The Internet and social networks are full of nutrition information, offering people guidance to make healthy eating choices. These sources always present themselves as a gateway to reliable information on healthy eating; however, too often this is not the case. Far from being trustworthy, there are usually plenty of food myths. A food myth is a widespread false belief about food, nutrition, and eating facts that gives rise to certain behaviors, from fashionable trends to diets. Academic training is a valuable tool to combat food myths and the pseudoscience linked to them, but educators must participate in this battle. To test this idea, we analyzed the prevalence of nine highly popular food myths held by 201 secondary school Spanish teachers. The aim was to assess whether expertise in science areas prevents teachers from falling into these food misconceptions. Our study results showed that food myths are held regardless of specialty area. The power of the media in popularizing and spreading nutrition myths among educators may be the cause, even more potent than academic training. We conclude that since scientific knowledge is not enough to erase food myths, we need further actions if we aim to prevent the problems that food myths may cause.

Revista Internacional de Educación para la Justicia Social publica dos números al año. Los objetivos de la revista son: colaborar en la difusión de la investigación educativa sobre Educación para la Justicia Social; favorecer la utilización de los resultados de la investigación para una mejora de los sistemas educativos, las escuelas y las aulas enfocada a la Justicia Social; fomentar la realización de investigaciones educativas de calidad sobre Educación para la Justicia Social; colaborar en el debate sobre problemas de investigación educativa actual y la justicia social en educación.