Find five websites that provide information related to nutrition. Please try and select websites that will be helpful for you in the future and provide strong scientific evidence that is reliable. Please make sure these websites provide information to the public. – Analyze each website and determine whether it is a reliable source of information by answering the “W” questions. – Assign each website a rating of 1-10 where 10 is the highest. Your goal is to assess reliability of the information the site provides. – Write the following for each website: Name of the website and its web address (URL) Describe the site and the kind of information it provides Your analysis of reliability, using the 5 “W” questions The grade you gave it and explain the reasons for assigning this grade Part 2 – Find two nutrition experts, or professionals, or individuals who are giving advice in nutrition on the web. You can use the names from your research of websites in Part 1. – Write the following for each expert: Name of the person and where you found him/her. How did you come across this expert? (Give reference.) Why did you decide to choose them? Include their academic degrees, professional credentials, their professional accomplishments, and their current job position. Based upon the information in Health Connection 1, do you consider them to be reliable nutrition expert? Why or why not? Explain. You need to justify your opinion. assignment must answer these 5 questions for each website Who Runs and Pays for the Site? Credible websites are willing to show their credentials. For example, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (www.nccih.nih.gov) provides information about its association 30with the NIH and its extensive ongoing research and educational programs. running a website is expensive, and finding out who’s paying for a particular site will tell you something about the reliability of its content. Websites sponsored by the government (with URLs ending in .gov), a nonprofit organization (ending in .org), or an academic institution (ending in .edu) are more reliable than many commercial websites (ending in .com or .net). Some commercial websites, such as WebMD, carry articles that can be reliable if credible health professionals write them, but other websites may be promoting information to suit a company’s own purposes. For example, if the funding source for the website is a vitamin and mineral supplement company, are all the articles geared toward supporting the use of supplements? Does the website have advertisers and do their products influence the content of the website? What Is the Purpose of the Site? Look for the “About This Site” link. This will help you understand the website’s purpose. For example, at www.nutrition.gov, the purpose is to “provide easy access to the best food and nutrition information across the federal government.” This website doesn’t exist to sell anything, but to help you find reliable information. Where Does the Information Come From? You should always know who wrote what you are 31reading. Is the author a qualified nutrition expert or did she or he interview qualified individuals? If the site obtained information from another source, was that source cited? What Is the Basis of the Information? Is the article’s information based on medical facts and figures that have references? For example, any medical news items released on the American Heart Association website (www.heart.org) will include the medical journal from which the information came. In fact, the website will often include the opinion of experts regarding the news item. What Is the Site’s Policy on Linking to Other Sites? Some medical sites don’t like to link to other sites, as they don’t have control over other sites’ credibility and content. Others do link, if they are confident that these sites meet their criteria. Don’t assume that the link is credible.
