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Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample

Food myths are nutritional concepts poorly justified or even contradict existing scientific evidence that individuals take as the truth. Knowledge in nutrition is an important tool in tackling misinformation and in the promotion of adequate food choices. This study aimed to investigate the beliefs a...

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Autores principales: Florença, Sofia G., Ferreira, Manuela, Lacerda, Inês, Maia, Aline
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8623929/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34829026
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10112746
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author Florença, Sofia G.
Ferreira, Manuela
Lacerda, Inês
Maia, Aline
author_facet Florença, Sofia G.
Ferreira, Manuela
Lacerda, Inês
Maia, Aline
author_sort Florença, Sofia G.
collection PubMed
description Food myths are nutritional concepts poorly justified or even contradict existing scientific evidence that individuals take as the truth. Knowledge in nutrition is an important tool in tackling misinformation and in the promotion of adequate food choices. This study aimed to investigate the beliefs and perceptions of a sample of the Portuguese population regarding a series of food myths and facts, evaluating, consequently, the level of knowledge and the main sources of information. The research was conducted on a sample of 503 participants, using a questionnaire disclosed online, by email, and social networks, between May and June of 2021. Thirty statements, some true and others false, were analyzed to assess people’s perceptions. Based on the respondents’ answers, a score was calculated for each statement, allowing to differentiate the correct (positive score) from incorrect (negative score) perceptions. The results showed that most statements obtained positive scores, corresponding to correct perceptions. Moreover, the level of knowledge was measured, being very high for 21.7% of the participants and high for 42.1%. The main sources where the participants acquire nutritional information are scientific journals (43.3%), website of the Portuguese General Health Office (DGS) (31.4%), and technical books (31.0%), which is concordant with the level of trust in these sources. Hence, it was concluded that, despite the levels of nutritional knowledge, there are still several food myths that need to be debunked, through the proper channels, in order to promote healthy, balanced, and adequate eating behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-86239292021-11-27 Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample Florença, Sofia G. Ferreira, Manuela Lacerda, Inês Maia, Aline Foods Article Food myths are nutritional concepts poorly justified or even contradict existing scientific evidence that individuals take as the truth. Knowledge in nutrition is an important tool in tackling misinformation and in the promotion of adequate food choices. This study aimed to investigate the beliefs and perceptions of a sample of the Portuguese population regarding a series of food myths and facts, evaluating, consequently, the level of knowledge and the main sources of information. The research was conducted on a sample of 503 participants, using a questionnaire disclosed online, by email, and social networks, between May and June of 2021. Thirty statements, some true and others false, were analyzed to assess people’s perceptions. Based on the respondents’ answers, a score was calculated for each statement, allowing to differentiate the correct (positive score) from incorrect (negative score) perceptions. The results showed that most statements obtained positive scores, corresponding to correct perceptions. Moreover, the level of knowledge was measured, being very high for 21.7% of the participants and high for 42.1%. The main sources where the participants acquire nutritional information are scientific journals (43.3%), website of the Portuguese General Health Office (DGS) (31.4%), and technical books (31.0%), which is concordant with the level of trust in these sources. Hence, it was concluded that, despite the levels of nutritional knowledge, there are still several food myths that need to be debunked, through the proper channels, in order to promote healthy, balanced, and adequate eating behaviors. MDPI 2021-11-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8623929/ /pubmed/34829026 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10112746 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Florença, Sofia G.
Ferreira, Manuela
Lacerda, Inês
Maia, Aline
Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample
title Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample
title_full Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample
title_fullStr Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample
title_full_unstemmed Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample
title_short Food Myths or Food Facts? Study about Perceptions and Knowledge in a Portuguese Sample
title_sort food myths or food facts? study about perceptions and knowledge in a portuguese sample
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8623929/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34829026
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10112746
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