I’m Kayla. I design and tinker with front-end stuff. I also eat like a real person who gets busy and forgets lunch. So I spent a week using a bunch of nutrition sites on my laptop and my phone. I took notes on what felt clean, quick, and friendly. I looked at the CSS, the colors, the flow, and those tiny bits that make a page feel calm or loud.
(For an even deeper dive into how I ran that hunt, here’s the expanded case study on my nutrition site CSS inspo adventure.)
I made breakfast in between, and, yes, I did spill coffee on my trackpad. Twice. Anyway, here’s what stuck.
Healthline Nutrition — Calm Greens, Good Bones
I read three Healthline nutrition guides and a few recipe pages on my iPhone 13 and a 13-inch laptop. If you want to see their design celebrated in full, the Healthline Transform case on Awwwards is a great quick look. The vibe feels like a deep breath. Soft greens and blues. A lot of air. Clear type. They use pill badges for things like “medically reviewed.” The badges sit high in the visual stack but don’t shout. I like their section spacing too. It follows a simple step rhythm. Small gaps for tight bits. Big gaps for new ideas. It helps your eyes rest.
- What I’d borrow: pill badges for facts, soft green accents, and that steady spacing scale. Also their callout boxes with a thin border and a pale tint. Feels safe and smart.
- What bugged me: the sticky share bar got in the way on my small phone screen. It nudges content when I scroll. Tiny thing, but it adds friction.
CSS note: this is a “less is more” layout. Neutral gray body text. A strong H2 line-height. Buttons with a modest radius, not bubble-y. Shadows stay shy.
Examine.com — Nerdy, Clean, and So… Readable
I live on Examine for supplement and nutrient research. On desktop, they have a tidy table of contents stuck to the side that tracks where you are. The accordions fold up long sections without the “boing” effect. Nice restraint. They also group tags into soft little chips with subtle borders. It looks serious but not stiff.
- What I’d borrow: sticky table of contents with calm highlight states, accordion sections with clear focus outlines, and a thin progress bar along the top for “how far you’ve read.”
- What bugged me: sometimes the contrast on secondary links feels a hair too faint. Gray-on-gray is easy on the eyes, sure, but I like a touch more snap.
CSS note: the reading progress bar is a simple, useful pattern. Keep its height tiny. Keep motion gentle. Respect reduced-motion settings, because not everyone wants animation.
MyPlate (USDA) — Big Blocks, Bold Colors, Very Clear
I used MyPlate to explain labels to a friend who’s new to cooking. It reminds me of the clean, blocky layout showcased in the Diet & Nutrition Health Center template that floats around on Behance for similar projects. The color coding helps a lot. Icons are plain and bright. Buttons are chunky with strong labels. The “nutrition label” style graphics are the star. Black border. Bold section headers. It feels like the real food label, but readable on a phone.
- What I’d borrow: the FDA-style label component using CSS Grid, bold section dividers, and a clear stacking order. It teaches while it shows.
- What bugged me: some pages feel a bit heavy, color-wise. Great for clarity, but it can shout on small screens.
CSS note: thick borders, strong typographic scale, and grid rows for calories, macros, and footnotes. Keep the kerning firm so numbers line up.
MyFitnessPal — Chips, Charts, and Quick Wins
I keep MyFitnessPal on my phone. On web, I like their little filter chips for recipes and foods. Scrollable, rounded, easy taps. The macro rings and bars translate well to CSS with simple gradients or conic shapes. The CTAs use a brand blue that stands out against white cards.
- What I’d borrow: horizontally scrollable chips with overscroll hint, color-coded macro bars, and a sticky bottom action bar on mobile that doesn’t cover text.
- What bugged me: ad blocks can crowd the content flow. When the page jumps, I lose my place. That hiccup hurts trust.
CSS note: chips need good focus states. A light outline and a slightly darker label work well. Keep shadow soft so they don’t look like candy.
NutritionFacts.org — Green, Video-Forward, and Friendly
I watched two videos and read a transcript. Cards show simple thumbs, clear titles, and tags. The green accent is warm, not neon. The transcript accordion opens fast and doesn’t jitter, which is rare. There’s a donation banner that sticks around. It’s polite but present.
- What I’d borrow: two-line title clamps on video cards, thin borders instead of heavy shadows, and a button style that looks the same in light and dark tints.
- What bugged me: the sticky banner can create a tight squeeze on short phones. A “minimize” toggle would help.
CSS note: line-clamp on titles keeps grids tidy. Just give the card enough padding so it doesn’t look cut off.
Precision Nutrition — Long Reads Done Right
I read one of their long guides on my couch, tired and hungry. The page felt easy. Big comfy text. Lots of white space. Pull quotes with a soft left border and a serif twist. FAQs at the end wrap it up neatly. No wild animation. The page trusts the content.
(If you want to nerd out on the nitty-gritty of styling those pull quotes, this rundown of quote CSS designs that actually work is gold.)
- What I’d borrow: generous line-height, pull quotes with a soft accent, and end-of-article FAQs using large tap targets and gentle chevrons.
- What bugged me: sometimes the intro is very long. I like it. But I did wish for a small summary box up top.
CSS note: set a max line length that feels like a book. Around 65–75 characters per line keeps your brain calm.
Tiny Patterns I Keep Reusing
Quick tip: when I’m mocking up nav interactions, I often spin up a demo in CSS Menu Tools to sanity-check hover states and responsive breakpoints. It’s also where I first wrestled with overlaying dropdown menus purely in CSS—spoiler: z-index will stab you in the back if you’re sloppy. When I’m experimenting with list thumbnails, I lean on this field test of CSS hover on images inside a list for reminders about what trips up mobile.
- BBC Good Food: nutrition tables that stack on mobile without turning into a mess. Simple borders. Alternating row tints.
- Verywell Fit: callout boxes with icons and a soft tone for “expert tip” or “try this.” Great for skim readers.
- Cronometer: dark theme has strong contrast without glare. That’s hard. Their orange pops, but doesn’t burn.
- MeetnFuck’s “Uber-for-sex” concept: I was curious how ultra-fast, location-based adult apps design for on-the-go decisions. The breakdown at this Uber-for-sex app roundup shows how tight map overlays, single-thumb CTAs, and minimal forms strip the UI down to the essentials—handy reference if you’re studying real-time matching flows.
- While sketching more relationship-focused adult niches, I also peeked at the Ontario-specific sugar-dating hub Sugar Baby Ontario, which offers a look at how profile cards, verification badges, and allowance calculators blend discreet pastel palettes with “luxury meets safety” cues—worth visiting if you need inspiration for balancing elegance and conversion-driven UI inside high-trust marketplaces.
- Whole30: filter chips for recipes are roomy and legible. The spacing is generous, which helps big thumbs.
- Examine (again): evidence badges that sit next to headings without pulling too much focus. Perfect balance.
For the borders on those nutrition tables, my cheat sheet is this quick hit on what actually works for table borders in CSS.
My Favorite CSS Building Blocks From These Sites
- A calm green accent, like Healthline, for trust cues and checkmarks.
- A strict spacing scale (4–8–12–16–24). Reuse it everywhere.
- An FDA-style nutrition label block with CSS Grid and bold dividers.
- Scrollable filter chips with clear “selected” states and focus rings