Food and Nutrition: The Truth Behind Food Headlines

Rebuild your trust in nutrition science and look beyond the media headlines

Please note this course runs without facilitation

Due to conflicting messages from the media, it’s becoming harder to know what to believe when it comes to following a healthy diet and lifestyle.

On this course, you’ll compare how nutrition and health topics are handled by the media and science.

You’ll be encouraged to think critically about the information behind media headlines and come to your own conclusions about what’s good for you.

You’ll explore the psychology of why we’re easily influenced by headlines and learn about different types of biases, like confirmatory and availability bias.

You’ll also learn how to find reliable information online and identify unreliable health studies.

This course is designed for anyone who is losing trust in media headlines about how what we eat affects our health and who wants to get to the truth.

If you’re looking to expand your knowledge on this topic, you might also find of interest the following EIT Food courses on food, nutrition and science communication:

• Understanding Food Labels
• Understanding Mediterranean and Okinawa Diets
• Nutrition for Health and Sustainability
• The Human Microbiome
• Food for Thought: The Relationship Between Food, Gut and Brain

• What's behind a headline
• Welcome
• How do we interpret headlines?
• How do journalists produce their news?
• How is scientific credibility established?
• Take action
• Influence and interpretation
• Welcome to Week 2
• What bias do readers bring?
• The statistics behind a headline
• How do you read a scientific paper?
• Take action
• Trust
• Welcome to Week 3
• How do you find reliable information?
• How do you check if an article is credible?
• How is a scientific study published?
• Take action