Assignment Number One 1. The website that I visited was Food and Nutrition Information Center (http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?tax_level=1&info_center=4). This website first talked about Linus Pauling being the first person interested in doing research to find out whether Vitamin C would reduce symptoms of the common cold. Over the past years more research was done to see if Vitamin C would decrease a common cold. Researchers concluded from an experiment with two different groups. One group took two grams of Vitamin C. The Vitamin C did not decrease their cold symptoms. The second group who took two-hundred and fifty milligrams of Vitamin C did reduce their symptoms by fifty percent. Most importantly, this research concluded that taking Vitamin C would reduce the time the cold symptoms was present for adults by eight percent and fourteen percent for children.

2. The second site I visited was National Institute of Health (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002145.htm). This site openly stated that Vitamin C have not been scientifically proven to cure common colds. However, it suggested that large amounts of Vitamin C may reduce the amount of time a person has a cold but cannot prevent a person from getting a cold. Lastly it suggested that Vitamin C would work best if the person who has a cold had low levels of nutrients, which would indeed vary from person to person.

3. The pages that I reviewed to find out more information about Vitamin C reducing common colds was on page 241 in our text book. The book reinstated what the other two websites said about Vitamin C. Vitamin C cannot cure a cold, but it can reduce the duration of the cold. The common cold is pasted on from person to person by a virus. Thus there are ways to prevent from getting a cold. Some of the recommended ways are to wash your hands several times a day, cover your mouth and when you sneeze, and immediately wash your hands again to prevent passing germs to others.

4. Why might people feel convinced that the Vitamins C supplements they take can cure a cold?
People feel convinced about taking Vitamins C to cure a cold simply because of all of the false information that has been given through the media, internet, and other people. This myth has lasted so long that it has totally convinced people who have not taken the time to do research on their own that it works. Most importantly, it is essential that people learn to do research on their own to find out factual evidence and not false information.

5. Does Vitamin C have any function which might relate to claims of cold prevention?
Vitamin C does have a particular function that can be easily associated to preventing colds. One of the functions is keeping our immune system healthy. Vitamin C allows our body to make white blood cells. These bloods cells are used to fight infections which are why so many people have attributed high doses of Vitamin C can cure colds.

Assignment Number Two

Do you feel the nutrition and health claims for Noni Juice are accurate and supported by science?
The first website I went was Nature’s Product to I find a little information about the Noni Juice (http://www.noninz.com/). This website gave some insight what the product is for. It proclaimed that it can help improve your immune system and take away pain in muscles. The site stated that it had been approved by the FSA and was accordance with the Novel Food Regulation. The second site I went to openly disclaimed everything the first site promised. The Noni Juice Benefits site stated that the FDA disapproved this product for falsely stating it cures pain because limited research had been done to prove the product actually worked (http://www.nonijuiceadvisor.com/). However, it noted several previous customers had used the product and they received successful results. Thus it listed several testimonies from different individuals to portray the excellent benefits of the product.

After reviewing both sites I have conclude that the Noni Juice is quackery. Therefore I do not feel the nutrition and health claims for the Noni Juice are accurate and they not supported by science. After reading these two articles on the Noni Juice I am convinced that the Noni Juice would not fulfill the promises that it is claimed it can do. The Noni Juice is not supported by a credible website like National Institute of Health. In the Quackwatch, they stated that fraudulent products usually have miraculous outcomes for people. Then the people who receive the miracles have testimonies to get new customers to buy the product. “People who give such testimonials are usually motivated by a sincere wish to help their fellow humans. Rarely do they realize how difficult it is to evaluate a "health" product on the basis of personal experience” (www.quackwatch.com). Health products are not evaluated based on personal experiences but they are scientifically proven to work. Lastly, Quackwatch expressed that fraudulent product usually is defined as naturally proven to work, which means it does not have to be scientifically proven. They function like this because “quacks operate outside of the scientific community, they also tend to form their own "professional" organizations. In some cases, the only membership requirement is payment of a fee.”