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Nutrition as a subject of interest is under extreme focus in recent years both by the general public as well as researchers. Nutrition data are now freely available in most public forums be it electronic media or the press or general hear say.

There are millions of nutrition articles available on the internet. Since this is a free media for expression there is little policing of what is the content of these nutrition articles and hence questions the reliability of the data presented. Most of the content is from anonymous sources with little references to actual research or researchers. Through this medium everyone gets to be the specialist and based on their experiences and those of others around them they formulate theories of what’s good and bad and then publish them as though it was all true. It is quite a strange anomaly that in this age when everything can be cross verified and there are regulations in place for almost every aspect of our life there is little control over the overpowering effect of this medium. Not that all the content are bogus. There are numerous research papers hosted on the web and contain exhaustive details on the method of data collection and the analysis conducted that have lead to the research finding and clearly state the assumptions behind the findings. The trouble is that most of this data is paid content and is hence in a world of cheap and quick fixes many users tend to pass by such valuable information.

The other source of valuable information is through nutrition books. These books when published by renowned publishing houses tend to be quite valuable sources of understanding the latest conclusions about diet and food. The other method of course is to approach a nutrition centre which hires specialists. These consultants will be able to provide advice that is tailor made to suit individual life styles and diet objectives. Of course this is an expensive proposition and hence out of reach of most of the public.

Whether it is consulting the nutrition books or approaching the nutrition centre one must be aware that although much research has been conducted and more are on going there is still a lot we need to understand with respect to the human body and how it is affected by different varieties of food. Genetics is another major component that plays a role in the final outcome and we are still in the initial phases of understand this concept. Also what works for one might not work for the other; the difference could be because of lifestyle, weather conditions, besides many others that we now know of and many others probably we are not yet aware of.

Moreover although there is a vast amount of data on the subject there is little literature on how these various factors have a long term impact on our health and possibly the health of the future generations. Hence, this is a burning topic that needs to be at the least approached with caution.