What does all this mean to the nutrition professional and what of the future? The Internet has already boosted the accessibility of nutrition information and fostered communication between nutrition professionals to a degree that few would have anticipated even four or five years ago. The nutritionist who wants to keep up with the latest developments in their field has unprecedented opportunity to do so. Knowledge has also been democratized-our patients and clients are increasingly likely to come to us with information they looked up on the Internet.
Essentially, anyone with an inquiring mind and the determination to do so can now access the same information base as any health professional. To a large extent this is a good thing, but it is also important to remember that there is no quality control on the Internet. We will have to help our patients to learn to distinguish reliable science based information from the unreliable non-science-based. Quite how the Internet will develop over the next five years is hard to tell. It is likely that there will be a major growth in the degree of multimedia richness
and inter activity in nutrition sites-both are relatively primitive in most current nutrition sites (compared to what is commonly seen in web sites dedicated to youth culture and media, for example). We are likely to see an increasing number of interactive web-based nutrition courses available, b0th reputable and less reputable.
Major web sites devoted to the ever-popular topic of weight loss are already in development, and we will soon feel their influence. Indeed, the Internet will ensure that the spread of the "latest diet"- whether related to weight loss or some other fad-will be faster than ever before. Those who give professional nutrition advice will therefore need to find ways of keeping up with these fads so as to wisely advise their patients and clients. Whatever the direction will be, one thing is certain. With billions of dollars of investment funds pouring into it, and a potential market of hundreds of millions of people, this medium, which has developed so fast in such a short time, has only just begun to unfold its wings.
