information if it was backed by a reliable source.
I would love to incorporate aspects of Lettuce Have Lettuce in my own blogging. I would want to target individuals who have little to no nutrition knowledge and potentially help them improve their lives. I feel that having a blog that can quickly and easily spread basic yet important information is ideal for that target audience. In particular, I would use plenty of pictures and visual aids as Kristen Sedovic and Laurie Knauf did, and I would highlight important information by selectively using bold.
Lettuce Have Lettuce is a newer blog having been established in 2014, and I feel that it has the potential to be quite beneficial and influential to its audience. The groundwork has been laid for a successful blog. The writing is engaging and relatable, and the use of stimulating pictures is impactful. Delicious and nutritious food intermixed with helpful tips and nutrition facts is a wonderful combination for a nutrition-related blog, and I found these qualities in Lettuce Have Lettuce http://www.lettucehavelettuce.com/.