Confessions of a Former Women’s Magazine Writer
Writing about “hot” nutrition topics still has impact. During the decade or so that I wrote for women’s magazines, I received much positive feedback from readers. In 1989, at the height of oat bran’s popularity as a panacea to lower cholesterol, the president and chief operating officer of a leading cereal manufacturer estimated that sales of oat-bran cereals would grow to nearly $600 million annually. I wrote five oat-bran stories that year for various women’s magazines. A year later, when a study called oat bran’s health-promoting properties into question, sales plummeted 50% within a week; at that point, I couldn’t give away an article on oat bran. I also covered other “hot” nutrition topics. But although they appeared on the nutrition page, these articles tended …
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