The short version

You answer 68 questions about how you feel and what matters to you. Your answers show which of 10 body systems you most want to support. For each of those, we look at the biological pathways that food can influence, and then at which foods have published links to those pathways through the compounds, vitamins and minerals they contain.

Your PWR Score, from 0 to 1000, shows how well a plan of ten foods, chosen to work together, covers your priorities. It is a way of organising published nutrition knowledge around what you told us. It is not a measurement of your health.

What it is not

• Not a diagnosis. It cannot tell you whether you have, or are likely to have, any health condition.
• Not treatment or medical advice. The food ideas are general wellbeing suggestions. They do not replace advice from your GP, a registered dietitian or a registered nutritionist.
• Not a promise of results. A higher score means the foods match your stated priorities more closely. It does not guarantee a change in how you feel.
• Not a judgement of you. The score is about a list of foods, never about a person.
• Not complete. The questions ask whether you regularly take prescribed medicines and, if relevant, whether you are pregnant, trying to conceive or breastfeeding. If you say yes, your report reminds you to check the plan with a professional first. The food plan itself does not change for either answer, and we do not ask which medicines you take. If you take medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have a diagnosed condition, please check with a healthcare professional before changing what you eat.

Built-in safety checks

Before the questions, the quiz can show a short check-in about how you feel about eating. It is based on the SCOFF questions (Morgan, Reid and Lacey, BMJ 1999), a short screening tool widely used by GPs and eating-disorder services in the UK. If your answers suggest that a food-focused report may not be right for you at the moment, the quiz stops, no report is made, and the page points you to support. The check-in answers are not saved. The site owner can switch it off, and it is on by default.

Separately, some answers add a note to your report suggesting you mention something to your GP, for example feeling breathless very often during everyday activities.

How it works, step by step

1. You answer the questions

   There are 68 questions in 8 sections. Each answer is linked to one or more of 10 body systems: Digestive System; Intestinal System; Circulatory System; Brain & Nervous System; Immune System; Respiratory System; Urinary System; Glandular System; Structural System; and Skin, Hair & Nails. Your answers are turned into a priority for each body system, from 0 to 100. If you pick wellness goals (up to three), the body systems that relate to those goals get a small lift. A body system that only a few questions speak to is treated cautiously, so one answer alone cannot make it your top priority.

2. Priorities become pathways

   Each body system is linked to the biological pathways that matter for it, such as oxidative stress or blood vessel function. There are 125 pathways. The higher a body system's priority, the more weight its pathways carry.

3. Foods are linked to pathways

   The catalogue holds 690 foods. Each food is linked to the pathways it can influence, mostly through the 177 food compounds it contains (for example beta-glucan fibre in oats) and through its vitamins and minerals (29 are mapped). Every link has a strength from 1 (minimal) to 5 (very strong) and a confidence level showing how well established it is. Where a food reaches a pathway through a chain (food, then compound, then pathway), the chain counts only as strongly as its weakest link.

4. Each food is scored for you

   A food's score for you adds up the pathways that matter to you, each multiplied by the strength and confidence of the food's link to it. A food's best matches count the most and each further match counts a little less, so a food that is very good at a few relevant things can beat one that is only fair at many. The result is put on a scale of 0 to 1000.

5. Allergies and diets are respected

   If you tell us about an allergy, or choose a way of eating such as vegetarian, foods that do not fit are left out completely. They are not just ranked lower.

6. Your plan and your PWR Score

   We choose ten foods to work together. The first is the food that covers the most on its own. Each one after that is the food that adds the most on top of those already chosen. A second food doing the same job as one already in the plan adds nothing, which is why ten foods doing ten different jobs score higher than ten that repeat each other. Your PWR Score shows how fully the ten cover your priorities, giving more weight to the priorities that matter most to you. A PWR Boost shows what one more food would change.

Because the score is measured against your own priorities, two people with different answers can have the same score for very different reasons. Use it to compare your own plans over time, not to compare yourself with other people.

Where the information comes from

What has been checked

• The knowledge files have written structures (schemas), and a validator checks them for required fields and correct types.
• Every nutrition figure was matched to a named entry in its source. Figures that looked wrong, for example calories that did not agree with the protein, fat and carbohydrate shown, were flagged and corrected.
• Automatic tests run on each release over the question flow, the scoring, the report, the privacy features and the eating check-in.
• The score bands were set by running made-up test profiles (not real people) through the engine and looking at the spread of results.
• Reports show the evidence rating and source next to each pathway, so anyone can see what a recommendation rests on.

What is still to be checked

Here is where things stand today, so you know what this page can and cannot tell you.

• No clinical trial or outcome study has yet tested whether following a YourPWR plan changes health or how people feel.
• A registered nutritionist or dietitian has not yet reviewed the wording and the method. Until that review is done, please read this page as a plain description of how the tool works, not as a professional endorsement of it.
• The strength and confidence ratings are our own summary of published research. They have not been independently audited.
• Everything depends on your own answers. No tests, blood results or medical records are used.
• The foods have not been checked against medicine interactions, and the plan does not adjust for medicines or pregnancy. These answers only add a reminder to your report.

We will update this page as each of these is completed.