Shake Nutrition's ethical standards are intended to protect accuracy, independence, fairness, transparency, responsible sourcing, and reader trust across nutrition reporting, recipes, research, product reviews, rankings, supplements, safety information, and other editorial work.
Core Ethical Principles
Editorial independence
Commercial relationships do not purchase or dictate independent editorial conclusions, recommendations, scores, rankings, or corrections.
Accuracy
Material factual claims should be supported by appropriate sources and corrected when reliable evidence shows they are wrong.
Fairness and context
People, companies, products, and research should be represented accurately and in context without manufacturing artificial balance.
Transparency
Material conflicts, commercial relationships, limitations, and uncertainty should be disclosed when they affect reader understanding.
Conflicts of interest
Relevant financial, professional, commercial, or personal conflicts should be addressed through disclosure, review, reassignment, additional sourcing, or declining an assignment when necessary.
Responsible sourcing
Primary and authoritative sources are preferred when appropriate. Company claims are identified as company claims rather than treated automatically as independent evidence.
Sensitive health and safety topics
Nutrition, supplements, allergens, food safety, recalls, contamination, and other consequential claims receive additional editorial caution.
Accountability
Verified material factual errors should be corrected, clarified, updated, or more broadly revised as appropriate.
Editorial Independence
Advertisers, affiliate partners, manufacturers, retailers, agencies, PR representatives, and other commercial parties cannot purchase a positive independent review, a predetermined recommendation, a specific score, a “Best” designation, a higher ranking position, removal of accurate criticism, or a correction where no factual error exists.
Paid visibility does not determine editorial ranking position.
Accuracy and Context
Accuracy includes avoiding misleading headlines, selective statistics, unsupported causal claims, exaggerated scientific certainty, outdated product information presented as current, and marketing claims presented as independent evidence. The strength of the language should match the strength of the evidence.
Fairness
Fairness does not require treating unsupported and well-supported claims as equally credible. Where a serious allegation or consequential criticism depends materially on a company's or person's response, the editorial team may seek comment when reasonably appropriate.
Responsible Sourcing
- peer-reviewed research and evidence syntheses;
- government and regulatory sources;
- academic and professional organizations;
- Nutrition Facts and Supplement Facts panels;
- official ingredient lists and product documentation;
- certification and testing records;
- recall notices;
- direct company statements;
- relevant expert commentary.
Named and attributable sources are preferred. Anonymous sourcing is rare and does not reduce the evidence required for a consequential claim.
Health, Nutrition, and YMYL Topics
Shake Nutrition does not use ordinary editorial content to diagnose readers, prescribe treatment, tell readers to discontinue prescribed care, guarantee health outcomes, or present limited evidence as settled science. Content is general information, not personalized medical or other professional advice.
Research Ethics
Research coverage may consider study design, sample size, population, duration, comparison groups, endpoints, effect size, funding, conflicts, limitations, association versus causation, and consistency with the broader evidence. Preprints, preliminary findings, retracted papers, and limited studies should not be presented with the same certainty as established evidence.
Reviews, Rankings, and Product Coverage
Reviews and rankings should use criteria relevant to the category and reader question. Commercial relationships do not determine inclusion, review conclusions, scores, recommendations, or ranking positions. External testing must be attributed to the organization that performed it; Shake Nutrition does not claim original testing unless it actually occurred.
AI and Visual Materials
AI may be used to create, prepare, or edit images and other visual materials. AI is not used for writing, drafting, rewriting, summarization, research, fact-checking, monitoring, translation, metadata, descriptions, tagging, categorization, biographies, or other editorial text. AI-generated visuals should not be presented as documentary evidence.
What We Avoid
- fabricated sources, citations, quotes, experts, credentials, reviews, testimonials, or rankings;
- unsupported medical or nutrition claims;
- guaranteed health outcomes;
- undisclosed paid editorial conclusions;
- plagiarism;
- presenting external testing as our own;
- misrepresenting generated images as documentary evidence;
- changing accurate conclusions solely to satisfy a commercial party.
Corrections and Accountability
Factual concerns may be sent to corrections@shakenutrition.com. Editorial questions may be sent to editorial@shakenutrition.com.