BIO of Fatimah Ali Nurturing our children with healthy food is one of the most import jobs we have as caretakers, yet as families have become busier or drifted apart, meal times have been sacrificed down through the years. As the mother of five children and both a print and a radio journalist, I've always been committed to encouraging people to empower themselves with information on healthy foods and life styles. For as long as I can remember, food and its preparation have played an important role in my life, serving as both physical nourishment and spiritual comfort. It’s hard to carry the fat gene and have grown up with a grandmother who taught you to make the best soul food ever. Fried chicken and corn bread may have always been a treat when I was young and could afford the calories, but they certainly don’t do anything for my waist line now. Add all of that into familial hypertension, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster, which is why I decided to learn how to make my soul food healthier. Why use butter, when you can use olive oil? Or, fry the chicken when it tastes even better, baked? My collard greens use no flesh what so ever, and you don’t even miss it. My Mac n’ cheese keeps your spoon in the pot, but for only half of the calories. And my soups will make you forget your name. Healthy food doesn’t have to be anemic to be good. Healthy Southern Comforts is committed to the belief that food and our relationship to it directly impact our state of minds, as well as our health. By teaching our children from a young age to help prepare and to like healthy foods, we are encouraging a lifetime of wellness habits which can potentially translate into generations to come.