Macronutrients
How much protein do you actually need?
The EU reference value is 0.83 g per kilogram of body weight per day — far less than gym culture assumes, and easier to reach than most people think.
Archive
Every article
20 pieces, newest first. Each one ends with the documents it leans on — mostly EFSA and the WHO.
Claims we checked
Ultra-processed: what NOVA does and doesn't say
NOVA is a classification of how food is made, not a measure of how good it is. Almost every argument about ultra-processed food comes from confusing the two.
Micronutrients
Magnesium and the supplement aisle
EFSA's adequate intake is 350 mg a day for men and 300 for women. The gap between that and what the pill bottles promise is where most of the confusion lives.
Labels & law
Reading an EU food label in ninety seconds
Per-100 g is the comparison tool, the ingredient list is sorted by weight, and three lines tell you most of what the front of the pack won't.
Micronutrients
Potassium: the other half of the salt story
EFSA sets an adequate intake of 3,500 mg a day. Most sodium advice quietly assumes you are also hitting it, and most Europeans are not.
Macronutrients
How much fat, and which kind
EFSA's reference range is 20 to 35 per cent of energy from fat. Inside that range, the composition matters far more than the total.
Claims we checked
Sweeteners after the 2023 guideline
The WHO advised against using non-sugar sweeteners for weight control. What it actually said is narrower — and more interesting — than the headlines.
Habits
Coffee: where the line actually is
EFSA put numbers on caffeine in 2015 — 400 mg a day, 200 mg in one go. Most people are further from those limits than they think.
Claims we checked
Three supermarket myths that refuse to die
Frozen vegetables, brown eggs and fancy salt — what the evidence and the regulations actually say about the aisle's most persistent folklore.
Micronutrients
Omega-3: the number is 250 milligrams
EFSA's adequate intake for adults is 250 mg of EPA plus DHA a day. That is two portions of oily fish a week, and almost nothing else on the shelf.
Micronutrients
Calcium without the dairy aisle
EFSA's reference intake is 950 mg a day for adults over 25. Dairy is the easy route there, and it is not the only one.
Micronutrients
Iron: who actually runs short
EFSA sets 11 mg a day for men and 16 mg for premenopausal women. The gap between those two numbers explains almost everything about iron deficiency.
Micronutrients
Vitamin D and the northern winter
EFSA's adequate intake is 15 micrograms a day for adults — a figure set for the case where your skin is making none of it. Between October and March in northern Europe, that is the case.
Labels & law
“Light” is a percentage, not a promise
In EU law, light means the same as reduced: thirty per cent less of something than a comparable product. Thirty per cent less than what is the interesting part.
Claims we checked
Sugar: what the WHO guideline actually says
Free sugars below 10% of daily energy — around 50 grams on a typical adult intake — with extra benefit suggested below 5%. And why 'free sugars' is the phrase that matters.
Labels & law
What “source of” and “high in” are legally allowed to mean
Those two phrases are not marketing language. They are defined in EU law, to the gram, and the definitions are lower than shoppers assume.
Macronutrients
Saturated fat: the ten per cent rule, and what it replaced
The WHO updated its fats guidance in 2023. The headline number is 10% of energy — but the sentence that matters is about what you swap it for.
Habits
How much water? Less mysticism than you'd hope
EFSA's adequate intakes are 2.0 litres a day for women and 2.5 for men — counting all drinks and the water inside food. The eight-glasses rule was never the source.
Claims we checked
How much salt is too much, and why nobody hits the target
The WHO's number is under 5 grams of salt a day. Most of Europe eats roughly twice that, and almost none of it comes from the salt cellar.
Macronutrients
Fibre: the quiet shortfall on European plates
EFSA puts adequate fibre intake at 25 grams a day for adults. Intake surveys keep finding averages below it — here's what 25 grams actually looks like.