Every claim gets a label.

Established

Supported by strong, repeated research in people: large studies, randomised trials, or consistent findings across many studies. Sleeping enough, staying active, not smoking and eating mostly whole foods all live here. Safe to build a habit on.

Emerging

Promising, but early. Maybe a few smaller human studies, or strong mechanisms with limited real-world data. Worth knowing about and sometimes worth trying, but not worth betting everything on.

Speculative

Interesting ideas, animal or lab studies, or early anecdotes. Not proven in people yet. We'll tell you about these because they're interesting, and we'll label them clearly so you don't mistake them for facts.

Our ground rules

• We link the research behind important claims so you can check it yourself.
• When the evidence changes, we update the guide and say so.
• We never claim that anything cures, treats or prevents a disease.
• If we ever earn money from a link, we'll say so on that page.