Explore Capsules
17 capsules

Salt and Health Guidelines: Measurement, Genetics, and Policy
Salt and health guidelines depend on how sodium intake is measured, how individual biology affects salt sensitivity, and how population policies translate evidence into recommendations. Readers will understand the main sources of disagreement behind sodium targets, including measurement uncertainty, genetic variation, and the record of public health interventions.

Sugar, Fat, and the Politics of Nutrition
Sugar, fat, and public health have been shaped not only by science, but by industry funding, political pressure, and shifting policy priorities. This account examines how blame moved through nutrition debates, how research and regulation were influenced, and how to assess dietary advice with a clearer view of the interests behind it.

Drug Research Bias: Ghostwriting, Trial Data, and Patient Protection
The research behind your medications may carry hidden ghostwriters and massaged trial data. The views split on the remedy: exposing manipulated studies one by one, forcing legal and regulatory reform on the companies, or practicing evidence-based care that routes around the bias, especially for vulnerable patients. Decide how much to trust drug claims and how to protect yourself in the meantime.

The Nicotine Quitter's Guide to Cessation Methods
Quitting nicotine and vaping is challenging, and success depends heavily on the approach used. This collection reveals how methods differ in real-world effectiveness, from tailored support and 24/7 crisis counseling to policy impacts like flavor bans and the importance of rigorous data analysis. Understanding these differences helps you choose the method that best fits your needs and increases your chances of quitting for good.

MSG Panic: Science, Bias, and Food Safety
A single 1968 letter to a medical journal helped launch fifty years of fear about MSG. The views clash over whether the panic was a baseless mistake, a product of anti-Asian bias, or a warning about real health risks that science has yet to close. Trace how the scare spread and decide for yourself what belongs in your food.

Ultra-Processed Foods: Classification, Nutrition, and Public Health Tradeoffs
Ultra-processed has become shorthand for bad, but the label lumps fortified staples in with junk food. These claims challenge the panic from different angles: flaws in the NOVA classification, media oversimplification, and cases where processing genuinely adds nutrition. Reading them equips you to judge food quality past the buzzword.

Vaccine Autism Fraud: Misconduct, Research Safeguards, and Public Trust
A single retracted study convinced a generation of parents that vaccines might cause autism, and public health is still paying for it. These claims differ on what matters most about the fraud: exposing the misconduct itself, fixing the research rules that let it slip through, or finding ways to communicate that rebuild trust instead of deepening fear. You'll come away knowing how the deception worked and what it takes to keep something like it from happening again.

Antibiotic Stewardship: Prescribing, Education, and Market Reform
Every unnecessary antibiotic prescription feeds resistance that makes future infections harder to treat. These approaches differ on the fix: delayed prescribing, outright refusal, patient education, stewardship programs, monitoring prescribers, or repairing the broken antibiotic market. Comparing them shows where the fight against superbugs is actually won.

Sun Exposure and Health: Vitamin D, Skin Cancer, and Sunscreen
Sun gives you vitamin D and may lower mortality, yet it also drives skin cancer, and the advice you hear rarely holds both truths. These views differ on the benefits of moderate sun, the limits of the studies, and how to warn people without stoking fear. Read them to set a sun habit you can actually trust.

Beyond BMI: Waist Size Is the Better Measure of Health
BMI mislabels healthy people, fuels body image problems, and steers health policy in the wrong direction. The case here is that waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio predict real risks like heart disease and diabetes far better, because belly fat matters more than total weight. Measuring your waist instead gives you and your doctor a more honest, less stigmatizing read on your health.

Nuclear Power Safety: Accidents, Risk, and Public Trust
Nuclear safety gets argued from very different starting points. These views cover lessons drawn from Chernobyl and Fukushima to harden emergency systems, the case that nuclear is safer than many economic and environmental threats we already accept, and hard questions about how trustworthy safety assurances really are. You can weigh them and decide what nuclear safety means to you.

Soil First Gardening: Food, Trees, and Climate Equity
Most new gardeners start with seeds, but the ground under them decides everything. Healthy soil, organic methods, and urban trees are what turn a yard into real food, better neighborhood health, and a small stand against climate unfairness. Start with the dirt and the rest of the garden follows.