Every score has a source.
HBI doesn’t ask you to take a number on faith. Each score is built from a traceable chain of evidence — food, to compound, to biological pathway, to a published study you can open and read. Here is exactly how that works, and where we draw the line.
From plate to published paper.
No score appears from nowhere. Each one follows the same four links — and every link is inspectable.
Food
We start with a whole food and its measured composition — from USDA data and peer-reviewed compositional studies.
Compound
We identify the bioactive compounds it carries: the polyphenols, carotenoids, fibres, nitrates and fatty acids that do the work.
Pathway
Each compound is mapped to the biological pathway it engages — AMPK, NRF2, autophagy, sirtuins and the rest of the twelve dimensions.
Study
That link is anchored to a published study, cited with a DOI or PubMed ID so you can read the primary source yourself.
Confidence, shown — not hidden.
Not all evidence is equal, and we refuse to pretend otherwise. Every claim carries one of four honest confidence labels, so you always know how solid the ground beneath a score really is.
Randomised, controlled human data — the highest bar of evidence.
Large observational studies that track real people over time.
Early-stage or small human studies — promising, not yet settled.
Mechanistic evidence from the lab. Labelled plainly as such — never dressed up as more.
The point is simple: a cell-culture finding is never presented as if it were a human trial. When the evidence is theoretical, the label says so.
Only what we’ve checked.
HBI publishes a citation only once it has been verified against the primary literature. References we haven’t yet confirmed are withheld — never shown — until they clear that check. This mirrors the evidence gate inside the app: an integrity feature, by design.
Verified citations are being confirmed against the primary literature and will appear here as they clear review.
Every reference above has been checked to a real, published paper. Unverified references stay out of public view until they’re confirmed — we’d rather show you less than show you something we haven’t stood behind.
Grounded in longevity research.
The scoring framework draws on Dr. Michael Greger’s body of nutrition research and the peer-reviewed literature across all twelve dimensions — from micronutrient density to the cellular pathways that shape how we age.
Structure and function — not medical claims.
Healthy Body Index provides general nutrition education and information about how foods and their compounds support the body’s normal, healthy function. It is not medical advice. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. HBI scores describe nutritional quality and the ways foods support normal healthy function; they are not a substitute for the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional.
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