Scene setting: who is the voice of nutrition in Britain?

Currently the public is being inundated daily with information about diet and health, which is often conflicting and frequently not based on good quality evidence. This situation is fuelled by the ready access to information of variable quality via the internet, which has short circuited the previous checks and balances applied by researchers and the peer review process, whereby scientific findings were batted around and refined within the confines of the scientific research community, occasionally emerging to be incorporated into the advice given by health professionals. This situation, coupled with concern about the growing trend whereby detailed nutrition advice is sold to the public by self-styled 'experts' with no formal degree-level training in the subject, prompted a conference that highlighted the importance of ensuring that nutrition advice is evidence-based, using a series of topical overviews. In recent years the Nutrition Society has played an active role in establishing mechanisms to assist the public in their search for high-quality dietary advice by badging individuals appropriately qualified to offer sound and relevant advice on nutrition.