Every public citation earns its place.
HBI is a directional beta model, not a scientific verdict. Food composition and scoring inputs are inspectable; specific papers appear only after a person confirms that the study supports the food, pathway, dose, and wording shown. Here is the standard we are building toward.
From plate to published paper.
The model is structured around four links. A citation is public only when every link—not just the paper title—has cleared review.
Food
We start with a food and structured composition fields. Source provenance and confidence must stay visible rather than being assumed.
Compound
We identify the bioactive compounds it carries: the polyphenols, carotenoids, fibres, nitrates and fatty acids that do the work.
Pathway
Selected compounds are mapped to related biological research areas such as AMPK, NRF2, autophagy, and sirtuins. These are model inputs, not measurements in a person.
Study
A specific paper is published only after a human confirms both its identity and its relevance to the food, pathway, dose, and wording.
Confidence, shown — not hidden.
Not all evidence is equal. Confidence labels are published only alongside claims that have cleared human relevance review.
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.
Less, but defensible.
A real paper can still be the wrong paper for a specific food claim. HBI therefore requires citation-identity review and food-to-claim relevance review before publication.
Specific citations are currently withheld while the human relevance queue is established. They will appear here only as individual food-to-paper mappings clear review.
Publication is deliberately conservative: the paper must resolve correctly, the compound must be relevant to the food, and the study must support the pathway and wording shown.
Built from several evidence layers.
The framework combines structured food composition with nutrition and healthy-aging research signals. The formula itself still requires external scientific calibration, and a paper is not presented for a food claim until relevance review is complete.
Structure and function — not medical claims.
Healthy Body Indexprovides 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 the current beta model’s view of food quality; they are not a substitute for the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional.
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