Are pumpkin seeds messing with your hormones? A viral claim says yes, and it comes with studies attached. So I tracked them down and read them. What I found: a test on cancer cells in a dish, a study on rats with their ovaries removed, and a computer simulation. Not one of them looked at people eating seeds.

In this episode of Food Code Matrix:

• How much zinc is really in a handful of pumpkin seeds, and how much it takes to cause copper problems

• Why the real zinc risk lives in supplements, not snacks

• What lignans (plant oestrogens) are, and what the research on them actually tested

• The largest human trial: 1,431 men, 12 months, and what it found

• Why your gut bacteria decide how much of these compounds you absorb

• The flaxseed advice that contradicts the whole claim

• Three simple steps for ...