About

What is RipenIowa?

Fresh produce looks, smells and tastes best when it has fully developed. But, for it to flourish and reach optimal maturity, it needs an abundance of care and effort: water, sunshine, nutrients, soil, etc. Just as produce is at its best when completely ripe, so are people. Your body needs a rich amount of care and nutrients to reach its peak. Ripen serves as a metaphor for living a rich and healthful life. To ripen is a state of becoming, a state of optimum completeness, regardless of age or any other characteristic. RipenIowa is geared to, but not limited to, citizens of Iowa City who have an interest in health. If you live in or around Iowa City and you want to start or continue a healthy and ripe life, then ripeniowa.com is for you.

If you are looking for the latest site on dieting or losing weight or if you are looking for the latest “cookie diet” or “detox plan,” then RipenIowa is not for you.

This site instead incorporates common sense in a format that is fun and easy to understand. I hope RipenIowa will be an uplifting place to create a riper you: in body, mind and spirit.

About Me

I’m Adrienne, a journalism master’s student at The University of Iowa. I have a passion for health and nutrition, and I love writing about it and coming up with unique and healthy recipe ideas.

With a dad who is an internal medicine physician, and a mom who managed a gym and taught aerobics (to my embarrassment, complete with leg warmers and neon leotards), eating healthy and leading an active lifestyle was instilled in me at a very young age. Because of them, I’ve been interested in health since I was old enough to lift a fork.

The rest of my family is full of athletes and marathon runners. It’s pretty hard to be lazy and not be into physical activity when you have a family like mine.

Commonly Asked Questions

Why should I listen to you? Are you a doctor?

I’m not an authority on health. I’m not a doctor, dietician, nutritionist, or any other type of health professional. I have a minor in biology, but that’s about it. I’m just curious about health, and I like to tell people everything I know and learn. Everything you see and read on the site is based on my acquired knowledge and experience and is not meant to qualify as medical advice. However, I will only use credible sources and scrutinize the validity of the material I encounter like any other good journalist

Where do you get the recipes?

All the recipes come from me (unless otherwise noted). I love finding new ways to eat healthfully without sacrificing taste. Eating healthier doesn’t have to be boring or bland. Life is way too short to deprive ourselves of flavor. I hope my recipes will inspire others to make their own healthy recipes.

How do you figure out the nutritional information for the recipes?

I calculate the nutritional information of all recipes using SparkPeople* or Fitday, which are great resources and allow users to input and calculate a number of different health statistics. It is at times a laborious process, but it is important to know exactly what is going in your body when maintaining your health.

Contact

For questions, comments, feedback or advertising inquiries, please contact me at askadrienne@hotmail.com