Introduction

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As a future chef I consider that nutrition is an important topic in cooking. Nowadays, this discipline is taking relevance in the cuisine world, since there is a growing trend about health food and take care of our body through what we eat.

Breakfast, by Daniela Constantini

Personally, I am really interested about healthy diets and how we can learn to improve our meals through better recipes and techniques. I discovered that is not so difficult to enhance our diet, however, there is this idea that make our own food takes too much time and effort; a wrong idea. I am confident that this way of thought is changing, and nutrition is taking an important role today. The increasing of obesity and health issues related with bad nutrition were the red flag to draw the attention about how we eat?, and what are we eating? Having a poor diet can affect our bodies in many ways, and it is not strange the high rates of obesity and heart conditions related with the food quality we eat. Nutrition is the answer to these problems, and have the skills and tools to lead society to a better path in our health.

In our society, food industry had played an important role in this health situation. The excess of sodium, chemicals, hormones and too much sugar had favored the increasing of this diseases relate with poor diet. What are processed foods? "Processed food is any food that’s altered during preparation to make it more convenient, shelf-stable or flavorful. Some foods are much more processed than others." (Nick Fox, 2019).

In the nutrition world there are a lot of websites and online sources to learn more about how to improve our health. However, not always these sources are reliable and can lead to take negative decisions about the food we eat. There are websites that promises magical weight loss diet or wrong information about food. It is really important to check what information we are taking into account when we are looking for reliable knowledge about nutrition.

Among attested websites there is WbMD: https://www.webmd.com/

This website has well-grounded information based on professionals dietitians, doctors, nurses, and it is connected with other serious websites, like Medscape, Medscape Reference, MedicineNet, eMedicineHealth, etc. Each article has a list of the sources they used to give the information. What is more, this website covers a wide variety of topics, from basic concepts of nutrition to recipes, and physical exercise. 

- An example of a non-reliable website about nutrition we have, Healthy Food House: http://www.healthyfoodhouse.com/

This website clearly only take doubtful information from other websites that does not have
sources themselves. Here it is offered treatments for several illness but with any proof, paper or research that supports them. In the nutrition section, this website has articles like "Science Explains How to Use Apple Cider Vinegar For Weight Loss" without any source that confirms this statement. 

As we can see in both examples, it can be really easy to choose the wrong information if we do not follow certain steps to know if a nutrition website is reliable or not. There are some tips to discover how truthful is the offered information:

1) Sources: check how the website address end, if they have a .gov, .edu, .org this are government agencies for sure. They have a professional staff that produce the information and they use papers and scientific grounds to make the articles.

2) Date: it is important to check the date of articles, since the information about nutrition is constantly changing. Perhaps an article from 1999 now is obsolete.

3) What is the site purpose?: the website has as a goal to sell a product or offer information? This can be seen in the "about" section of most of websites, and if there are no information about what is the purpose, it is highly probable that is not a reliable site to obtain real information.

Nowadays, nutrition is an important way to learn how to improve our lives and health quality. For that reason, it is fundamental to know where to look for reliable information. In the end, always consult with a professional; dietitians and doctors are there to answer all the doubts we can have. In conclusion, medical advice should never be replace with online information,because in many cases, wrong information can lead to more damage.

 

 

Sources

  •  National Institutes of Health, & Hicklin, T. (2017, March 14). How dietary factors influence disease risk. Https://Www.Nih.Gov/. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-dietary-factors-influence-disease-risk/

  • Fox, N. (2019, April). The Many Health Risks of Processed Foods. Https://Www.Lhsfna.Org/. https://www.lhsfna.org/the-many-health-risks-of-processed-foods/
  • Gatewood, J. (2019, January 14). Good or Bad? Finding Reliable Nutrition Information on the Web. Https://Blogs.Extension.Iastate.Edu/. https://blogs.extension.iastate.edu/spendsmart/2019/01/14/good-or-bad-finding-reliable-nutrition-information-on-the-web/

 

 Pictures 

  • Constantini, D. (n.d.). [Breakfast]. Https://Www.Pexels.Com/. https://www.pexels.com/es-es/foto/desayuno-saludable-servido-en-mesa-de-madera-5591663/
  • WdMD logo. (n.d.). [Logo]. Https://Www.Webmd.Com/.
  •  Healthy Food House logo. (n.d.). [Logo]. Http://Www.Healthyfoodhouse.Com/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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