“Chemicals” in your food! Hidden “toxic” ingredients! Judging by the blaring headlines from some bloggers and other Internet denizens, you’d be forgiven for thinking that almost anything we eat could kill us, or at least be harmful to our health.

While September is recognized as Food Safety Education Month, keeping the real food safety risks in perspective is something we need to do year-round. In this issue of Food Insight, we want to shift the dialogue from misplaced fears about “chemicals in food” to more serious threats and what we can do about them.

We also take a look at some social media best practices that experts say can help communicators better engage in conversations and connect with their audiences.

In the first of a three-part series, we talk with a scientist about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the design of nutrition studies, as well as how to evaluate and communicate about them.

And an expert in nutrition and diets helps demystify one of the most misunderstood nutrients—fat—and how our knowledge about it has evolved.