Health headlines: promoting health or not?

There is no shortage of health information. Enter a few descriptive words about a health topic of your choice into a search engine and in seconds you will have 100s of links at your finger tips.

You don’t necessarily need to search for information as health headlines are a common feature of many news related websites as well as radio and television news reports.

However, this plethora of information may not be helpful for promoting health since frequently the latest findings contradict, or at least appear to contradict, existing knowledge.

In addition, the quality of health reports varies considerably from reports based on reliable scientific research to anecdotal and untested hypothesis.

With so much information available it is not surprising to find support for different perspectives on various health issues.

Of particular interest for nutrition and physical activity educators are health headlines which reflect the latest research around the association between nutrition and physical activity practices with various aspects of health.

One of the aims of health education is to provide you, the consumer, with information about nutrition and physical activity practices which promote health, and which may prevent or at least decrease your risk for chronic diseases.

Chronic diseases adversely affect quality of life in many ways, increase the likelihood of premature death, and are an economic strain on affected individuals, their families, and society in general.

Reports about body weight, health, nutrient and physical activity are favourite topics and although reports about underweight models receive periodic attention, it is the other end of the weight spectrum...link to the full article to learn more.