Chapter 2 - Evaluating Nutrition Information

Placebo

Fake treatment, such as a sham pill, injection, or medical procedure

Testimonial

Personal endorsement of a product

Pseudoscience

Presentation of information masquerading as factual and obtained by scientific methods

Quackery

Promotion of useless medical treatments

Viv experiments

Whole living organisms used for experiments

Vitro or test tube experiments

components derived from living organisms for experiment

Double blind study

experimental design in which neither the participants no the researchers are aware of each participants assignment

Peer review

expert critical analysis of a research article prior to its publication

Control group

group being studied whose treatment differs from that of a treatment group, such as not receiving any treatment or receiving a placebo

Anecdotes

personal reports of experiences

Hypothesis

possible explanation about an observation that guides scientific research

Placebo effect

response to a placebo

Epidemiology

study of disease rates among different population groups

Case-control study

type of study in which individuals who have health condition are compared with individuals who have similar characteristics but do not have the condition

Retrospective study

type of study that determines factors that may have contributed to the development of the disease

Prospective study

type of study that follows a group of healthy people over time to determine characteristics associated with the development of diseases