“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Hippocrates
Is ZOE, the personalised nutrition programme from the world’s largest nutrition-science study, the future of nutrition? I wanted to find out.
What is ZOE?
According to their website, ZOE is a personalised nutrition programme that aims to help every member improve their health and reach their healthiest weight sustainably. Via an at home testing kit, they analyse your gut microbiome, blood sugar, and blood fat responses. Artificial intelligence develops personalised ZOE scores for any food or meal. Then, the ZOE app guides participants through the programme using daily bite-sized lessons.
I first heard about ZOE from Professor Tim Spector, one of the programme founders. On the Deliciously Ella podcast he talked about how the programme had changed his own relationship with food.
On paper I had a pretty healthy, plant based diet but something felt off and I couldn’t put my finger on what. So when the programme launched in the UK in April 2022 I ordered my kit. I paid £259.99 which I think is reasonable considering it contains a glucose monitor, a stool sample kit and a finger prick test. This cost also covers all of the lab testing.
Note: you are also required to subscribe to the app, ideally for at least 4-months, at a cost of £34.99 per month.
What is the microbiome anyway?
In the Deliciously Ella podcast, Professor Spector (can I call him Tim?) explained that while people are 99.9% similar genetically, that percentage is only 25% when it comes to our gut microbiome. In fact, we all have a unique set of gut microbes.
The microbiome is a community of 100 trillion microbes that live throughout our bodies. 99% of these live in the lower intestine and colon. They produce thousands of chemicals, including around half the vitamins and nutrients that flow around our bodies. Microbes are important for our digestion and immune system. They interact with our brains to make us feel happy, sad, full, hungry and they control allergies. They also determine how food impacts our body. So our response to food and calories varies from person to person and that is where ZOE comes in.
ZOE says that, through the stool sample, the finger prick test and the glucose monitor (which monitors food responses in real time), they can determine with 75% accuracy, how each person will respond to any food.
The testing
For the most part, the testing was really easy; I just set up the app and followed the instructions. The tests I were most worried about, the stool sample (eww) and the glucose sensor (which was stuck in my upper arm via a small needle), were actually the most painless. It was eating muffins that I struggled with.
ZOE provides standardised muffins to all participants in order to test your metabolism and I had to eat 2 or 3 in one go depending on the testing day. There was nothing wrong with them as such, other than being a little oily, but, I couldn’t finish the 3rd muffin not matter how hard I tried. By the end, I was heaving and no amount of water would make it go down.
The other test I struggled with was the finger prick. I sound like a wimp but honestly, it was the worst pain I have ever felt. I don’t know if I used the wrong part of my finger or I pressed too hard, but I wanted to chop my hand off. My daughter and niece ran into the room wondering if I was being attacked. They were dodging blood as it flew from my finger because I thought that jumping up and down might help. They laughed, I screamed (and swore). Blood covered every surface. Literally. I found blood on the ceiling.
The results
The rest of the testing was painless and after a couple of weeks, the results were in. In short, my body processed fat well but not sugar. I have more good gut bacteria than bad, but the amount of good bacteria I have it low compared to other women my age.
I’ve got to be honest, I expected better. However, from the meals I had recorded in the app, I could see that most of the food I ate was high in sugar, producing a low ZOE score.
What’s a ZOE score?
Basically, the higher the ZOE score the better. The scores are categorised by colour: dark orange (0-24, eat once in a while), light orange (25-49, enjoy in moderation), light green (50-74, enjoy regularly) and dark green (75+, enjoy freely). My regular breakfast of fruit, a plant based yoghurt and a ‘healthy’ granola gave me a really low ZOE score. The same with my white rice stir-fry or my pasta dinner. In fact, almost all of my meals scored badly, which explained why I often felt tired and hungry.
Initially I thought I was going to have to completely overhaul my diet but by following the daily lessons in the app, I realised that small changes made a big difference. For instance, if I swapped out the granola in my breakfast and replaced it with nuts and seeds and changed my yoghurt to a higher fat Greek style plant based alternative, my ZOE score went from 39 (enjoy in moderation) to 84 (eat freely). Similarly, if I replaced my white rice or pasta to the wholemeal / brown varieties, and added some extra veggies to my dinner, I got a much higher score.
The bite-sized lessons were informative without being too scientific. They showed me how to improve my ZOE score gradually so that I could make the necessary dietary changes in a sustainable way.
In the app, you can also scan barcodes to get your personal ZOE score for loads of pre-packaged foods. For weeks, I would walk around the supermarket scanning everything. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. The app also provides lists of gut boosters (foods that your gut will love) and gut suppressors (foods that you should avoid) and has loads of meal ideas tailored to you.
Is ZOE is the future of nutrition? The verdict
What I love about ZOE is that the emphasis isn’t on cutting out entire food groups. In fact, no food is off limits. Rather you are encouraged to think about how you can include more goodness into you diet. The app walks you through combining foods so that you can still eat things that your body might struggle to process if eaten alone. For example, if I eat fruit, I should eat some healthy fats to balance out the sugar.
My diet is definitely healthier than before. I always eat the recommended 30 plants a week, which is easier than you think as it includes fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds etc. I also eat fermented foods for my gut bacteria on a regular basis.
As for weight loss, when I followed the plan100% of the time (achieving a score of over 75 every day) in the first month or so, I lost that extra half a stone that I had been carrying.
Initially I thought that ZOE was a miracle cure for my often unhealthy relationship with food. And in a way it is. I definitely think about food as a way to nourish my body now rather than how it will make me look.
But, it’s not a cure all. Unlimitedly, I still have to make the decision as to what I’m going to eat and I do overeat at times, usually when I am tired or hormonal. And I have struggled to let go of that holiday / weekend mentality.
Do I think that ZOE is the future of nutrition? I do believe that personalised nutrition would benefit everyone. It offers an important insight into how best to nourish your body. The cost, of course, will be a barrier to many. And, in the short term, I think it will only be of interest to the already health conscious. But, I love it and would recommend it without hesitation.
