- Locate a main-stream written news piece about a trendy diet or other fad nutrition-related topic. Look for articles that are published on mainstream news outlet websites (i.e., Huffington Post, Toronto Star, CBC, CNN etc.), on a magazine website (i.e., Men’s Health, Self, Prevention etc.) or other health websites (i.e., BodyBuilding.com). Avoid the less main-stream, scientific websites like Sciencedaily.com or institution websites (i.e., Harvard Nutrition), as these may be more challenging to critique. You can use a hardcopy print version, but you will need to scan or take a photo of the news piece, and the text must be legible.
The news piece must be about a nutrition-related intervention (i.e., diet, food item, beverage) Please avoid articles about pharmaceutical interventions or natural health products/supplements.
The news piece should be about how the nutrition-related intervention effects health/disease development.
The news piece must be based on the findings from a scientific study. For example: randomized controlled trials, observational studies (cross-sectional, longitudinal, retrospective), in vitro studies and animal experimental studies, meta-analyses or systematic reviews. Usually, the study is linked to in the body of the news piece, referenced in the news piece or is referenced at the end of the article. If you are unable to locate the scientific study that the news piece is based on, seek out another news piece. q Include a screenshot, or copy and paste the news piece, in the APPENDIX A of your submission.
- Locate the scientific study that the news piece is based on. Use the single citation matcher in PubMed to help you do this (see APPENDIX for examples). Include a screenshot of the PubMed page for the scientific article in APPENDIX B to demonstrate that you were able to locate it. See the APPENDIX for examples of these screenshots.