Nutrition and Body-Language Policy
How we talk about food and bodies matters as much as the information itself. This page describes the language we use in nutrition content, and the language we deliberately refuse.
Why a language policy?
Nutrition is a field everyone lives in every day, yet one where many people are made to feel guilty. Shame and fear are not only ineffective at changing behaviour; they can deepen difficulties with eating. We choose to inform, not to judge. This policy is that choice in writing, and it is binding for all nutrition content on the site.
No room for weight stigma
Our content does not assign worth by body size, mock bodies or prescribe an ideal shape. We reject narratives that reduce weight to willpower; body weight is the product of many genetic, environmental, hormonal and behavioural factors. Promises of rapid weight loss, before-and-after framing, and language that turns bodies into lists of flaws have no place here. Health is not the property of one body type.
There are no "good" and "bad" foods
We do not sort foods into moral categories: labels such as "sinful", "forbidden", "toxic" and "clean" accuse rather than inform. Instead we describe what foods contain, where they fit in an overall pattern, and the context of amount and frequency. For the same reason, marketing formulas with no scientific meaning, such as "cleanse your body of toxins" or "boost your metabolism", do not appear in our content. No single food is a hero or a villain; what matters is the overall pattern.
A careful relationship with numbers
Calories, body mass index and similar figures are blunt instruments with well-known limits; they do not define a person and are not, on their own, measures of health. Wherever such values appear, we present them with context, in the language of "estimated range" and "starting point". We also say plainly that tracking numbers is not for everyone: for readers who struggle or have struggled with eating, counting can be unhelpful or harmful, and the right support is a health professional. Our general health limits are set out in the Health Content Policy.
A working version
This policy is a working version. We update it as we learn from good practice in nutrition communication and from our readers. If you come across wording on this site that feels stigmatising, please tell us; our readers are this policy's best auditors.