Anyone using the Zoe glucose sensor/gut health 'trial' package??

[GlomOfNit]

I keep on being spammed with Zoe ads for this on FB and elsewhere. And I notice that with some of the promotion for it, they're targeting menopausal women. Claims to relieve joint pain, fatigue etc. I'm wondering if the information about how to eat that it's claimed you gain is particularly helpful for women in perimenopause, particularly those of us struggling with our weight.

I know the kits are out of stock until June (massive demand for them!) and they cost £300 FFS, but I'm starting to get worn down by the merciless promotion (I did the Zoe covid app so I'm already 'in the system' as far as newsletters and emails goes, and haven't unsubscribed because I find a lot of it interesting and helpful).

I just can't keep weight off. It's not dramatic fast weight gain, but creeps up slowly and steadily. At the moment I have zero self control and I'm craving stupid things like croissants and mochi and pretzels, i.e. totally pointless and useless calories. I've restarted 5:2 but I'm appalling at it, make excuses and backslide all over the place. I used to be so much better at this! I really do want to curb my weight gain - BMI is 26.7 which isn't horrendous - I need to lose a stone - but I just drop a couple of pounds and put them back on again, over and over.

I'd be really interested to hear from any women on this particular board about their experiences with this kit, if they're using it.

If you can afford it, I'd go for it. There are various threads already on this on the General Health forum and some posters have a link whereby you can jump the queue and get instant access.

I would put money on the advice the App gives out being exactly the same as healthy lifestyle advice you'd hear as generic for all women age 50+, ie :

don't smoke, don't drink or not much, keep your weight healthy ,take regular exercise, eat vegetables, etc.

@lljkk

The way it works is you get a personalised, medical analysis. It takes about 3-4 weeks to get the results.

You do a blood test within a set time of eating 4 muffins (they are made for the program.) Two have high fat, two have high sugar. You post off your blood sample and the result shows how well your body processes fats and glucose, on a scale according to your age.

Then, you submit a poo sample which is analysed. This shows your gut health and you get a very detailed report of which bacteria are in your gut- and if you have good or bad ones. (Some of the 'bad' ones are linked to various serious diseases that you may be predisposed to.)

You wear a blood glucose monitor for 2 weeks and it records the peaks and troughs, and how long it takes your blood glucose to fall. Slow falling BG is bad as it means your body is struggling to process sugar which in time may lead to diabetes. Likewise, really high BG spikes are a sign your body doesn't like that food.

Based on these results, you are able to choose the foods (you search for these on the app) that work best for you. Each food has a score and the aim is to reach a score of 75 or more each day to improve your gut health.

At the end of the testing period, all your results are sent to you as a PDF and then you can start to make changes to how you eat.

I would love people to post EXACTLY what advice they got from Zoe App and then we'd know (as is extremely likely) that there is very little variation in what customers were actually recommended to do. And little deviation in how much that advice conforms with conventional healthy eating & living advice.

My guess is that there about 100 vegetable/fruits/spices that are recommended to everyone, about 100 more spices/veg/Ft that are recommended to > 50% of people, and a seemingly random mix of other Ft/veg/spices (most of them rare exotics rarely eaten by most people) recommended to the other 50%.

And then on top of that, a controlled experiment would find that, other than scoring well on the gut floria diversity statistic that ZoeApp tests for, few would have strong health improvements they could point to.

nobody on ZoeApp ever gets told it's ok to eat as much UPF especially carbs as they like, to not worry about how many vegetables they have (that few are fine), that exercise is irrelevant to their health, or that weight loss is quick and easy, or that high fat diet suits them well. The advice given is overwhelmingly exactly the same for everyone.

If no one posts what advice & long term results they got from ZoeApp other than saying "oh gosh it's so customised for MEEEEEeee!" then you can't say I'm wrong

I decided to join but won’t get my kit till June. Im not doing it for fad reasons. I’ve been following the ZOE app since Covid and follow a Tim Spector. I’ve also had recent positive experiences from using probiotics so I’m fascinated by the Science.

Im happy to update this thread if I think it’s a waste of money once I’m done. From memory I’ve paid out for the kit including blood sugar monitor which I think was something like £299 and then £159 which gets taken in June for four months access to the app.

The point @lljkk is that the way someone reacts to food is very individual.

No one is told what to eat. It's about seeing how your body processes food. It doesn't recommend anything - each food has a score according to your own gut health, blood sugar responses and fat processing.

So someone might be 'allowed' to eat a sausage which for them might be scored as a 60, but someone else's score might be 25 for a sausage. The aim is to achieve a score of 75, averaged over a day.

One of the main principles behind it is gut health as this is the basis for a lot of inflammation and even diseases like bowel cancer. The analysis of your poo is several A4 pages long, and lists all the bacteria found, and if they are beneficial or not.

Someone who scores in the lower 25% for gut health would have a lot of work to do to improve their microbiome, whereas someone scoring 80% could carry on as they are already doing.

For instance, Prof Tim Spector says he processes cheese well and it doesn't impact on his cholesterol, but carbs send his BG sky high- but, he makes the point, his wife is the opposite.

My friend did it as she was pre-diabetic and very interested in controlling her blood sugar better.

I was interested and talked to her about it. She thoroughly recommends it.
She has learnt how the order she eats food in massively affects her blood sugar levels, also has found that some interchangeable foods are worse than others e.g. blueberries/strawberries, different types of bread.
She lost just under a stone doing it and changing her eating habits (but not her diet or calories counting).

If you're interested in the principles behind it the book The Glucos Goddess method is similar (but not personalised).

Thank you 🙏🏻

@RudsyFarmer Have you started Zoe now? I'm curious as to how you're getting on. I've signed up and was due to start but I'm one of the people for whom the sensor app isn't working so have been told to postpone until it's sorted. Am feeling disgruntled and wondering whether its actually worth it or if I should get a refund.

You can get much cheaper glucose test kits on Amazon.

There are loads of these stick on monitors around at the moment, all very expensive.

Glycemic index diets were popular in the 90s, I can't see the difference personally.

I did get an email to say I’d be getting my stuff soon but no money has left my account yet. I really want to do it so I’m just waiting patiently.

One of the main principles behind it is gut health as this is the basis for a lot of inflammation and even diseases like bowel cancer. The analysis of your poo is several A4 pages long, and lists all the bacteria found, and if they are beneficial or not.*

He admitted in a Sunday paper that there's no correlation they can tell you about between all this poo information and your diet.

It's a gimmick.

sinocare Blood Sugar Testing Kit/Blood Glucose Monitor Safe AQ Pro I, with Blood Ketone Warning, with Strips x 50 & Lancing Devices x 50 & Carrying Bag, 500 Memory, Results in mmol/L https://amzn.eu/d/9Ru0f2U

26.98

I’m up for it as I know there’s a link between gut and inflammation as I’m already seeing improvement just by taking probiotics. I will report back even if it’s to say it’s a load of crap 🤣

Interested in this too

You can, but I'm also interested in the gut health side of things. I have some autoimmune conditions that are linked possibly to inflammation so I'm interested in finding out how to optimise my diet to support this.

Thank you @RudsyFarmer !

Fear not OP I can save you the money, trot out and get yourself 'the Glucose Revolution Diet' book by Jesse Inchscape. It is a way of eating that will control your glucose spikes, has worked for me, no faddy cooking not much to eliminate and you will see results, I'm a year and a half from when I started it and the first stone is off (went quite quickly) and still off, i'm re applying myself now drinking apple cider vinegar in water before meals, yes I know it sound odd but you start weak and build up. I still eat foods in the order she suggests, i'm not really depriving myself of anything. easiest weight I ever lost (post menopausal)

I've done it.

I am on the fence about it. My results were middling across the board - I process fat quite well and have a fairly good microbiome but I am less good at processing carbs.

I have some positive take aways from it - I eat more pulses now and tend to add things in rather than take them away which means I eat bigger for satiating meals so less over the day.

I did lose weight on it but with all these things once you stop and go bask to normal you are back where you started.

I would agree that taking a look at the glucose goddess and subscribing to the Zoe podcasts and stuff will probably get you as far for less cash.