The Study of Nutrition - Essay Example

Media reports are often the most accessible and more understandable tool for acquiring nutritional information; however, a number of media reports related to nutrition are often conflicting. For instance, coffee has been long well-known as bad for our health as agreed by nutrition researchers but recent reports showed that certain substances from it could be beneficial. When this happens, the public becomes confuse of what information to believe. In determining which information to believe, it is essential that we become more educated about nutrition through the application of research process, particularly the scientific method.

Steps in Scientific Method The scientific method involves a series of steps in a scientific inquiry which is designed to guide the researchers in the research process. The steps of scientific method include: observation of a phenomenon, development of hypothesis, conducting experiments, and theory development (Thompson and Manore, 32). The scientific method starts with observation and description of a certain phenomenon. In this step, your observation leads you to question the relationship that exists between two or more factors or phenomena.

For instance, you have observed that many of the adolescents are obese while some are not. After observing the behavior of the two groups, the observer noted a pattern which is not common among adolescents who are not obese – that is, eating junk foods. The observer might question the relationship between obesity and junk foods and that there may be a relationship between the two. Developing a hypothesis or an educated guess is the next step of the scientific method. Hypothesis is sometimes referred to as the assumption or the research question and guides the direction of the study.

A hypothesis can be written in a null or alternative form, but the null hypothesis is commonly used as it is easy to accept or reject a null hypothesis than an alternative one. In the earlier example, the null hypothesis is, “There is no significant relationship between adolescent obesity and intake of junk food,” or it could be “Eating junk food increases the likelihood of obesity among adolescents”. The researcher can use either of the two hypotheses prior to the initiation of experiments.

The third step is conducting experiments to test whether hypothesis should be approved or refuted. When conducting experiments, address or control extraneous variables that may affect the result of the study. In addition, we could also use variety of research studies to test our hypothesis and experiments can be conducted over many years or for a certain period of time. As experiments prove or refute a hypothesis, it is essential to include a research study that disproves your hypothesis. The following step is crucial as theory development does not rely on one single study; instead, it involves series of scientific experiments that confirmed the hypothesis repeatedly and showed the same outcome.

Theories are accepted principles but they can be also challenged and changed using the steps in scientific method. Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials Epidemiological studies and clinical trials differ significantly. In an epidemiological study, there is no intervention employed and the researcher merely observes the phenomena as it is. This is the reason why the epidemiological studies are referred to as observational studies. In addition, epidemiological studies indicate relationship between factors and phenomena among larger populations.

On the other hand, clinical trials divide the population into two groups: experimental and control group. Experimental groups received the