ZOE NUTRITION NEW THREAD- anyone want to join in?

[LisaLovedUp]

I've started a new thread as my previous one was titled for techie stuff.
If anyone is fairly new to this please join in and we can share!

I am now on Day 4. All tests done and now recording my food each day. It takes me ages as my phone is slow (needs replacing) and some things I eat aren't listed (it relies a lot on packaged foods.)

eg yesterday I made a veggie curry and the only options were branded readymade ones so I just had to pick one I felt was close enough, rather than itemise every veggie in the one I made.

I noticed this as some 'negative' feedback on another platform.

Has everyone/anyone done the advanced health questionnaire? I started it but gave up. I felt it was more for their data gathering (which is fine to an extent) but also very intrusive and I didn't want to give my personal medical history when it may not be 100% safe from hackers.

I'm going to feedback on this to them.

My blood sugar readings so far are in the 4 - 5.4 range mainly although on a couple of mornings it was below 4. The highest was 7.3 after a sweet dessert ( a one-off for me - out with friends) plus ice cream.

Any tips from more experienced users welcome!

I HAVE MY RESULTS!

Oka so here goes...

Blood sugar - excellent
Blood fat - good (56%)
Microbiome gut health - very high - 80
Microbiome diversity - not so good

I think the diversity may be because I do exclude a number of foods because I seem intolerant (gluten, some dairy and anything in the onion family especially garlic.)

I was surprised it was low in diversity though as I feel I eat a huge range of plants and was doing the '30 plants a day' for a few months up to the tests, so that's a bit puzzling.

I will discuss that with them.

Bit confused now over what happens next with logging food and finding scores for them all. I expect it will become clear in time!

I did feel the scores for my 3 days of recording meals was a little inaccurate because some things I ate couldn't be listed accurately as they were home made versions of their prepared ready meals.

oops- make the 30 plants a week.

Oh, I do envy your blood sugar control! Carbs hate me as much as I love them.

My gut score was much better than my diversity as well, as diversity isn't the be all and end all. From what I've read you can only really increase your diversity with more fermented foods rather than more plants if you are already a 30-a-week type.

if you are already a 30-a-week type

Their research suggested that 30-a-week was the sweet spot, when more than thirty varieties didn't make much difference so maybe you just get a tick and 'keep up the good work' as far as diversity goes.

It all becomes a bit clearer once you’ve chosen your start date. I got my results a week ago but chose yesterday as my start date - so I was a bit in limbo until the app updated yesterday. I have good blood sugar, good fat and good gut health (which to be honest I was surprised about as I know I need to eat more fruit & veg). My diversity was low, but that doesn’t seem to be a major issue.

I find it a bit disheartening that I can eat 2 good, relatively high scoring meals and then my daily score can plummet due to something like a few squares of chocolate but I’m seeing this as a gradual programme and not something I have to perfect overnight. My personal aim for the next week is to up my fibre and to include 2 good scoring meals most days (I usually skip breakfast and aim for 14-16 hours between eating overnight). So I’ve just added in my meals for tomorrow, and find this really helps motivate me to stick to my intentions the following day.

Thanks to the kind soul who shared their link at the start of this thread, I signed up and just completed my blood sugar testing. I had a particularly busy fortnight so didn’t get any of the additional tests done, and travelled for work and ate out/drank lots on the first 3 days so I hope my scores are somewhat accurate. I really dislike the food logging interface, it’s linked to so many American foods but no British aldi food which is frustrating…

@Potatomashed

it’s linked to so many American foods but no British aldi food which is frustrating…

I understand that we early adopters have been offered the programme at a reduced price because it is not yet localised for the UK.

@LisaLovedUp I got mine too - slightly less positive picture!

Blood sugar poor - 29 (average for age 46-82)
Blood fat good - 72 (av. 44-81)
Diversity poor, gut health good

I'm a bit surprised by the blood sugar in a way as my peaks on my monitor never went out of the green, but I think it's more about the type of peak isn't it, and how long it takes to come down. Interestingly looking at individual food scores, pasta is not too bad (34) while white rice is terrible and only scores 4!!! So I think that sort of thing will be interesting.

Basically my top 10 highest scoring foods are nuts and I don't currently eat any at all, so off to the shop for me!

Thanks for your update @texican Yes, I think that's right about the blood sugar. Mine did peak at times- to 7.9 highest. But it came down pretty quickly and I think it's when there it takes ages to come down that it's rated as 'poor'.

What I'm a bit cross about is that I didn't really appreciate that whatever I ate in those first 3 days would set the 'score' for their analysis. Yes, I recorded my blood sugar all along (and assume they get it the data from the monitor) but I wish I'd 'tested' a lot more foods over the 3 days of the diary.

I'd like to improve my 'fat' but not sure how to do that. The top of the range for my age is 64, so I was almost there, but not quite.

The diversity gut thing is puzzling me.

I thought that the blood fat and sugar was calculated entirely on the reaction to the muffins, rather than anything else you ate. It's just that the score retrospectively in the app. I was incredibly hit and miss about logging in the app so I have some fairly random items scored.

I found the specific gut bugs bit quite interesting - I'm always very apple-shaped (even when I have been very slim) and about 7 out of 10 of the bad bugs are associated with higher levels of visceral fat so that could be a link. I would like to change that to see if it has an impact but wasn't sure how to - is it eating more of the gut boosters/less suppressors or something else?

I thought that the blood fat and sugar was calculated entirely on the reaction to the muffins, rather than anything else you ate. It's just that the score retrospectively in the app.

Yes, that's right. What I meant was they 'scored' the log of my meals for the first 3 days, on the app, relative to the muffin test. Does that make sense? Have I got that right? The green number they give those meals. ie my egg and mushroom breakfast scored 78, (whereas my fish fingers and chips a measly 28 or something like that.)

And...if I have good blood sugar control, does that mean i can eat lots of carbs? (Which I know I can't, as I only have to look at some to put weight on my tummy.)

Like you I am an apple, even though I am slim.

For example, I know that I got a big spike from a banana and potatoes, but I didn't eat those in the first 3 days. So I don't know if they are 'ok' for me to eat, given I have good BS control.

I would like to change that to see if it has an impact but wasn't sure how to - is it eating more of the gut boosters/less suppressors or something else?

I think it may be a case of eating more foods with the 'good' bugs. I looked up one of the good bacteria that is 'good' for visceral fat, and it gave a list of foods to eat. (This was nothing to do with Zoe, just an online article, so not sure how accurate it was.)

Questions for the coaches, eh?

If you’ve got your results now, then all your scores for all different foods should be populated in the app already @LisaLovedUp. It doesn’t matter what you ate and tested in those three days, it’s all predicted based on your response to the muffins. So if you tap search in the app for certain foods like banana and potatoes, they will have been scored personally for you even though you didn’t eat them in those three days.

Great, thanks for the info! It's really helpful @neonmeadow

I've not yet activated the coaching/ more results and intend to do so tomorrow.
Do I need to wait for the app to reload the things you mention?

I'm not the best with IT so working through the app is a learning curve.

@LisaLovedUp I can’t remember exactly how everything happened as it was a few weeks ago. But i’m sure once I’d received my results then when I went in the app all of my personal scores were live and I could start logging food properly and get the correct scores for each meal. I only set my coaching to start this Monday just gone, but for the past few weeks I’ve been logging everything just to get a feel for how all the different foods score for me. It’s not the most intuitive thing but when you get used to it it does become a bit easier! If you go in the app now and log in, then I think your scores should be there and you can set a date to start Zoe ‘201’ which is the coaching phase…at least I think all that’s right as I say there is a lot to take in! But now my scores are in I do find logging food quite easy. Getting a high score each day is a little harder!

Ah yes @LisaLovedUp once you activate it your app updates and you get scores like for those 3 days but for every single food item you search for and you can create meals so you can look up your banana etc. They also give you cumulative scores for your whole day. That's where I've got my comparative score for pasta and rice from. It's pretty interesting as I score 77 for carrots but 22 for parsnips which I found really surprising so I'm hoping it gives me some informed choices about things.

I'm in the 'typing every food item I can think of into the app and looking shocked' stage. It's a renewal stage of 'scanning CGM every 5 seconds to see if it's changed'

Thanks - yes, I seem to have found it all now.

It's very clunky though isn't it?

It takes you through the 'lessons' but then you have to go backwards (almost) to find your food lists and scores. It's not designed in a very user-friendly way IMO.

I'm in a bit of a 'can't be arsed ' mood about inputting my food intake (maybe that will change!) because there weren't any real surprises in my scores.

Like you I had a good score for carrots and not so good for parsnips. Maybe parsnips are higher in sugar?

I was interested in the breakfast ideas, many of which were more like brunch. One thing that grabbed me was an avocado on gluten-free bread, seemed good for me, and balanced out all the crap in gluten free bread!

I was sad to see sausages scored as a measly 5. It didn't really surprise me and I eat them about once a month but they were on my list for dinner tonight!

Fortunately, most of the foods I like have a high score but as I had poor gut diversity I'm going to focus on the gut-booster list.

@texican thanks! I think I've found my way through it, but it is a bit clunky. I wish it just took you through everything in a more linear way instead of having to jump back to some stuff.

If anyone still needs a referral:
joinzoe.mention-me.com/m/ol/kd8fq-5347018b9f
(maximum of 3 persons can use it)

@LisaLovedUp yes sadly sausages are terrible for me too, about an 11.

I think I can get to the my foods bit either by going backwards in days or by going to the very bottom of the screen in the middle. From there I can search foods or look at my feedback. Does that help? Agree it's not massively intuitive though, particularly with keeping up with the sessions.

I'm getting a bit disheartened already as my meals are generally pretty high scoring but then I'm messing it up with one item (e.g. a really small bit of chorizo in my meal tonight brings my whole day's score down by 30!!!!). But I'm trying to look at the small wins for now and not get too stressy about it!

Hello all,

It's interesting to read the updates as people go through the experience. Zoe announced yesterday that they are making improvements to the functionality of the App and will also be making it more aligned to British foods and meals for UK consumers.

In terms of meat, that's likely to score highly for most people. Pretty much all red meat is bad for me, especially processed meat but it can easily be offset by building up a meal with additional foods. This has been the biggest revelation for me, typically healthy eating is thought of as restrictive but with Zoe you learn that it isn't, you should actually add MORE onto your plate but more of the good stuff.

For example, a tuna mayo sandwich will score pretty low for me, but if I swap out white bread for wholemeal seeded bread, mix in some chopped peppers, spring onion, cucumber, tomato & lettuce then the score rockets. I can even sprinkle some grated cheese on it and put it under the grill and I've still got a +65 meal.

Now I'm actually consuming much more food than I used to before, but it's more nutritious and I'm feeding my body not just lumping food into it. I'm lucky that I've never been severely overweight, but I've lost 8-10 pounds without really trying and I FEEL so much healthier and happier. I've completely changed the way I eat.

There are lots to learn if you give it a go, a big win for me was realising that cereal is terrible for me, even basic cornflakes which you would assume have very little in them scored zero for me. Cutting this kind of thing out has been a game-changer. Also, a fried egg when fried in extra-virgin olive oil is better for me than a poached egg (because of the goodness in the evo) - you need to tweak your thinking.

Stick at it, I've found that it's really worth the effort.

Oh buy Waitrose No 1- they come out as 15!

An occasional treat- which they are anyway.

@texican Yes, I've got the hang of it! So far today both breakfast and lunch scored over 75.

I've also remembered that scanning the bar codes of food makes it a lot quicker.

I've just been and done a massive supermarket shop and added a few more veg that I don't buy often - spring greens (usually it's other cabbages/broccoli/spinach) and some fennel.

I'm cooking a chicken tray bake tonight but I can't be bothered to list every herb and spice that's going into it.

One question I'm going to run by them is why some foods have a good (high) score- for me- like and apple (over 70) yet the profile of them shows bad for blood glucose.

Any ideas?

Is it because they are good for the gut and don't affect fat levels, and that cancels out the BG?

Or is it because my BG control is 'excellent' , so I can eat them and get away with it?

I noticed that in yesterday's email letter they are going to think about allowing us to re-test.I'm not bothered about the blood tests but I'd quite like to get more diversity in my gut. My overall score for the gut was good but at the lower end for diversity. I assume they won't allow us to do it piecemeal.

Hi- it's really working for you which is great!

I am not wanting to lose weight but my Mum (who is elderly) had pre-diabetes a while back (she's got it sorted now, without meds, with diet) and I was concerned about my own risk.

Do they (and You) really care if the vegs are organic? I almost entirely buy organic from the supermarkets, but it's getting harder and harder to find. The "veg - box delivery" is a total ripoff. There is really a big difference in the taste in the nitrates content.

I've been listening to Tim Spector's book on Audible - and I'm pretty sure he says that the unknown (and worrying) factor is the impact of the herbicides etc on the gut microbes - so Organic if possible,