How The Beachside Reader works
Trust should be checkable. This page lays out — in plain language — how we source, write, review, correct, and fund this publication, so you can judge the work on its merits.
See also our Editorial Standards — independence, fact-checking, and our affiliate & privacy policies.
Sourcing & evidence
Every health claim we make is tied to published, peer-reviewed research, and we link the primary source so you can read it yourself. We prefer systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and randomized controlled trials over single studies, press releases, or anecdote. When the evidence is thin, mixed, or preliminary, we say so rather than rounding up to a clean answer.
How we grade evidence
Not all evidence carries the same weight. Where it helps, we signal the strength of a finding:
- Systematic review / meta-analysis — the strongest single signal: many studies pooled.
- Randomized controlled trial — strong: an intervention tested against a control.
- Cohort / observational — useful, but can show correlation without proving cause.
- Mechanistic / animal — explains how something might work; doesn’t prove it works in people.
- Expert consensus / guideline — the considered position of a professional body.
Who writes and reviews
The Beachside Reader is produced with AI assistance and human editorial oversight by Tim Bunce, who runs Beachside Fitness in Wasaga Beach. Every article is fact-checked against its cited sources before publishing. We are honest about the level of review: a piece labelled “Editorial review by Tim Bunce” has had editorial and source checking — not a formal clinical sign-off. Where an article has been reviewed by a relevant credentialed professional, we name them and the date.
This is journalism, not medical advice. Nothing here replaces a conversation with your own doctor, who knows your history. Our calculators are screening tools, not diagnoses.
How we use AI
We use AI tools to help research, draft, and structure articles and to keep the site fast and consistent. A human reviews every published piece against its sources and is accountable for it. AI is a drafting and research aid here — never an unchecked author. We will always correct an error a reader finds, whoever (or whatever) first wrote the sentence.
Corrections
We fix mistakes in the open. Every article carries a “Report an error” link; reports go to an editorial queue, and when a correction is made we publish it to our public corrections log with the date and what changed. A publication that hides its mistakes hasn’t earned your trust — so we don’t.
Funding & conflicts of interest
The Reader is free and carries no display ads. It is funded by reader support on Patreon, an optional newsletter, and affiliate links — when we recommend a product and you buy through our link, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Product picks are made on merit; coverage is never sold, and an affiliate relationship never changes what the evidence says. We do not tie affiliate or click data to anyone’s health profile, and we never sell or share your health data. Full detail: Affiliate disclosure and Privacy policy.
Keeping articles current
Health evidence moves. We re-check time-sensitive topics (supplements, anything medical) on a regular cadence and show when a piece was last reviewed. If something is overdue for review, we’d rather flag it than let it quietly age.
Questions or corrections
Spotted something wrong, or want to know how a piece was made? Use the “Report an error” link on any article, or the suggestion box at the bottom of any page. We read every message.