Information literacy is a skill of a person able to request, search, select, and evaluate the necessary information. The ability to think critically, remaining one of the parts of information literacy, is essential for human life skills. In the era of the information society, one cannot do without the ability to distinguish relevant ideas from information waste. People who lack critical thinking skills usually adopt false beliefs from the Internet, which can negatively affect their quality of life. Epidemiologist Ben Goldacre (2011) explains how evidence can be skewed, from food cases to pharmaceutical industry tricks. He says that medicine production is undergoing negative changes today, as pharmaceutical companies regularly violate the principles on which it is based (Goldacre, 2011). The industry funds the vast majority of clinical drug research. Clinical studies are often conducted in small, atypical groups of volunteers. This leads to the result that not every piece of scientific evidence is relevant and should be trusted absolutely.
There is an example of research being “spun” or twisted to serve a purpose. The pursuit of superfoods has reached global proportions in recent years. Bloggers, nutritional and organic stores, and nutritionists continue to promote “magic” meals as the only sure way to improve people’s health. Superfoods are believed to be very beneficial and may protect against cancer and heart disease. Even though there is no scientific evidence for this, they have become a real trend. For instance, cocoa fruits contain flavonoids that protect the body’s cellular health, and blueberries help aging rats maintain memory (Praderio, 2018). Meanwhile, superfoods in the sense that network influencers impose on the world do not exist. Experts from the European Food Information Council point to the unrealistic idea that a limited range of superfoods improves health (Praderio, 2018). It is necessary to consider how laboratories discover the “magical” properties of berries and mushrooms. They are usually tested on rodents and reptiles, including vast amounts of food products in the test subjects’ diet (Praderio, 2018). Therefore, the results obtained under these conditions are difficult to associate with the human body’s reactions directly.
References
Goldacre, B. (2011). Battling bad science [Video]. TED. Web.
Praderio, C. (2018). Sorry, but superfood is a ‘nutritionally meaningless term.’ Insider. Web.