Heart-Healthy Comfort Foods

Guest Bio: Dawn Jackson Blatner

Blatner is a registered dietitian, certified specialist in sports dietetics, nutrition consultant for the Chicago Cubs and author of The Flexitarian Diet. She is also a trusted food and nutrition expert appearing regularly in national media outlets such as "The Dr. Oz Show," NBC-TV's "Dateline," USA Today, Newsweek, Cooking Light and WebMD.com.

Blatner writes a food and nutrition blog for the Huffington Post and is on the advisory board of Fitness magazine. She has written health and wellness articles for national magazines such as Fitness, Health, Yoga Journal and Vegetarian Times. She was also the co-author of Counseling Overweight Adults and the nutrition consultant for The New York Times best-selling book The Carb Lover's Diet.

With a private dietetic practice in Chicago, Blatner provides personalized nutrition counseling, healthy cooking classes and educational workshops. She also has worked as the dietitian for Lifetime Television, a national health food chain, exclusive spas, DePaul University and the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Wellness Institute.

Blatner was a national media spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) for nine years and has 14 years of experience working with clients to improve health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. Most recently, she received the Lifetime Television 2011 "Remarkable Woman Award" for her work in the field of nutrition.

Blatner attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduated with honors with a degree in human nutrition and food science. She completed a dietetic internship at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.