Informacion De Nutricion

from the association
ABSTRACT It is the position of the American Dietetic Association (ADA) that food and nutrition misinformation can have harmful effects on the health, well-being, and economic status of consumers. Nationally credentialed dietetics professionals working in health care, academia, public health, the media, government, and the food industry are uniquely qualified to advocate forand promote science-based nutrition information to the public, function as primary nutrition educators to health professionals, and actively correct food and nutrition misinformation. Enormous scientific advances have been made in the area of food and nutrition, leading to a fine-tuning of recommendations about healthful eating. Consumers have become increasingly aware of the nutrition– health linkand reliant on nutrition information to base their decisions, and have assumed partial responsibility for changing their eating behaviors. Unfortunately, these same trends also create opportunities for food and nutrition misinformation to flourish. News reports rarely provide enough context for consumers to interpret or apply the advice given, and preliminary findings often attract unmerited andmisleading attention. Effective nutrition communication must be consumer-friendly and contain sufficient context to allow consumers to consider the information and determine whether it applies to their unique health and nutritional needs. Consistent with ADA’s organizational vision that members “are the leading source of nutrition expertise,” ADA recognizes its responsibility to help consumers identifyfood and nutrition misinformation in the following ways: (a) ADA members should provide consumers with sound, science-based nutrition information and help them to recognize misinformation; (b) ADA members need to be the primary source of sound, sciencebased nutrition information for the media and to inform them when misinformation is presented; and (c) ADA members should continue to diligentlywork with other health care practitioners, educators, policy makers, and food and dietary supplement industry representatives to responsibly address the health and psychological, physiological, and economic effects of nutrition-related misinformation. J Am Diet Assoc. 2006;106:601-607. POSITION STATEMENT It is the position of the American Dietetic Association (ADA) that food and nutritionmisinformation can have harmful effects on the health, wellbeing, and economic status of consumers. Nationally credentialed dietetics professionals working in health care, academia, public health, the media, government, and the food industry are uniquely qualified to advocate for and promote science-based nutrition information to the public, function as primary nutrition educators to health professionals,and actively correct food and nutrition misinformation. TYPES OF FOOD AND NUTRITION MISINFORMATION onsumers are interested in health and nutrition information (1) but, although 43% of consumers report that they like to hear about new studies, 22% claim to be confused by reports (2). Unfortunately, it is not always clear how to distinguish accurate food and nutrition information from nutritionmisinformation. Accurate food and nutrition information is a result of significant scientific agreement from studies that have withstood peer review

ADA REPORTS

Position of the American Dietetic Association: Food and Nutrition Misinformation
and can be replicated. Conversely, food and nutrition misinformation consists of erroneous, incomplete, or misleading science without any scientific basis atall. It can be disseminated naively or with malicious or self-serving intent (to sell products, gain attention, or promote the philosophy of a special-interest group). Food and nutrition misinformation may be harmful to a consumer’s health and general well-being and includes food faddism, health fraud, and misdirected claims. Food fads involve unreasonable or exaggerated beliefs that eating (or...