Summarized by: William D. Evers, PhD, RD
Department of Foods and Nutrition -- Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) is a nonprofit, tax-exempt consumer education association. Since 1982 ACSH has evaluated the quality of nutrition coverage by a number of popular magazines with respect to their accuracy, presentation and recommendations (the latest such survey was released by ACSH in February 2007). Criteria for judging have been essentially the same for the last four surveys, so ratings on magazines considered in these surveys can be directly compared.

The enclosed information gives the final rating for each magazine as determined for the particular survey. This "box score" gives only the rating. It is highly recommended that the full reports be read to understand how scores were determined, and to read the comments related to each magazine.

Prior to the 1990-92 survey, distinctions were made between the amounts of coverage a particular magazine gave to nutrition. This distinction is not shown in the table that follows. Rating criteria and methodology for the 1990 through 2005 surveys were similar, so the results of those 6 surveys can be compared directly. Earlier surveys are not directly comparable. ACSH only rates magazines that contain a certain number of articles per year related to nutrition topics. That is why some magazines are no longer rated (NR is the ranking). Magazines that were only rated prior to 1997 are presented on a separate page.

The survey results were taken from the following sources:

ACSH News & Views 3(1):1-2, January/February 1982.
ACSH News & Views 5(3):1,8-10, May/June 1984.
ACSH News & Views 7(5):1,8-10, November/December 1986.
Special Report--The 1986-1988 ACSH Survey on Nutritional Accuracy in American Magazines, March 1989.
Special Report--Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines (1990-1992), July 1994.
Special Report--Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines (1992-1994), May 1996.
Special Report--Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines (1995-1996), February 1998.
Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines (1997-1999), June 2001.
Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines (2000-2002), January 2004.
Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines (2004-2005), March 2007.

The full report of the most current survey can be downloaded from the ACSH website. Copies of all reports may be obtained by contacting:

American Council on Science and Health
1995 Broadway, 2nd Floor
New York City, NY 10023-5860
Phone: 212-362-7044
Fax: 212-362-4919
Email: ACSH@acsh.org
Website: ACSH.org