Role of staple cereals in human nutrition : separating the wheat from the chaff in the infodemics age
Erenstein, O.
Role of staple cereals in human nutrition : separating the wheat from the chaff in the infodemics age - Amsterdam (Netherlands) : Elsevier, 2022.
Peer review Open Access
Background: Staple cereals always have been important dietary components, yet recent debates on their role in human diets are riddled with myths and misinformation. Scope and approach: This article examines the informational controversies, particularly about wheat, and reviews the evidence. The discussion centers on three nutritional cereal debates: i) ‘empty calories’, ii) over-consumption, and iii) how ‘free-from’ fads confound dietary transitions. Key findings and conclusions: This article makes two principal points, that i) advances in nutrition are a complex, slow process, and that ii) they can be easily confounded and undone by misinformation. Hence we suggest that more consumer-oriented work is needed—including behavioral approaches and political economy—in order to improve the quality of information, communication and dietary decision making. There is a clear need to tackle nutritional misinformation given the costs of inaction and the need to formulate a coherent agri-nutrition agenda.
Text in English
0924-2244
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2021.11.033
Cereals
Wheat
Nutrition
Information
Role of staple cereals in human nutrition : separating the wheat from the chaff in the infodemics age - Amsterdam (Netherlands) : Elsevier, 2022.
Peer review Open Access
Background: Staple cereals always have been important dietary components, yet recent debates on their role in human diets are riddled with myths and misinformation. Scope and approach: This article examines the informational controversies, particularly about wheat, and reviews the evidence. The discussion centers on three nutritional cereal debates: i) ‘empty calories’, ii) over-consumption, and iii) how ‘free-from’ fads confound dietary transitions. Key findings and conclusions: This article makes two principal points, that i) advances in nutrition are a complex, slow process, and that ii) they can be easily confounded and undone by misinformation. Hence we suggest that more consumer-oriented work is needed—including behavioral approaches and political economy—in order to improve the quality of information, communication and dietary decision making. There is a clear need to tackle nutritional misinformation given the costs of inaction and the need to formulate a coherent agri-nutrition agenda.
Text in English
0924-2244
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2021.11.033
Cereals
Wheat
Nutrition
Information