DESIGNING YOUR OWN NUTRITION EXPERIMENT Just like other scie

DESIGNING YOUR OWN NUTRITION EXPERIMENT

Just like other scientific disciplines, factual nutrition information is based on experimental research that has been replicated many times by different scientists. Below, you will construct a realistic intervention study, using human volunteers, to answer a nutrition related question of your choice. Be sure to include as much detail as possible.

What variables will you test for? (What things are you going to measure?)

How do you plan to limit the subject bias? (How will you prevent your volunteers from reporting effects simply because they know they are participating in your experiment?)

What limitations do you foresee in carrying out this experiment?

Solution

1. Scientific experiment involves identifying the variables that are important in the process of investigation. There is an important group of variables that you will want to remain constant throughout your experiment, and these are called con­trolled variables. For example, What percent­age and kind of nutirients are to be taken in the healthy diet, food consumed by an individual, identification of the foods so that an appropriate food can be chosen from standard food. In detailed studies a duplicate portion of the food may be chemically analysed to find out the nutrient content, Quantification of the portion size of each food item, and to determine the frequency with which each food is taken and also the calculation of the nutrient intake and also measure the intake of certain food.

2. To identify the two variables: one is independent variable and another is de­pendent variable. An independent variable is a factor that is purposefully changed by the experimenter. A dependent vari­able is the variable that responds to the change in the independent variable. Experiment also involves control group and usually test one independent variable at a time and it is important to keep all potential variables constant to use a control group.

3. Plan to limit the subject bias: by avoid asking the wrong questions. It is impossible to get the right answers if you ask the wrong questions. And also by using an exclusive collection method and by misinterpreting the data results. i.e., when raw data is transformed into misinterpreted findings. That is the case of inappropriate or wrong statistical technique that lead to the incorrect interpretation of the survey results.