You're a smart guy for not being a sheep about nutrition like so many.
Most of the stuff in Muscle and Fiction is nonsense and hyperbole, thats for sure.
It's a catch 22 because it's extremely hard to write a magazine year after year and tell the truth, I imagine. There is not much to this thing called bodybuilding. Not more than train progreessively on basics, eat well, rest and be patient, all basically summed up in a book like "Brawn".
Can you imagine what Flex, Musclemag, MD, or Muscle and Fiction would look like if they told the "real truth"
a skinny mag indeed, but better natural builds around the world.