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Objective (s): Due to the wide influence of public media, they become important communication channels for changing health beliefs and behaviors. One of the areas that have gained increased attention in public media is nutritional information. The goal of this study was to analyze nutritional information related to cancer published in popular Iranian Magazines during year 2012-2013. Methods: This was an applied study using a content analysis method. The data was collected using a checklist designed by the researcher. All massages printed in 173 issues of 8 most popular magazines were selected. Then a purposive sample of 295 massages from 96 magazine issues was analyzed. Results: Findings showed that perversion trends had the highest (86.8%) and treatments had the lowest (4.7%) frequency. Pomegranate was the most commonly mentioned preventive food, while Mayonnaises was the most commonly mentioned carcinogen and Tangerine was the most commonly mentioned food for tratment. Among different types of cancer, more than half of the massages (51.2%) mentioned cancer in general followed by breast cancer (13.2%) and prostate cancer (10.51%). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the main goal of these massages were to increase the readerschr('39') information, although some doubts regarding the scientific credibility of the claims made in these massages still remain.

Background: The content of the mass media is a suitable tool for making changes to the society. One of the most read news in the mass media is nutritional information. The goal of this study is to assess the scientific authenticity of such information published in Iranian popular magazines. Materials and Methods: This study is a qualitative study (content analysis) and uses bibliographic approach. A researcher-designed checklist is used as data gathering tool, and the statistical population included the messages obtained from the printed material in 173 volumes of 8 Iranian popular magazines. 10 most frequent messages were identified, and their scientific authenticity was investigated using Pubmed and IranMedex databases. The SPSS Software version 24 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York, USA) was applied in the analysis of this work. Results: The findings indicated that preventive trends had the highest (86.8%) and the treatments had the lowest (4.2%) frequency. Concerning the type of cancer, more than half (51.2%) of the conclusions were about cancer. Regarding authorship, 68% of articles were author signed, but the profession of 66.4% of the authors was not clear. Regarding references, only 25.4% of the articles had validated references. Conclusion: It is revealed that 70% of the “nutrition information” related to cancer which was published in the popular magazines during 2012, considered to be acceptable according to scientific medical information sources. Although in some cases, the amount of evidence is not sufficient. Finally, it could be deduced that the nutrition information published in the Iranian popular magazines are still credible.