{"id":965,"date":"2014-04-21T09:56:56","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T16:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/?p=965"},"modified":"2014-04-21T10:04:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T17:04:00","slug":"how-to-spot-bad-science-in-an-article-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/21\/how-to-spot-bad-science-in-an-article-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"How to spot bad science in an article \/ picture."},"content":{"rendered":"

I constantly see memes, pins on Pinterest, and countless \u201carticles\u201d that spout off nonsense regarding health, nutrition, and exercise.\u00a0 More often than not, there is no source cited, and they can give information that is not only completely wrong, but sometimes dangerous.<\/p>\n

So, how do you protect yourself from these sorts of articles?\u00a0 Well, luckily there is an organization known as The Food and Nutrition Science Alliance (FANSA) that is a coalition of 6 organizations:\u00a0 The American College of Nutrition (ACN), the American Dietetic Association (ADA), the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), and the Society for Nutrition Education (SNE).<\/p>\n

Why are you telling me this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

FANSA has put out a fantastic guide for consumers looking for information on the Internet and in the media titled \u201cThe 10 Red Flags of Junk Science.\u201d\u00a0 Anyone interested in health, fitness, or nutrition should keep this list handy and compare it to what they read.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Recommendations that promise a quick fix.<\/li>\n
  2. Dire warnings of danger from a single product or regimen.<\/li>\n
  3. Claims that sound too good to be true.<\/li>\n
  4. Simplistic conclusions drawn from a single study.<\/li>\n
  5. Recommendations based on a single study.<\/li>\n
  6. Dramatic statements that are refuted by reputable scientific organizations.<\/li>\n
  7. Lists of \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad\u201d foods.<\/li>\n
  8. Recommendations made to help sell a product.<\/li>\n
  9. Recommendations based on studies published without peer review.<\/li>\n
  10. Recommendations from studies that ignore differences among individuals or groups.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I personally have one more guideline that I follow:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. If there are no sources, and \/ or the author is underqualified, the article should be treated as nonsense until corroborated with a legitimate source.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Example of this:\u00a0 An article I read made a really interesting claim, citing a study that supported the claim.\u00a0 There were no sources, no links, and the author had no related credentials.\u00a0 I then searched for the study the article referenced and found it.<\/p>\n

      Think about these guidelines, and think about articles you\u2019ve read, or what sort of infographics you\u2019ve shared over social media– Would it be safe to say that the vast majority of the information out there is \u201cjunk science\u201d based on these guidelines?<\/p>\n

      I would say so, and it\u2019s only further contributing to the sort of scientific illiteracy \/ ignorance that pervades society.\u00a0 It\u2019s so easy to find the right answer, you just have to find the source and not go out of your way to \u201cbelieve\u201d in something else.<\/p>\n

      \"Truth.\"<\/a>

      Truth.<\/p><\/div>\n

      That’s great and all, but why should I care?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      I spent the better part of a few years spinning my wheels as far as achieving my goals because I followed advice and programs that were nearly completely devoid science– \u00a0I’m very thankful that I’ve learned all that I have, because now I’m on track to achieve what I originally set out to do.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Sources \/ More Reading:<\/p>\n

      http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Junk_science<\/p>\n

      http:\/\/foodsafety.k-state.edu\/en\/news-details.php?a=4&c=30&sc=218&id=1448<\/p>\n

      http:\/\/www.thefreelibrary.com\/ADA+SERVES+UP+10+RED+FLAGS+TO+SPOT+JUNK+SCIENCE-a018017129<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I constantly see memes, pins on Pinterest, and countless \u201carticles\u201d that spout off nonsense regarding health, nutrition, and exercise.\u00a0 More often than not, there is no source cited, and they can give information that is not only completely wrong, but sometimes dangerous. So, how do you protect yourself from these sorts of articles?\u00a0 Well, luckily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"How to spot bad science in an article \/ picture.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitness","category-health","category-nutrition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DfsS-fz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":969,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}