Disclaimer

Who I am

Alex Busse is a Sydney-based nutritionist who reads the primary research before repeating a claim. Everything here is research-led general information for a general audience.

Not medical advice

Everything on thesmartplate.org is general information based on published research, written for a general audience. It is not individualised medical or dietary advice for your specific situation, your medications, your medical history, or your body. If you have a health condition, take medication, or are considering a significant dietary change, talk to a qualified health professional — a GP, an Accredited Practising Dietitian, or a relevant specialist — who can actually account for your circumstances.

Supplements and the TGA

Where this site discusses a specific supplement or nootropic, that discussion is a plain-language read of public research — never a recommendation to take or avoid a specific product, and never a therapeutic claim. In Australia, therapeutic claims about supplement products are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Nothing on this site is one of those regulated claims.

Editorial independence

This site is not currently monetised — there’s no affiliate program, no sponsored content, and no paid product placement anywhere on it. If that changes in the future, any sponsored or affiliate content will be clearly and separately labelled as such, and it will never influence a myth verdict, a trend takedown, or an evidence-quality grade. The editorial calls on this site are made the same way regardless of who might eventually pay to be featured on it.

Sourcing and corrections

Every claim that touches a health outcome traces to at least one cited, linkable primary source — see the methodology page for the full evidence-grading approach. If a citation link breaks, a study gets retracted, or you think I’ve misread a paper, tell me via the contact page. Corrections get made, not buried.