BRIEF REPORT: nutrition and weight loss information in a popular diet book: is it fact, fiction, or something in between?
OBJECTIVE
Diet books dominate the New York Times Advice Best Seller list and consumers cite such books as an important source of nutrition information. However, the scientific support for nutrition claims presented as fact (nutrition facts) in diet books is not known.


METHODS
We assessed the quality of nutrition facts in the best-selling South Beach Diet using support in peer-reviewed literature as a measure of quality. We performed structured literature searches on nutrition facts located in the books' text, and then assigned each fact to 1 of 4 categories (1) fact supported, (2) fact not supported, (3) fact both supported and not supported, and (4) no related papers. A panel of expert reviewers adjudicated the findings.


RESULTS
Forty-two nutrition facts were included. Fourteen (33%) facts were supported, 7 (17%) were not supported, 18 (43%) were both supported and not supported, and 3 (7%) had no related papers, including the fact that the diet had been "scientifically studied and proven effective."


CONCLUSIONS
Consumers obtain nutrition information from diet books. We found that over 67% of nutrition facts in a best-seller diet book may not be supported in the peer-reviewed literature. These findings have important implications for educating consumers about nutrition information sources.
Goff
Sarah L
SL
Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01655, USA. goffs@ummhc.org
Foody
Joanne M
JM
Inzucchi
Silvio
S
Katz
David
D
Mayne
Susan T
ST
Krumholz
Harlan M
HM
D001877:Books; D004038:Diet, Reducing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015431:Weight Loss