4
Mar
CADENUSA: a project on misinformation and hoaxes in nutrition and food safety
ANA SERRA// Within the framework of the ESMODA ECO project, ScienceFlows is preparing to launch a campaign on misinformation in nutrition and food with the aim of creating informative materials that allow citizens to detect hoaxes and learn to consult reliable sources of information.
In recent years, social interest in nutrition and diet has increased, something that is reflected, among others, in the growing number of news published on this subject and the number of followers that dieticians-nutritionists accumulate on social networks. However, as the pandemic situation has revealed, misinformation and hoaxes circulating on social networks are also related to nutrition, diet and food. Studies such as the one published in the Gaceta Sanitaria by the ScienceFlows team show how part of the hoaxes that spread during the first months of the covid-19 pandemic were related to its prevention and promoted the use and consumption of substances of natural origin.
In addition, the harmful effects that misleading messages can produce on health can multiply rapidly since false messages tend to spread faster than validated messages based on scientific evidence. CADENUSA arises, precisely, to respond to this need and offer citizens adapted resources that allow them to know how to contrast nutritional and food information and detect the types of hoaxes.
During the first part of the project, the research team launched a survey with the aim of finding out which are the most frequent sources of information that university students turn to and how reliable they consider them to be.
In recent years, social interest in nutrition and diet has increased, something that is reflected, among others, in the growing number of news published on this subject and the number of followers that dieticians-nutritionists accumulate on social networks. However, as the pandemic situation has revealed, misinformation and hoaxes circulating on social networks are also related to nutrition, diet and food. Studies such as the one published in the Gaceta Sanitaria by the ScienceFlows team show how part of the hoaxes that spread during the first months of the covid-19 pandemic were related to its prevention and promoted the use and consumption of substances of natural origin.
In addition, the harmful effects that misleading messages can produce on health can multiply rapidly since false messages tend to spread faster than validated messages based on scientific evidence. CADENUSA arises, precisely, to respond to this need and offer citizens adapted resources that allow them to know how to contrast nutritional and food information and detect the types of hoaxes.
During the first part of the project, the research team launched a survey with the aim of finding out which are the most frequent sources of information that university students turn to and how reliable they consider them to be.
CADENUSA arises to respond to the need to offer citizens adapted resources that allow them to know how to contrast nutritional and food information, and detect the types of hoaxes.
CADENUSA project
The CADENUSA project is one of the actions that the ScienceFlows team develops within the ESMODA ECO project whose objective is to study food trends through the communicative ecosystem. In addition, CADENUSA is aligned with the objectives of the Education for Development Strategy in the formal sphere of the Valencian Community 2017-2021 of the General Directorate of Cooperation and Solidarity of the Valencian Government. In addition, it joins the good practices of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially in objective 3, health and well-being. It is funded by the UNESCO Chair scholarships of the University of Valencia and is part of the third Sustainable Development Goal “Guarantee a healthy life and promote well-being for all ages”.
