The lay article managed to capture information that may be easily absorbed by the general population. And that is the aim of doing this; however it is important to ensure the writer quoting the journal article communicates the right message without distorting facts. This paper will compare the two papers and explore if there are differing facts.
“Artificial sweeteners induce glucose by altering the gut microbiota” (1) the statement is very well articulated and agreed on in the lay article. The article mentions that the NAS does this by altering the capabilities of microbes. It is also notable the author of lay article acknowledged the experiments that lead to the conclusion of the scientific study. Though this is done in very simple terms, the message is the same only that the scientific jargon is missing. “Mice were fed on plain water and others on waster with NAS” (2), similarly human volunteers were also involved and after exposure to NAS their blood sugar also spiked.
I would say that the writer of the lay article was consistent and did not alter facts as presented in the original study. This can be supported by the way he concludes the paper. NAS as was made to circumvent the menace of diabetes and obesity may not be as innocent as it seems. This correctly matches with the original study which concluded that NAS lead to altered metabolism and thus call for their investigation and limited use (1). In this regard, I can conclude that the author of the CBC article presented facts well only leaving jargon and statistics of the analysis that would have even made it difficult for the general public to understand.
Reference list
- Shapiro HW, Halpern IZ, Segal L E, Elinav ER, Weinberger LA, Kuperman AY., et al. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. 2014 9(514)181-6.
- CBC NEWS [Internet]. New Jersey: Artificial sweeteners linked to obesity epidemic, scientists say. [upadated 2014 Jan 11; 2014 Oct 21]. Available from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/artificial-sweeteners-linked-to-obesity-epidemic-scientists-say-1.2769196
