Nothing in life is free, especially when it comes to food. Warm up store-bought or frozen lasagna to make your weeknights easy, and you will have enough saturated fat and sodium for days. Substitute artificial sweetener for sugar, and you’ll have a dish that tastes artificial and still elicits the same insulin response as sugar.

I believe that substitution is the key strategy everyone should employ when trying to improve one’s own diet or that of their family. However, that doesn’t mean substituting with fake food. For instance, the strategic plan I outline in my book, Healthy Family, Healthy You: The Healthy Mama’s Guide to feeding your family well – simply and sanely!, calls for examining your everyday meals and finding easy plant-based substitutions. To read the rest, here’s the live link to the cover story.