Why does this matter?
Every day we hear conflicting evidence about health and nutrition. Vaccines cause autism. Chocolate will benefit pregnant women. Chewing gum will decrease appetite. Some of these claims, like the vaccine one, are just false or outright wrong; more insidious is distorted research. How can you spot this and why does it matter?
When the information you get about the latest movie is wrong, you're only out a couple of hours and $10-15. When you get the wrong health information, it has immense personal, policy, and societal consequences.
The rest of this tutorial will help you spot good evidence amongst all the wild claims and fake news out there.
Researching controversial nutrition topics
Science News Cycle by Jorge Cham, PhD Comics
VIDEO: Scientific Studies (John Oliver, Last Week Tonight)
GRAPHIC: Everything we eat both causes and prevents cancer
-in This is why you shouldn't believe that exciting new medical study, based on data from Schoenfeld, J.D. & Ioannidis, J.P.A. (2013). "Is everything we eat associated with cancer: A systematic cookbook review." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 97(1), 127-134.