Not so fresh

I know you're busy. I know your time is precious and you don't have a lot of extra money to fritter away on frivolous things. Don't worry, I'm here to help. While shopping last week I selflessly picked up the premiere issue of a new magazine called Fresh Juice, then donated some of my time to read the magazine cover-to-cover, and I will now review it for you here - all in the name of saving you time and money. You're welcome.

The concept: From the publishers of Canadian Living, Style at Home and ELLE Canada, "Fresh Juice is about making it easy and fun to connect food with health. In every issue, you'll find nutritious shortcuts, shopping guides and lots of tasty good-for-you recipes."

The content: The magazine (and website) is divided into three sections. The 'Eat Well' section takes up more than half the magazine and is jam-packed with recipes (38 in the premiere issue) including burgers, crab recipes, a spring brunch menu and Asian fusion, as well as a few food-related features like a Grocery Cart Makeover. The 'Be Well' section includes content about healthy living (The Vitals on Vitamins, Defy your Age in 7 Easy Steps), fitness and nutrition. The final 'Live Well' section is a bit of a mish-mash of various lifestyle things - this issue included pieces on container gardening and ways to reduce food waste, among others.

What I liked: I'm a sucker for magazines with recipes, but I'm usually disappointed because the recipes inside rarely live up to the headline on the cover. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised. The recipes aren't fancy but there are some that I would definitely try, like Indian-Spiced Roasted Potato & Chickpea Salad, Crab & Endive Pasta and Red & White Veggie Roast. I also learned some interesting facts about honey.

What I didn't like: While the design is definitely bright and cheery, I found many of the pages looked overwhelming - too much going on, including lots of 'hand drawn' arrows and comments, icons and sidebars galore. It was also weird because I often couldn't tell if I was reading an ad or editorial content - very distracting, and the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it's actually being produced by one of the grocery chains. Finally, the overuse of quick-tips and simple lists, combined with the lack of any articles of substance leads me to believe they're catering to people with very short attention spans, which is annoying and insulting.

The verdict: In this case, I am actually going to help save you time and money because I don't think Fresh Juice is a good buy. You might get a good recipe or two off their website, but I'd save your hard-earned cash for Us Weekly.