What a Healthy Web They Weave

Admit it, you’ve always wondered about dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate. (While it’s a thickener in foods, it might be a laxative in you.) Or wanted to know about the “secret life of beef.” (It’s best when it’s local, as it can have one mighty large carbon hoofprint.)

If food questions like these have puzzled you, then check out the work of brother/sister team Jonas Dalidd and Dina Clapinski, who created befoodsmart.com as a resource so you can be just that. UCI and UCSB grads, respectively, they went to college hoping to eat well, found that even harder than they thought, and, while neither works in the food industry, decided to create a Web site to educate and inform the public about food additives and ingredients.

The site features a blog with everything from videos to recipes to cookbook reviews and, most crucially, an ever-growing glossary of ingredients with befuddling names that certainly didn’t grow in grandma’s garden. Their site befoodsmart.com is one more handy tool in the ever-vigilant fight we must wage to eat well.