How we research what we publish.

Our sources

Every guide is grounded in recognised, checkable sources, cited at the bottom of the article:

• NHS — UK clinical guidance on conditions, medicines, and nutrition.
• NICE — the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, for treatment and dietary guidelines.
• Peer-reviewed research — studies indexed on PubMed, prioritising systematic reviews and meta-analyses over single small studies.
• Official medicine information — patient information leaflets and the British National Formulary for food–drug interactions.

How guides are written

We are open about our process. Every Journal guide starts as a draft written with AI tools from a defined editorial brief — UK context, named sources, conservative claims — and is then cut back by a second editing pass that removes padding and makes the answer to each question the first sentence under its heading.

Before anyone sees it, every source link on the guide is fetched and checked against a list of organisations we cite (the NHS, NICE, the British National Formulary, PubMed, the British Dietetic Association, the British Heart Foundation and similar). A link that does not resolve is replaced or removed; a guide with fewer than two working sources is not published. Where a guide quotes a named professional or an organisation, the quoted sentence is checked word for word against the page it is attributed to, and dropped if it is not there. Where a professional gives us a comment directly, by email, the guide says so and gives the date, the comment is published as they wrote it, and it links to their own site.

Nothing is published automatically. Reece Douglas, the founder, reads each guide, adds his own words where he has something to add, and approves it. Every guide carries its publication date and is reviewed again within six months.

How we use AI

AI drafts and edits the text, writes the script for the audio version, and generates the hero image. That is the whole of its role.

• AI never publishes. A person approves every guide.
• AI never chooses which sources count. The list of organisations we cite is fixed by us, and every link is checked by software against the live page, not taken on trust.
• AI never makes a claim without a citation. Anything a cited source does not support is cut in the editing pass or by Reece.
• Reader messages are read by a person first. Questions we have not answered become new guides; nothing a reader writes is published without their say-so.

If a guide is wrong, the fix is a human one: tell us and Reece corrects it.

How the interaction checker works

The food and medication interaction checker works differently from the Journal. It grows on its own every day, so its safeguards are built into the software rather than a person's read-through:

• Two sources only. Each medicine's page on the NHS website (Medicines A to Z) and, where it adds something, the official US FDA drug label.
• Every point is quoted. AI reads those pages and drafts the answers, but each answer must carry a sentence copied word for word from the source. Software checks that sentence against the live page and drops any answer whose quote is not there, or whose quote says something different. You can read the quote under “Where this comes from” on any answer, with the link and the date it was checked.
• No empty pages. A medicine is only added when its sources give at least three separate, quoted points about food or drink. Creams, drops, inhalers and patches are left out.
• Groups of foods. Where a source warns about a group (“aged cheeses”, “foods high in potassium”), the answer for a food in that group says so and shows the group quote.
• Kept up to date. New medicines are added daily, and every Monday each NHS page is checked again: if it has changed, that medicine's answers are redrafted and rechecked.
• Cautious by design. A food we have no answer for is shown as “not in our list: treat that as caution, not clearance”.

NHS text is quoted under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The checker gives general information, not medical advice; always follow your prescriber, pharmacist or the leaflet that comes with your medicine. If an answer looks wrong, tell us and we will correct it.

What we will never claim

• That any food, diet, or supplement cures a medical condition.
• That you should start, stop, or change a medication based on our content.
• That our guides replace your doctor, pharmacist, or dietitian. They exist to make your next conversation with them better informed.
• Anything a cited source doesn't support. No miracle foods, no fear mongering, no “one weird trick”.

Corrections

If you spot an error — factual, sourcing, or safety-related — email hello@freshplate.health or use the contact page. Safety-related corrections are prioritised, and corrected guides have their “updated” date revised.

Advertising and independence

The Journal carries no advertising and no sponsored content. FreshPlate is funded by subscriptions to the FreshPlate app — which means our only incentive is to be genuinely useful to the people reading.