Meredith’s Targeted Media Health group has expanded its point-of-care print presence with the debut of EatingWell Better Health Guides. The publication joins People Health, People En Español Salud, Time Health and Health Reports in the company’s POC-only portfolio.

The EatingWell Better Health Guides represent Targeted Media Health’s most recent attempt to leverage a hugely popular consumer brand – some 7 million readers across channels, according to managing director, Meredith Targeted Media Health John Kenyon – in the point-of-care realm.

Each 16- or 32-page issue will focus on a single health condition and address ways of treating it via better nutrition. As with the other TMH publications, the EatingWell guides are produced by the consumer title’s editorial team.

Kenyon noted that nutritional information has been a component of every TMH guide to date. “It’s one of the areas and themes people really want to know about,” he said. “You see a direct correlation between health conditions and the ensuing need for lifestyle and nutrition changes as a result of having those conditions.”

The first EatingWell guide focuses on inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Rather than straight-on diagnostic information, however, it serves up bits on foods to eat and avoid, a primer on probiotics and prebiotics, and a look at the effect that emulsifiers have on digestion.

There are also recipes, of course – Old Bay salmon with lemony mashed peas, flank steak tacos with strawberry salsa and more. “They’re good. They don’t sound like they’re on the skinny-licious menu,” Kenyon added. “They’re the kind of thing you’ll tuck in the back of cookbooks for years.”

Subsequent EatingWell guides will focus on some of the more obvious nutrition-adjacent conditions, like cardiovascular health, diabetes and obesity. But Kenyon sees potential in nutritional content targeted at individuals with cancer, psoriasis or mental health conditions.

“So many of the treatments create dietary issues,” he noted.

Each EatingWell guide will be limited to a single exclusive ad position, as Kenyon put it, with Takeda’s ulcerative colitis/Crohn’s disease biologic Entyvio claiming the slot in the first issue. “It’s not an ad-heavy platform. It’s designed to educate,” he said.

The guides will be highly targeted in their distribution, Kenyon added. “In this particular case, we’re only placing it in those doctor’s offices that are the highest prescribers of remedies that are specific to UC and Crohn’s.”

Kenyon, currently co-chair of the Point of Care Communication Council, remains one of the biggest believers in the enduring power of print, at the point of care and everywhere else. Between the EatingWell guides and TMH’s other POC print titles, it’s clear that Meredith sees a host of untapped marketing and educational potential in the channel.

“Physicians like print, because it’s the easiest way to convey detailed information. [Marketers] like it because they have the ability to deliver a memorable message,” he said. “These guides are something that patients are going to read, believe and take with them.”