Nutrition Science: Understanding the Scientific Method

To understand how scientists collect evidence about nutrition and health and to analyze this information to determine whether it is factual and based on scientific evidence or misinformation.

Intuition, common sense, conventional wisdom, or anecdotes.

They discard conventional beliefs, explanations, and practices.

<p>To distinguish between evidence-based information and misinformation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To become a more critical and careful consumer of nutrition- and health-related information.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An evidence-based claim is supported by scientific evidence, while an anecdotal claim is based on personal experiences or reports.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To separate factual information from misinformation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To provide evidence-based information that informs nutrition practices and policies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To obtain answers to their questions about the natural world.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>In vivo experiments use whole living organisms, while in vitro experiments use cells or components derived from living organisms.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To compare results between the treatment group and the control group to determine whether the treatment had any effect.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Experimental (intervention) studies and observational studies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To determine the effect of a single variable, scientists need to control the influence of other variables.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To ensure that the members of the treatment and control groups have similar variables, such as age, weight, and other characteristics.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It provides information about the role of the variable being tested in the development of disease.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Because individual humans vary greatly within a population and some subjects may not provide complete data or drop out of the study.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To mimic the treatment and enable scientists to compare the treatment's response with that of the placebo.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Due to safety and ethical concerns.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Most medical experts thought that only 'germs' caused disease.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A question or educated guess that is tested through experimentation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To record facts and examine the outcome of the experiment.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Dr. Joseph Goldberger.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>That it was typically eaten by other people with pellagra.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Due to physiological differences between humans and laboratory animals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Pellagra.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The scientific method is a series of steps used to test a hypothesis, and it is followed by nutrition researchers to design and conduct experimental studies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Placebo.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It increases the likelihood of having findings that result from the treatment and not just by chance.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Dr. Goldberger concluded that pellagra resulted from a lack of something in poor people's diet, specifically a missing dietary factor found in meat, milk, and other foods eaten regularly by people with high incomes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The diet consisted of corn bread, hominy grits, molasses, potatoes, cabbage, and rice.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Dr. Goldberger gave meat, milk, and fresh vegetables to children in two Mississippi orphanages and patients in a Georgia mental institution who were suffering from pellagra, and they were cured of the disease.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>After a few months, more than half of the inmates developed pellagra.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The experiment aimed to test whether pellagra was an infectious disease.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Dr. Conrad Elvehjem and his team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Double-blind studies prevent researchers and subjects from being influenced by their expectations about group assignments, allowing for more objective results.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To prevent researchers and subjects from being influenced by their expectations about group assignments, which could affect the study's results.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Researchers may unwittingly convey clues to subjects about their group assignments, which could influence the subjects' beliefs and reported outcomes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Many members of the medical establishment rejected Dr. Goldberger's conclusion that pellagra was caused by a poor diet, despite his experimental evidence.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Placebo and nocebo effects</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Prevalence</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Epidemiology</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To understand the occurrence, distribution, and causes of health problems in populations</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Physical examinations and laboratory tests</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To prevent bias and ensure accurate results</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Expectations</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Placebo effect</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To determine the cause of the health problem</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Blood samples</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>National Nutrition and Health Examination Survey (NHANES)</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Multiple factors, including genetic susceptibility, environmental conditions, and lifestyle practices, can influence the development of the disease.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To study how long-term dietary choices influence people’s health.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Case-control study</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Retrospective studies look back in time and examine past exposures, while prospective studies look forward in time.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The relationship between snow skiing and lemonade drinking</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Information about peoples’ past food-related behaviors</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To critically analyze an article to ensure it was well conducted, its results are fairly represented, and the research is of interest to the journal's readers</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Either case-control or cohort study designs</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To evaluate and report results objectively and honestly, without influence from funding sources or personal interests</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To identify factors that may have been responsible for the illness</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The beef industry might not fund scientific investigations to find connections between high intakes of beef and the risk of certain cancers</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It allows researchers to make associations between exposure to a specific factor and the subsequent development of health conditions</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The sugar industry using its influence to divert attention away from sugar's role in the development of heart disease</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To learn about the influence of diet on health</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>From infectious diseases to chronic diseases, particularly heart disease</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>John Yudkin and Ancel Keys</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It had been largely dismissed by medical and nutrition scientists</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To find relationships between variables and health outcomes, and to determine whether hypotheses are supported by the data</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To share information about the investigation with other researchers and the scientific community</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The sugar industry.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Prepare a paper that reviewed scientific literature concerning the role of sugar and lipids in the development of heart disease.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To allow readers to decide on the reliability of the findings due to potential conflicts of interest.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To ensure that scientists are as ethical and objective as possible.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>By looking at their covers and skimming their pages, as scientific journals typically have less colorful covers and more in-depth articles.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Because the information is often simplistic and sensational, making it more likely to be reported.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Researchers may unintentionally influence the results or behavior of the participants.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Because popular sources may feature faulty, biased information and are not subject to the same scientific scrutiny as peer-reviewed journals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To allow readers to decide on the reliability of the findings.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Because they may have received funding from organizations or companies that promote specific products, leading to conflicts of interest.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Controlling and herding pigs is difficult, they eat a wide variety of foods and require a lot of water, competing with people for resources.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Economic and environmental factors, such as the impracticality of raising pigs in nomadic populations, may have contributed to the development of dietary pork taboos.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Trichinosis, a parasitic illness caused by eating raw or improperly cooked pork.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The Middle East, where nomadic populations lived, making it impractical to raise pigs.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A combination of economic, environmental, and health factors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Consumers can be trained to look for features such as 'busy,' brightly colored covers that distinguish popular sources of nutrition information from peer-reviewed scientific journals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The results of one study are rarely enough to gain widespread acceptance for new or unusual findings or to provide a basis for nutritional recommendations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Differences in the ways various studies are designed, such as numbers, ages, and physical conditions of subjects; type and length of the study; amount of the treatment provided; and statistical tests used to analyze results.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Individual genetic differences and lifestyle factors, such as different recall of dietary information and following instructions concerning health care practices, can influence the results of nutrition research involving human subjects.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Food taboos are cultural traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, and often have no basis in scientific fact.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>To distinguish between evidence-based claims and anecdotal claims, and to recognize that sensational media coverage of a medical 'breakthrough' does not necessarily indicate the value or quality of research.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Scientific research provides evidence-based information to support nutritional recommendations and health practices.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>This understanding helps consumers recognize that conflicting findings do not necessarily mean that nutrition scientists do not know what they are doing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Replication of findings in multiple studies provides stronger evidence for nutritional recommendations and health practices.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Nutrition scientists continually question, research, and test hypotheses, gathering and analyzing data to draw conclusions, and sometimes accepting change, which leads to new principles and practices emerging from new findings.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Epidemiological studies cannot establish causation, that is, whether a practice is responsible for an effect. This limitation is important to consider because it highlights that correlation does not necessarily imply causation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>In a retrospective cohort study, dietary information is gathered after the fact, whereas in a prospective cohort study, healthy people are followed over time and their dietary habits are recorded.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An example of a direct correlation is the relationship between sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption and the percentage of overweight people in a population. This correlation indicates that as one variable increases, the other variable also increases.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The purpose of the Framingham Heart Study was to identify links between exposures and diseases. The study found relationships between personal characteristics and health outcomes, including risk factors for heart disease such as elevated blood cholesterol levels, cigarette smoking, and hypertension.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An inverse correlation is a relationship between two variables where one increases and the other decreases. An example is the relationship between fruit intake and hypertension, where increased fruit consumption is associated with decreased hypertension.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It is important to consider alternative explanations because correlations can be due to chance or other factors, rather than a true cause-and-effect relationship.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A cohort study is a type of observational study that follows a group of people over time, recording their exposures and outcomes. It differs from other types of epidemiological studies in that it allow for the analysis of relationships between exposures and outcomes over time.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The role of the investigators in a prospective cohort study is to gather data on the participants' exposures and outcomes over time, and to analyze this data to identify relationships between the two.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An example of a coincidence is the relationship between lemonade consumption and snow skiing accidents in Colorado over a 10-year period. This is a chance happening and does not imply a cause-and-effect relationship.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It is important to control for variables in epidemiological studies because failing to do so can lead to false conclusions about the relationships between exposures and outcomes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Physicians are not necessarily the best sources of nutrition information because most doctors do not have extensive college coursework in the subject.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>RDs and RDNs are college-trained health care professionals with extensive knowledge of foods, nutrition, and dietetics, and are certified by the appropriate accrediting agency.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>You can locate RDNs by consulting online directories, contacting your local dietetic association or dietary department of a local hospital, or visiting the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics website (<a href="http://www.eatright.org">www.eatright.org</a>) or the Dietitians of Canada website (<a href="http://www.dietitians.ca">www.dietitians.ca</a>).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The titles 'registered dietitian (RD)' and 'registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN)' are legally protected, meaning people cannot legally refer to themselves as RDNs unless they have been certified by the appropriate accrediting agency.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Clinical dietetics, community nutrition, and food systems management.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Clinical dietitians can work as members of medical teams in hospitals or clinics.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Although many states regulate and license people who call themselves nutritionists, there are no standard legal definitions for these descriptors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A registered dietitian (RD) or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) is a reliable source of nutrition information.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>directing food service systems in hospitals, schools, and long-term care facilities</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>1200 hours</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>to provide accredited training after graduation</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>fulfilling continuing education requirements</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>public health settings, private practice, or wellness programs</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>developing and managing corporate wellness programs</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>serving as nutrition 'coaches' for fitness enthusiasts, sports teams, and military members</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>developing recipes, working as supermarket dietitians, and advocating for sustainable farming practices</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>working as educators, research scientists, and wellness specialists</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>working as administrators and professional staff in food- and nutrition-related programs</p> Signup and view all the answers