Qualified Nutrition Info

Through my own searches, by reading blogs and via the receipt of emails and Country Tart comments, I receive a lot of links to "check out" for sites related to consumer health. There's a lot of good info out there. Unfortunately, there's more bad than good and it really takes a discerning eye to determine the quality of the source.

In a former life, I actually got dressed and went to a desk each weekday, and assisted consumers in locating quality health information on the web. As a consumer health educator (under an National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, grant) one of my many duties was to complile resources for consumers and healthcare professionals.  Try and get the image of me typing naked from my home office out of your head so that you can still enjoy that cup of coffee you just poured.

I just compiled this list for a NutriMirror user and it occured to me that Country Tart readers may benefit from this list as well. Below you will find a variety of food and nutrition links.

I still question everything (even when it's been given a review by reputable professionals as these pages have) but before you go and make major life changes based on any info found on a web page, make sure you know who is posting the info and where they obtained it. Whenever possible, I try to site sources and only report on things that I can back up with some sort of evidence-based study, report or journal. True, I am no dietician, but it is through personal research of quality-filtered sources that I have been able to turn my own health around. 

When conducting your own searches, be sure to check WHOIS databases to determine who owns the site. It's important to remember that ANYONE can post health claims on the internet and there's no laws enforcing that these claims must be informed or accurate.  Make yourself an informed consumer for the sake of your own--and your family's--health. The more we know the better off we'll all be.

National Academies Press

USDA National Agriculture Library

My Pyramid.gov

USDA Nutrient Data Page

Health.gov

Food and Agriculture of United Nations (World-wide dietary guidelines available here)

CDC's Nutrition Links Pages (links for health professionals and consumers)

NAT Tools for Good Health (NAT is provided as a public service by the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department at the University of Illinois)

FDA Info on Food Labeling Updates

Perinatal Network Summer 2005 Edition (A publication which ran an article I wrote back in '05. See pages 6 and 7).   Yeah, this is just a personal plug.  But the info is still relevant and it has some great links~