Southern Living is going uptown.

The magazine, cherished by generations of Southern women for its traditional take on cooking, decorating and gardening, is sporting a sleek new look. The redesigned March issue should reach subscribers and newsstands in the next few days.

Southern Living (ENLARGE)

The updated magazine emphasizes healthy living and the South's growing urban areas.

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"We need to change the magazine as the South changes," says editor John Alex Floyd Jr.

The magazine is introducing a monthly healthy living section and making room for it by combining home and garden coverage. It's putting more emphasis on the region's rapidly growing urban centers, such as Atlanta and Houston, by acknowledging the changing lifestyles of their residents.

That means more quick and easy recipes, Floyd said. It also means making the magazine easier to navigate. Color-coded tabs on each page guide busy readers to sections on travel, food and other major topics.

Larger photos, wider pages and a straight-edge binding that replaces a stapled one round out the redesign. It's the first major update since 1991 for the 2.8-million circulation monthly.

Still, change only comes so fast in the South. To kick off the new healthy living section, the editors went back to an old favorite.

The topic?

How to lighten fried foods, with recipes for oven-fried chicken tenders and coconut shrimp.