Editorial Policy

This page describes how we produce, review, and maintain the editorial content on Healthy Meals Incentives. It applies site-wide, with additional standards for Your-Money-or-Your-Life (YMYL) topics — anything touching medical, clinical, nutrition, or financial decisions. If you spot an error in any article, email editorial@healthymealsincentives.org and we will review it within five business days.

What We Cover and How We Cover It

Healthy Meals Incentives is an editorial publication covering school nutrition, GLP-1 medications and obesity medicine, and broader wellness journalism. Our voice is evidence-based and specific. We do not write to sell; we write to explain what the research, the FDA label, or the policy actually says — and what it does not.

We treat medical and health content as YMYL. That means higher bars for sourcing, expert review, and accuracy than we would apply to general lifestyle content. On YMYL pages you will see a credentialed reviewer byline, a prominent review date, and a sources section with numbered citations linking to primary material.

Who Writes for Healthy Meals Incentives

Every editorial article is written under a named byline with disclosed credentials. Rachel Nguyen, MS, RDN, is the site's editorial lead and writes most of our GLP-1, obesity medicine, and nutrition policy coverage. Contributing writers must hold a relevant credential or documented subject-matter expertise, which is surfaced in their author bio.

We do not publish anonymous editorial content, ghost-written affiliate content dressed as editorial, or AI-generated drafts without human editorial judgment applied, fact-checked, and bylined.

Who Reviews Our Medical and Nutrition Content

Every YMYL article — anything covering medical, clinical, nutrition, or drug-related topics — is reviewed by a credentialed expert before publication. A credentialed reviewer holds an MD, PhD, RD, or an equivalent licensed credential in a field directly relevant to the article's content.

The reviewer's name, credentials, and relevant background are disclosed in the author bio section of the article. Review is substantive: the reviewer checks dose figures against the FDA label, trial statistics against the published study, and clinical framings for accuracy and nuance. Reviewers do not approve affiliate positioning or commercial messaging — only the editorial content.

For content outside the medical and nutrition beat (school-nutrition policy coverage, grantee reporting, recognition awards), a qualified editor reviews the article against our fact-checking standards but a clinical reviewer is not required.

How We Source Specific Claims

Every specific numerical or factual claim in a published article — prices, dosages, statistics, rates, dates, study findings, quoted policy text — is backed by a live fetch of the cited source during the drafting session. When a source cannot be retrieved automatically (some sites block programmatic access), we disclose that transparently in the sources section and describe the fallback verification path, typically corroboration through a second authoritative source.

Preferred primary sources for medical and clinical claims:

• FDA-approved drug labels via DailyMed (the NLM's authoritative SPL repository)
• Peer-reviewed trial publications via PubMed, NEJM, JAMA, BMJ, or Lancet titles
• FDA guidance documents and official statements
• CDC, NIH, and similar US federal agency publications
• Manufacturer labeling and published pricing (cited and dated, not taken as independent claims)

"According to my knowledge" is not a source. Citing a URL without fetching it during the drafting session is not verification. Retrieval dates are disclosed for every external citation.

How We Fact-Check Before Publishing

Fact-checking happens at three stages before an article goes live:

1. During drafting. The writer verifies each specific claim against a primary source in the same session. Unverified placeholders are explicitly flagged [VERIFY: source-url] in the draft and must be resolved before the draft is passed to review.
2. During expert review. The credentialed reviewer checks clinical, statistical, and factual accuracy against primary sources.
3. During final editorial pass. An editor verifies every numerical claim one more time, confirms citations resolve, checks dates, and confirms no [VERIFY] placeholders remain.

If a claim cannot be verified against a primary source, we either cut it or reframe it with explicit uncertainty — we do not publish unverified specifics as if they were confirmed.

How Corrections Work

We update published articles under three circumstances:

• Source changes. The FDA label is revised, a trial is retracted, a price posted by a manufacturer changes, a regulation shifts.
• New evidence. A subsequent peer-reviewed publication materially changes the clinical picture.
• Reader-reported errors. A reader flags a factual error, typo, broken citation, or outdated claim.

To report a correction, email editorial@healthymealsincentives.org with the article URL and the specific concern. We review correction requests within five business days. If a correction is warranted, we update the article, update the "Last reviewed" date, and — for substantive corrections that change the meaning of a claim — append a short corrections note at the end of the article disclosing what was changed and why.

Editorial Independence and Affiliate Policy

Healthy Meals Incentives does not take payment, gifts, or directed coverage in exchange for editorial content. Pillar pages, explainer pages, and news-style coverage are always free of affiliate links. Commercial relationships are confined to our reviews and round-up content, where readers expect product recommendations and where affiliate links, if present, are disclosed at the top of the article above the fold.

Where we link to a manufacturer's own page to cite a published price or labeling claim, that is a citation, not an affiliate link. We do not receive compensation for manufacturer citations in editorial content.

Reviewers do not receive performance-based compensation tied to the commercial outcome of an article. Review fees are a flat per-article rate, disclosed internally and not tied to recommendations, rankings, or affiliate revenue.

How Often We Review Published Articles

YMYL articles are reviewed on a rolling schedule against the following triggers: every 12 months at minimum, when the underlying source material changes (FDA label updates, new trial data), and when external events make published information materially out of date. The "Last reviewed" date at the top of each article reflects the most recent substantive review — not a cosmetic edit.

When a YMYL article has not been reviewed in more than 18 months, it carries a visible "This article is under scheduled review" notice until the next review cycle completes.

Medical Disclaimer

Editorial content on Healthy Meals Incentives is for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical, clinical, legal, or financial advice. No article replaces the judgment of a licensed professional familiar with your specific situation. Do not start, stop, or change a medication, treatment plan, or financial decision based on editorial content alone. Consult a licensed prescriber, clinician, or advisor as appropriate.

Contact the Editorial Team

For corrections, factual concerns, source questions, or review-process inquiries, email editorial@healthymealsincentives.org. For general site inquiries, use the homepage contact channels.

This editorial policy itself is a living document. We update it when our standards or processes change materially, and the "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent substantive revision.