|
Use
the Internet to track down nutrition info
June 30, 05
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
The
volume of queries I get from readers posing basic questions
about diet and health illustrates the need for reliable and
easy-to-understand information on how food choices affect
health.
It’s not easy to sort out conflicting scientific studies
and wide-ranging health claims.
But there are many good sources of reliable information about
diet and health – many of them available on the Internet.
The best Web sources are current on a range of issues relating
to diet and health, food safety and food policy. They also
have a practical, consumer orientation that puts complicated
matters into perspective. Another thing to watch for are sites
that limit corporate funding so that information and recommendations
are less likely to be biased.
Best all-purpose resources:
* Consumer’s Union at www.consumersunion.org.
Unbiased advice about health and nutrition supported by sales
of Consumer Reports magazine, related services, and noncorporate
grants, contributions and fees.
* Harvard Nutrition Source at www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/.
The site is maintained by the Department of Nutrition at the
Harvard School of Public Health.
* Nutrition Action Healthletter at www.cspinet.org/nah.
Published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest,
the site offers free online access to back issues or subscriptions
to their hard-copy newsletter.
* Environmental Working Group at www.ewg.org.
Reliable information on food and water safety and policy.
* Environmental Nutrition Newsletter at www.environmentalnutrition.com.
Reports on food and nutrition science and policy news from
a public interest perspective. You can access current and
back issues free for 30 days before opening a paid subscription.
A number of government sites should also top your list of
quick references:
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition
Information Center at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/general/general.html.
Links to other Web sites and sub-sites, resource lists, A-Z
topic information and searchable databases, including one
that gives the nutrient composition of foods. The government’s
newly revised MyPyramid isn’t much use, but this link
will open the door to many good materials.
* The National Institutes of Health at http://health.nih.gov/
has links to health databases, hotlines, and information on
specific nutrition and wellness topics. You can also go directly
to the National Library of Medicine at www.nlm.nih.gov/portals/public.html
and get instructions for using the online collection.
* Healthfinder at www.healthfinder.gov/.
This is a federal government web site for consumers that links
to more than 1,500 government and nonprofit sources of health
and human services information on the Web. It includes links
to Spanish language resources and offers a “quick tour”
for anyone new to the site.
Several other sites are good sources of information on diet
for prevention and treatment of diseases and conditions such
as diabetes, coronary artery disease, cancer, and food allergies.
Good places to start:
* American Diabetes Association at www.diabetes.org/home.jsp.
* American Heart Association at www.americanheart.org/.
* American Institute for Cancer Research at www.aicr.org/index.lasso.
* The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network at www.foodallergy.org/.
Need recipes? Try the American Institute for Cancer Research
Recipe Corner at www.aicr.org/information/recipe/index.lasso
and 5 a Day Recipes for Fruits and Vegetables at www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/5aday/recipes/.
There are many more good online sources of information, but
the challenge can sometimes be how to differentiate those
that have reliable information from those that don’t.
If you need help evaluating health sites, try these online
tip sheets from:
* Oregon Health & Science University. Visit www.croetweb.com/eval.cfm.
* Food and Drug Administration. Visit www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdonline.html.
* Internet Healthcare Coalition. Visit www.ihealthcoalition.org/content/tips.html.
|
