Monday, Feb. 08, 2010

Food matters: What information is accurate?

Dear Chuck: I enjoy reading about nutrition and health but am not sure how to tell if something is real or inaccurate. Can you give me an idea of what to look for and how to tell if it is correct? Confused.

Dear Confused. Join the club. I am often looking for information to help my patients, for classes or to use for the Food Matters articles. If I wasn't already very familiar with the principles of diet and health I could see how easily one might be misled.

So often well-meaning people with a little knowledge about nutrition have a belief that what they heard or discovered is true. They might be excited to share the information with friends and family members with only noble intentions. Some may even be convinced enough of its healthful benefits that they are recruited to sell a product or treatment and get others to do the same.

There are, of course, others who are not well-meaning and who prey upon susceptible individuals that don't know any better. They may target uneducated, elderly or isolated individuals. Some put advertisements in popular magazines with claims that are clearly made up and absurd. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is. Other false claims are not so obvious.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a nonprofit, consumer education association, has conducted surveys to determine which popular magazines provide the most accurate information related to diet, nutrition, and health issues. The latest survey done in 2004-05 found Consumer Reports, Glamour, Ladies' Home Journal, and Shape to score in the "excellent/near excellent" category. Others like Child, Parents, Woman's Day, Cooking Light, Fitness, Redbook, Self, Good Housekeeping, Health, Runner's World, Better Homes and Gardens, and Prevention earned scores in the "good" category. Reader's Digest, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan, and Muscle and Fitness, earned "fair" ratings. Magazines directed at men were especially prone to inaccurate information.

The American Dietetic Association also did a survey of 1000 adults. They found that nearly eight in 10 are interested in locating reliable sources online. Most surveyed believe the information they find online is reliable and trustworthy. ADA Spokesperson Dawn Jackson Blatner commented that obtaining nutrition advice on the web is akin to taking advice from someone who walked up to you on the street.

You can certainly find very reliable information on the web but a healthy dose of skepticism should be part of the search. Look for credentials like Registered Dietitian. Be careful of specific products that are being promoted for sale, especially those depending on testimonials. Watch out for marketing scams that are wrapped up as advice. It is also not a good idea to depend on information from social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

For more information on a variety of topics on nutrition, disease prevention, healthy and safe food preparation as well as reviews of popular diet books check out the ADA website at www.eatright.org.

Chuck Newcomb, MS, RD, CDE is a consulting Registered Dietitian currently providing medical nutrition therapy services for Memorial Hospital Los Baños. He has a Masters of Science in Clinical Nutrition from New York University. E-mail questions to the Attention of ChuckRD at: MHALosBanos@SutterHealth.org.