What is the Zoe test?
If you’ve not seen the bright yellow Zoe branding before then I’ll quickly fill you in! Zoe are a health science company running the largest in-depth nutrition study in the world. They believe nothing is more important than the food we eat, but also believe there is no right way to eat. We are all unique with our own biology. Generic nutrition advice isn’t working because our bodies are all so different. Zoe offers at home testing to provide individuals with the most advanced analysis of their gut bacteria, blood sugar and blood fats. Results are then compared against thousands of other people they have tested. After testing they’ll provide you with personalised advice powered by your unique test results. The end goal is to teach you how to stabilise your blood sugar & fat levels and boost your gut bacteria.
Why did I sign up?
My ultimate why comes down to wanting to live a long and healthy life and be able to do all the things I love for as long as possible. And that means doing what I can to look after my health and body. I have also been very interested in the gut-brain axis for quite some time, and how what we eat affects our mental health. I notice a huge difference in my mental state when I’m eating well, but wanted to also get stuck into the science of what’s going on in my physical body. So many diseases are hidden, and sometimes we don’t know what’s going on until it’s too late. Is my blood sugar higher than it should be? How does my body respond to fats? How much good bacteria do I have in my gut? I’m so committed to being the healthiest version of myself (but not completely denying myself all treats) and I wanted to gain more insights. Knowledge is power and I want to know what I’m working with.
What do the tests involve?
The at home test kit involves 3 tests for your blood sugar, blood fats and gut microbiome.
A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is easy to apply to your arm and measures your blood sugar responses for 14 days to help you uncover how your body is reacting to different carbohydrates. You link it up to an app on your phone for real-time insights.
A poo test is pretty simple to do at home and not as gross as I expected it to be. It is used to identify specific ‘good’ and ‘bad’ gut bugs that are linked to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ metabolic health.
The muffin test is used to understand your unique metabolism. This was probably the hardest part of the testing because the muffins are really dry and it’s all you can eat for half the day. You start with 3 muffins in the morning, fast for 4 hours and then eat another 2 at lunch. They don’t taste bad, but I found them a little hard to get down. A couple of hours later you complete a finger prick test which measures your blood fat responses after eating the muffin meals. This test gives you insights into this key component of metabolic health. I weren’t a fan of the finger prick test (I actually found it a bit painful) and it turns out I didn’t squeeze enough blood out of my finger so this test ended up being invalid which is disappointing.
What can you expect from your results?
Blood sugar control
Some foods cause large spikes and that it takes longer for the body to return to normal levels. Controlling these blood sugar spikes helps reduce inflammation, sustain energy, control hunger, and reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
The ZOE app gives you personalised food scores that take into account your blood sugar control. You’ll be able to see your predicted blood sugar responses to any food, including ones you didn’t log during the testing period. Eating a diet of high-scoring foods can help you manage your blood sugar responses and avoid dietary inflammation. My blood sugar control is good, but there are still many foods I need to be careful of having too much of - although this isn't exactly ground-breaking information!
Blood fat control
Certain foods release fats that circulate in your blood for longer than others. We also know that on average it takes 6-8 hours for blood fats to clear after a single meal. Blood fat control indicates how well you can clear fats from your blood and your body’s ability to handle fat-rich foods. Controlling your blood fat level helps reduce dietary inflammation and is better for your long-term health.
The results were meant to be taken from my finger prick test after eating the muffins but they couldn't be analysed. They therefore work it out using my questionnaire and AI. Apparently their research shows a high degree of accuracy but I’m a bit gutted these results aren’t actually taken from my blood. Also a bit annoyed because I ate the dry muffins and put myself through a finger prick test squeezing my blood which made me queasy. I was concerned that I hadn’t squeezed enough blood out, which is probably what happened. So if you do it, get plenty of blood out your finger!!
So apparently my blood fat control is poor… but this is predicted by AI. I’ll take this one with a pinch of salt but will also follow their recommendations. The ZOE app can help you space different quality of fats within 8 hours so you do not exceed your fat tolerance and decide which foods to eat, how to combine them, or swap different foods so you can optimise your responses.
Food Scores
Using these tests ZOE will then generate personalised food scores, helping you to determine what foods you should be eating for your unique biology. They have also done the hard work for you combining different ingredients into high and low scoring meals.
Here's an example of some of my high scoring and low scoring breakfast options:
Gut Health
We have more microbes in our microbiome than human cells in the body. The gut microbiome can play important roles in our body such as maintaining the health of our immune system and affecting how we break down food. Although the gut microbiome gets colonised at birth, by eating the right foods and living the right lifestyle we can partly shape the composition of our gut microbiome, and as a result affect our health and weight.
Your gut diversity score tells you how many different microbial species there are in your gut compared to others. Diversity is just one measure of your gut and not something that should be used to assess gut health.
Actually super gutted by this result as I thought I ate a wide range of plant foods. But apparently a better measure of gut health is our ratio of good to bad bacteria, which shows a much more positive picture for me:
ZOE's latest microbiome research showed that the ratio of “good” to “bad” bugs (your ZOE Microbiome Score) was superior to gut microbiome diversity for predicting blood sugar and fat metabolism, inflammatory measures, indicators of obesity and cardiometabolic health. This score helps you to understand how much your microbiome supports your metabolic health and the maintenance of a healthy weight.
There are 15 good bugs associated with good health and 15 bad bugs with the opposite effect. Although I had more good than bad, I still didn’t have that many good, and had high volumes of one of the bad, so I’m going to look into how I can increase my good and if there is a way to get rid of the bad.
I have been given personalised gut boosters and gut suppressors in the ZOE app to help me improve my gut microbiome. Some of my gut boosters include peas, watercress, almond butter and cabbage. Most of my gut suppressors include red meat and processed meat, which I luckily don’t eat anyway. Other health and lifestyle factors such as exercise, sleep, stress, people you live with and medications you take can all influence your gut. So it’s important to consider what other lifestyle changes you can make to get your gut on the right track.
Some key lessons I've learnt from using ZOE
Eat the rainbow and diversify your diet as much as possible
It’s not enough to eat the same foods every day, even if your body reacts well to them. That’s because eating a wide variety of high-scoring foods is important for a happy and healthy gut microbiome. Eating a diverse range of high-scoring foods can help you improve your gut health, feel fuller for longer, experience fewer cravings and reach your healthy weight sustainably. It's likely that different bacteria prefer different types of fibre, so you need to feed your gut bacteria with different fibres.
Focus less on calorie counting and more on the quality of food
ZOE aren’t into counting calories. Calories might tell you how much energy is stored in food, but not how they affect your gut bacteria, your blood sugar and fat responses, whether it will keep you fuller for longer and how it will impact your health.
There is no one size fits all approach
Some food can be an occasional treat for some while a regular food for others. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach when it comes to nutrition. The key is to find the right foods for your biology.
There are several ways to reduce your blood sugar response to carb rich food
There are some tricks you can try to flatten the blood sugar curve when eating foods high in carbs (sugar). Pair it with a food that is rich in fat, protein or fibre. Go for a brisk walk after eating it. Or eat a food rich in fat, protein or fibre before it.
Is the ZOE test worth it?
It’s not cheap. It’s £300 for the test and then a monthly subscription afterwards starting from £24.99. You choose how long you want the monthly subscription for. I decided to make the investment because I’m really intrigued to know what's going on in there, but I'm not convinced the results I've received are worth this much money.
I've gained a lot of general knowledge about blood sugar, fats and the gut microbiome from the lessons they provide through the app, but this knowledge is free on the internet and isn't something you can't find out for yourself. I must admit I do like the way they package the information - it's super easy to understand and they use a conversational tone which makes it simple and not too scientific for the average person.
In terms on my personalised results... I've found them interesting, and I like having insights into my body. I'm comforted to know that overall I'm pretty healthy and have a lot of good bacteria in my gut. But I don't feel like I've learnt anything that groundbreaking about myself. My blood sugar responses were largely what I would have expected them to be for most foods. I'm a little surprised to learn that my gut is not very diverse as I try to practice the 30+ plant foods a week. But maybe if I'm being honest with myself I'm not doing as well as I thought I was, and this has given me a boost to try and incorporate even more diversity. I'm also disappointed that the blood fat results aren't based on my actual bloods, so feel a little cheated on this test.
Moving forward I'll be doing a few things differently:
Being more conscious of pairing my high sugar foods with fats, proteins and fibres.
Trying to incorporate even more variety and thinking about including foods from all colour groups as often as possible (red, orange, yellow, green, purple, blue etc.) to increase my polyphenols.
Spacing out foods high in fat to allow fats to clear from my blood (especially if my blood fat response is as poor as they have predicted).
Eating more of the gut boosting foods they have recommended in the ZOE app.
Introducing some of the high scoring breakfasts, lunches and dinners from the ZOE app into my weekly meal planning.
Working on developing a connection with my body and being aware of how different foods make me feel so that making the best food choices become second nature to me.
If you have any questions about the ZOE testing please feel free to message me :) I hope this has been useful, either sharing some of the tips I've learnt that you can start using straight away, or helping you to decide whether you want to invest in the test or not! I do think they are a great company doing some really important work to improve health for all!
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