Buried Treasures

You may wonder just where exactly it is that I get the information I share with you here on the blog, and with my clients. It comes from a range of sources, and I have a list of resources available on my website, that I consider to be among the most credible and authoritative. Check out the bottom of my resources page: http://www.trivalleytrainer.com/resources.html

But there are two organizations that, if I had to choose only one each for fitness and for nutrition information, would get my votes, hands-down. They are:

1. The American Dietetic Association (nutrition), and

2. The American College of Sports Medicine (exercise science)

You may be tempted to go straight to the websites of each of these organizations and hunt around. And by all means, I encourage you to do so, if you're so inclined. The only problem is that both websites are geared toward industry professionals, primarily, so neither is set up to be easily navigated for the layman to find the information he might be looking for. In fact, I know that there are many exercise professionals who don't spend any time on either website either, for basically the same reason.

But as I picked through each website years ago to find research and evidence-based positions by the ultimate authorities on these two vitally important subjects, I was able to find, on each website, strikingly similar little hidden treasures.

Each website has a section that is basically an index of brief position statements on a range of subtopics in each of their respective areas of expertise. If you want to get the "straight story" on a particular specific exercise or nutrition topic, or if you want to spend an afternoon becoming the resident expert in your circle about each area of knowledge, here's where you go:

ADA: http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/nutrition_350_ENU_HTML.htm

ACSM: http://www.acsm.org/Content/NavigationMenu/News/Othermedia/CurrentComments/Current_Comments_Av.htm

When you're trying to sort through all the garbage out there masquerading as helpful exercise and good eating advice, it's good to know there's someplace you can go, and get information you can trust.