The Healthy Thread
Out of context: Reply #574
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- mg33-1
Long reply, haven't posted here in a while.
Last month I signed up for www.joinzoe.com to do an at-home blood glucose test along with a blood test and stool sample during a two week period.
Don't know if anyone has seen Zoe - I found it in a Facebook ad - but their main value props are:
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- Powered by the world’s most in-depth nutrition study by scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford & Harvard
- We take a holistic approach to understand how your body works.We use the most advanced tests and cutting-edge science available to help you understand how your body works so you can reduce dietary inflammation and improve your gut health naturally.
Based on the tests used in PREDICT, our at-home test kit can provide comprehensive insights into your biology, covering the gut microbiome and markers of dietary inflammation (including both blood sugar and fats).
----Before starting the Zoe program I also did a hair follicle food sensitivity test with https://www.checkmybodyhealth.co…... My skin had been breaking out way more than usual and I started to read more about inflammation and gut health and those impacts on acne and skin health.
The food sensitivity tests revealed high sensitivity to a lot of things I was eating regularly: black beans, bananas, anything dairy (which I've largely avoided anyways), cheese, whey protein (which I've always known was bad for me) as well as a lot of wheat-based things, and also apples and mushrooms. I started an elimination diet to avoid those things, skin started clearing up a bit.
The Zoe results take a while to get back, but when you get them, it's a ridiculously comprehensive breakdown of foods that impact blood sugar response, blood fat response, and gut health. You then get an app from them that includes your individual scores for those three aspects, and then the scores for meals and individual foods are calculated against those.
With the results, my blood sugar, blood fat, and gut health were all poor. The point of the program is to help you make better decisions about what truly effects each person; I've been tracking macros and calories for 6 years and this is the first time I've ever done anything this unique and specific to ME.
I've cross-referenced my favorite low-sensitivity foods with the high-ranking foods in Zoe, and have lately felt more energetic, less hungry, and best of all, I'm not even tracking calories anymore after six years of relentless dedication to that. Some days eating healthy I get close to 2,500 calories (way more than usual) and some days I'm lower, but I'm focusing more on how I feel, my mood, etc. Skin has completely cleared up. Stress is down a bit, and though a ton of stuff is off the list for me, the Zoe program doesn't aim to fully eliminate any particular food; it just helps you make better choices when combining foods to balance out the blood sugar, blood fat, and gut health response.
If any of you are interested in something that is incredibly unique to your body and metabolism, check out www.joinzoe.com. I was fascinated by their scientific approach - it's not BS. I wish health programs covered the cost of this because it would pave the way for proactive nutritional planning unlike anything else, just requires you to stick with it.