Mackenzie Burgess
Mackenzie Burgess is a registered dietitian nutritionist, recipe developer and health writer who covers everyday food choices through the lens of practical nutrition advice at EatingWell. Her work focuses on turning evidence-based guidance into simple, service-driven stories on heart health, blood sugar, gut health and high-fiber eating, often anchored in real products and meals people already buy and cook. She regularly curates insights from fellow dietitians, packaging them into clear roundups of what nutrition experts actually eat, drink and recommend.
Heart health and cardiovascular habits
Burgess returns frequently to heart health, framing it through doable daily routines rather than abstract nutrition theory. In a heart-health service piece, she highlights coffee as one everyday choice that can support heart health when consumed in moderation and without excessive sugar.
More broadly, her heart-focused work explores how foods commonly viewed as bad for the heart can deliver benefits when understood in context, and how to structure days around simple actions that support cholesterol and cardiovascular risk. She also writes about fat balance and affordable ways to increase fiber and other heart-supportive nutrients, extending this angle into outlets beyond EatingWell.
Blood sugar, diabetes and dessert
Another strand of Burgess’s coverage explains how people living with diabetes can fit dessert and other sweet foods into their lives without losing control of blood sugar.
Her diabetes-related stories stress pairing sweets with fiber, protein and healthy fats, or combining them with fruits, nuts, seeds and nut butters to blunt blood sugar spikes. She extends this theme into comparisons of carbohydrate-rich foods such as sweet and white potatoes, using familiar ingredients to show how preparation and pairing influence glycemic impact.
Across these pieces she keeps the tone pragmatic and permissive, emphasizing moderation, nutrient balance and realistic dessert strategies rather than strict avoidance.
Gut health, fiber and digestive comfort
Gut health and fiber-rich eating form a large portion of Burgess’s recent work.
She produces roundups on high-fiber foods to keep on hand, underrated fiber-dense breakfasts and foods that help relieve constipation, tying them to specific grocery items and simple meal ideas. Her reporting on gut health zooms in on individual vegetables and daily habits - such as a best vegetable for gut health or a habit to start for better digestion - showing how small choices accumulate.
These stories often weave in multiple dietitian voices and short, expert-backed explanations of how fiber, timing and specific ingredients influence digestion.
Everyday meals, product picks and cooking tips
Burgess’s service journalism focuses on the practical meals and products nutrition experts rely on when time or energy is low. She writes about dinners dietitians make when they do not feel like cooking, quick protein-forward breakfasts and snacks chosen for sustained energy, grounding recommendations in the rhythms of busy weeknights and mornings.
Her product-focused pieces ask dietitians to pick favorites in crowded categories, including low-sugar canned mocktails, high-calcium drinks for bone health, budget-friendly high-fiber foods and other everyday items. She also contributes articles on cooking techniques and functional ingredients - for example, pairing turmeric with spices like black pepper to maximize health benefits, or sharing air-fryer tips that keep recipes healthier.
Across this work she draws on her background as a culinary registered dietitian and recipe developer, translating expert advice into clear, adaptable meal ideas and kitchen shortcuts. The same orientation shows up in other outlets, where she writes health and nutrition stories for publications such as Parade, Good Housekeeping, Home & Gardens and Yahoo.
Her own food and nutrition blog, Cheerful Choices, reinforces this customizable approach by sharing nourishing recipes, ingredient swaps and easy kitchen hacks that align with the guidance in her media work.
At EatingWell she has also evaluated indulgent products such as ice cream bars through a dietitian lens, singling out options that fit clear criteria for balanced ingredients and portion control. Taken together, her coverage is distinguished by a consistent blend of credible nutrition expertise, multi-expert sourcing and highly practical recommendations focused on what to eat, buy and cook today.
4 more food journalists.
Aaron Guerrero
Aaron Guerrero is head of the digital department at Miami’s Community Newspapers, where he pairs restaurant coverage with community-facing content. He focuses on how Miami-area restaurants evolve, celebrate, and experiment through new concepts, menus, and neighborhood-focused dining experiences. He reports on restaurant openings, such as an Italian food hall at Plaza Coral Gables, new executive lunch menus, and wood-fired Latin steakhouse brunches, explaining what sets each venue apart. He also covers awards, like a Wine Spectator honor for an Italian chophouse, and events that turn dining rooms into social hubs. His bylines extend to features on sports-themed gatherings, civic renamings, local visits to restaurant programs, sponsored community pieces, and official notices. His work is straightforward and descriptive, helping readers and local businesses connect around specific openings, promotions, and dining experiences.
Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming reports on how courts, jails and public safety systems work over time. He is a reporter at The Daily Memphian covering public safety, the local court system, suburban news and business developments in North Mississippi. His work follows trials, sentencing, appeals, plea deals and judicial decisions, including major cases tied to Tyre Nichols and rapper Young Dolph. He also covers jail conditions, inmate deaths, crime data, prosecution units, trafficking, shootings and public-order incidents. His suburban reporting examines cannabis businesses, restaurant openings and how commercial growth affects communities such as Olive Branch. Fleming previously covered education in the same newsroom. He uses clear, unadorned prose to explain legal steps, deadlines, institutional problems and the political, commercial and community effects of public-safety decisions.
Alana Al-Hatlani
Alana Al-Hatlani is a food writer and editor who treats recipes, restaurants, and food features as ways to explore culture, community, and the business of eating. She works on the food team at Southern Living, overseeing and contributing to print recipes and reported features. Her pastry-focused, restaurant-tested perspective comes from time in restaurant and bakery kitchens. She helps plan and write monthly food packages, including “The South’s Most Treasured Desserts,” and wrote “8 Summer Recipes Our Editors Make Every Year.” She also writes recipe tips, ingredient explainers, restaurant guides, and reported stories about workers, owners, and communities. Her subjects include regional specialties, dining scenes, kitchen basics, and food industries. Her work has appeared with OpenTable and Yahoo. She reports on the ground, explains techniques clearly, and connects specific dishes and places to larger stories about food and livelihood.
Alana Edgin
Alana Edgin is a business reporter whose strongest focus is food, restaurants and consumer-facing businesses. She works at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and has also had work syndicated across AOL and Yahoo News. She covers new openings, closings, expansions and franchise growth, along with retail, health, services, corporate news, data incidents, business support programs and sponsorships. Her reporting includes detailed roundups of new restaurants and businesses, coverage of El Pollo Loco’s opening, and stories on burger trucks, dessert shops, Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and gourmet markets. She also contributes to food and drink reviews, including fall coffee and jerky comparisons. Edgin reports with practical “what, when, where” details, structured comparisons and clear explanations of how offers, partnerships and business changes affect consumers and the local economy.