Thursday, August 19, 2010

Myth: When I see nutrition information in the news I should change what I eat.

newspaper article and green apple
Answer: Busted!

Nutrition and health information changes over time. Some of what I learned as a graduate student no longer applies. Other advice hasn’t changed much. I don’t suggest that we all try to become nutritionists and know all of the current and available nutrition research. That’s impossible. Instead, choose sources of nutrition information that give you a balanced, credible perspective. The University of Missouri Extension is one such source. I also find Medpage Today has good information about studies in the news. Why do I say this? Their reviews of studies discuss the quality of the data. Or they point out that the study results may not apply to you especially if the study was done with only one gender or in another country.

I’ve found another website that you might find interesting if you want to monitor health in the news - HealthNewsReview. It provides independent expert reviews of news stories or as its tagline states: holding health and medical journalism accountable.

Contributor: Ellen Schuster, M.S., R.D., Associate State Specialist, schusterer@missouri.edu, 573-882-1933

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