Ever wonder where health experts get their “expert” information?  In my case, the foundation of my expertise comes from my medical training and the continuing education I’m required to receive to maintain my license.  However, the information provided at a few medical conferences a year rarely keeps pace with the rapidly evolving natural food and health landscape.  If you add trends and politics into the mix as I do, it becomes crucial to expand information sources beyond just journals and lectures.  When you enter the World Wide Web for natural health information, teasing apart reliable from let’s call it “interesting interpretations” can be challenging.  Here’s a list of some of my favorite sites for health and nutrition information.

Food Politics – This blog, written by Marion Nestle, Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University, is often my first stop of the day for news.  She has a keen sense for the interplay between food, American diets and policy and I appreciate her willingness to say it like she sees it (for an example of this, just click on “Coca-Cola” in the word cloud running on the side of her blog).  It’s a refreshing change from other sources that are often slanted to the point of losing credibility in this area.

Civil Eats – This site is also a great source for news on challenges and successes in the food movement. Written with a broader scope than Nestle’s blog, Civil Eats steps away from Washington DC to look at what’s happening on a community level. From ethical sourcing of cocoa to fracking, this site is a great source for a general swath of updates on the diverse range of subjects under the label of “sustainable food systems”.

Natural Standard – This is a subscription site, but one that’s value easily offsets the cost to join.  I often use this site to verify information I’m seeing online in other sources.  With monographs on an amazing range of botanicals and nutrients, I always feel a bit like I’ve uncovered buried treasure when searching around this site and have to remind myself that I don’t have to frantically copy and save everything I see in case it disappears.  Another thing I love about this site is that the sources are often hyperlinked right to the original research.

MindBodyGreen – I was introduced to this site rather recently and have really been enjoying it.  It’s well named, with most of the content focusing on the connection between mind and body.  For example, I’ve found many great articles recently on the benefits of meditation to improve a range of conditions, and although the articles on this site are not typically referenced with primary research, it’s a great lead for where to do more digging.   One caution is that it does have a yoga slant, however, I believe the information is still valuable regardless of whether or not you practice.

If you have any other news sources in the natural food and health space you think are worth sharing, I’d love to check them out, so please share them in the comments section below.  Cheers!

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