Shiho

Influence of Science on Nutrition

              We have to eat food every day to live, and we are interested in diet or nutrition. In fact, I often heard many information about food, and trend food has been changing. When I go to super market, I can see some comments of scientists or experts of food. Moreover, some TV programs tell us what we should eat to stay healthy. These information are good for us to recognize nutrition, but sometimes people are confused about healthy food. I think it has some reasons why people are confused.

              Firstly, scientific information about food is always changing. According to “Eating Well: Less Science, More Common Sense” in the textbook, as an example, eggs were shown to connect some dangerous disease in the past time, but resent research shows that eggs are good for us, so we should eat egg every day. Take another example, some scientists express that milk is good for health, and suggest that people should drink it. On the other hand, some experts say that there are some negative effects, and this issue has been discussed by many people in the world for many years. Therefore, we cannot decide which opinion we should believe.

              Secondly, we tend to be influenced by media easily. As technology generation, we can get a lot of information and share them quickly. According to “Anatomy of Nutrition Trend” in the text book, most people depends on media, which are magazine, books, to know about nutrition and healthy, and frequently, it make trend food. For example, in Japan, when I was junior high school student, one of the TV program explained that natto is good for us to reduce the weight. As soon as the information shared, it was difficult to see natto at the supermarket because many people bought it at the same time. After that, some TV show introduced other food is good for diet, and we couldn’t follow every information. Therefore, we are also confused because information came to us quickly.

              Lastly, we tend to get information exaggeratedly or incorrectly. Take natto diet example, most people who tried it had eaten only natto each meal, but in fact, natto diet is eating one pack natto in a day. Sometimes we share incorrect information, and as a result we can’t stay healthy. Therefore, we should get correct information from doctor or expert not through media.

              In conclusion, influence of science on food sometimes make us confused because science result is always changing, we can get and share incorrect information quickly. Therefore, I think we shouldn’t accept other people’s opinion, and we should find own diet style.