March is National Nutrition Month. There is certainly no lack of nutrition information on the web. But how do you know what is good information? Paleo, low-carb, clean eating, and gluten free are a few of the popular diet trends right now. If you read many popular magazines or use Pinterest, you’ve probably also seen an abundance of recipes for kale and quinoa.

But how do you know what information on nutrition is reliable? How do you know if those green kale smoothies are really good for you? There are many guidelines out there, but here are a few things to consider:

1. What is the source of the information? For example, is it a reputable university or an organization you have never heard of before? Is it coming from a reliable news source?

2. Who is the person giving the information? What is their training? My first choice for nutrition information would be a registered dietitian. This link gives the requirements to become a registered dietitian and it involves extensive training. Many doctors are also knowledgeable about nutrition and can give you advice. Sadly, however, nutrition education is not a requirement to become a doctor at every medical school so your doctor’s knowledge may not be complete in this area.

3. What are the motives of the source of information? Is the person or website trying to sell you their products, foods, supplements, or books? If so, there still may be some truth to the information, but it wouldn’t hurt to check it out with a second source that doesn’t stand to get rich off of whatever is being recommended.

Nutrition is still a relatively new science. There will continue to be research and reports about foods that sometimes conflict. For that reason, it is important to keep reading and learning about nutrition. I have been using Flipboard to keep the websites and articles I find about nutrition, diet, exercise, and fitness all in one place. Please check out my Flipboard magazine, Food and Fitness to see some of the articles I have found recently. (If you are unfamiliar with Flipboard, you may want to check it out here. It can be used on your desktop computer or as a free app on your phone or tablet.)

View my Flipboard Magazine.

A few parting thoughts before I take a break to eat a piece of healthy dark chocolate (well, it will be healthy if I can just eat one piece). We have all heard many times in life that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't. No where is this more true than with nutrition. There is no magic food out there. But fortunately there are lots of good, tasty, and healthy foods for us to eat!