Nutrition advice is rife with misinformation − a medical education specialist explains how to tell valid health information from pseudoscience
Aimee Pugh Bernard, Assistant Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, tell The Conversation that if a health claim about a dietary intervention sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The Conversation
The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated a vast landscape of misinformation about many topics, science and health chief among them.
Since then, information overload continues unabated, and many people are rightfully confused by an onslaught of conflicting health information. Even expert advice is often contradictory.
On top of that, people sometimes deliberately distort research findings to promote a certain agenda. For example, trisodium phosphate is a common food additive in cakes and cookies that is used to improve texture and prevent spoilage, but wellness influencers exploit the fact that a similarly named substance is used in paint and cleaning products to suggest it’s dangerous to your health.
Such claims can proliferate quickly, creating widespread misconceptions and undermining trust in legitimate scientific research and medical advice. Social media’s rise as a news and information source further fuels the spread of pseudoscientific views.
ADDITIONAL NEWS FROM THE INTEGRITY PROJECT