WazzuCoug
Member
WARNING: This information is specific to me and I'm sharing it because some people expressed interest in the results. This is not a recommendation for anyone else to act on any of this data or base any decisions upon what I am sharing.
If you saw my past posts about participating in a nutritional study, I thought I'd follow up with some of the results of the testing that I had done. This study is a joint venture among Stanford Medicine, Harvard Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, and King's College London. The study, tests and apps that are used were managed by a tech health company called Zoe.
After submitting a stool sample and blood sample and logging/photographing everything I ate for two weeks and monitoring my blood sugar with a continuous glucose monitor, I receive a report that covered the following:
Personalized Food Scores - Foods rated, accessible by app, customized for my personal blood sugar and fat responses and microbiome
Keep in mind, these are MY scores and don't mean these foods would be good or bad for you (although I'm sure no one gets a 100 for banana nut muffin...sorry).
Gut Diversity - The number of microbe species in my gut
Research from the studies has identified 15 good and 15 bad bugs (there are actually a few more, but they narrowed them down to the 15 most prevent and correlate with good health).
The microbiome is also influenced by exercise, environment, the people you live with, and exposure to others. Over the past year of being shut in, even though I've been eating pretty healthy, I have not had a lot of exposure to different environments and people, which has probably not helped introduce more good bacteria since my surgery. I also haven't been eating some of the foods regularly on my booster list, but I am now.
I received a complete list of each bacteria in my gut, and how prevalent they are in the general population. There was one that I had which is incredibly rare, which is usually found in the infections of dog ears and is quite resistant to antibiotics. It's not a big deal in my gut, but I'm pretty sure I can than my wife (veterinarian) from bringing that one in. LOL
What I'm Doing Now
I'm doing a 4-week action plan to eat for my gut and minimizing blood sugar and blood fat responses. I'm using the app to calculate a daily score.
No food is off-limits. I had a great cheesecake last night, but my overall daily score was still well above 75. The idea is to get into a pattern and habit of choosing the best foods for my biology and encouraging a more diverse microbiome over time. I am also wearing a CGM again (I asked my doctor to prescribe one for me) so I can see how well the predictions the app and food scores make with regards to blood sugar actually pan out. So far, I have to say, the food scores and their related blood sugar prediction (each food has a predicted blood sugar and blood fat reaction tailored to my biology) has been right on the money and confirmed with the CGM.
I'm not trying to lose more weight, but It may happen, we'll see. Mainly I am doing this to protect my weight loss, maximize my health and immunity and feel great.
I plan to retest next year and see if anything has changed.
If you made it this far, I hope you found it interesting. I find it all very fascinating, and in a very, VERY geeky way, I am enjoying the heck out of this process.
If you saw my past posts about participating in a nutritional study, I thought I'd follow up with some of the results of the testing that I had done. This study is a joint venture among Stanford Medicine, Harvard Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, and King's College London. The study, tests and apps that are used were managed by a tech health company called Zoe.
After submitting a stool sample and blood sample and logging/photographing everything I ate for two weeks and monitoring my blood sugar with a continuous glucose monitor, I receive a report that covered the following:
- Dietary inflammation profile
- Personalized food scores
- A list of all the bacteria in my microbiome
- Identification of whether or not I have microbiota associated with good sugar and fat control, or not
- Identification of whether or not I have microbiota associated with increased negative health effects
- Food recommendations based upon my microbiome, blood sugar and fat profile
This was not overly surprising since just a year ago I was diabetic, although now I am officially in remission, I still respond pretty dramatically to some foods with high starch or sugar content. It varies a bit from food to food, but it's something I need to be wary of when making food choices.
One of the things I found interesting is the effect of fat on minimizing the glucose response in carbs. Eating fat/protein with carbs can minimize the glycemic reaction, and eating fat/protein a few minutes before carbs reduces the response even further. It doesn't need to be a lot of fat either, and if it is good fat, that's even better.
Blood Fat Control - (compared to other people of similar age and sex) = BAD (scale is: bad - poor - good - excellent)This also wasn't very surprising given how I've noticed I react to fatty foods. It can take 6-8 hours for fat to clear from your blood with a normal blood-fat response, so as I eat fat, it builds and accumulates. Eating back-to-back fat, for me, is a massive cause of inflammation in my body. It's no wonder that keto was a disaster for me when I had tried that pre-surgery.
Every person is different. Some people will have poor blood sugar control but good blood fat control, or vice versa, or the lucky people out there may have good control of both. I on the other hand have to be very mindful of my choices. The good thing is, if I continue to make good choices, my blood sugar, and blood fat control can get better over time with improvement in my microbiome and overall health.Personalized Food Scores - Foods rated, accessible by app, customized for my personal blood sugar and fat responses and microbiome
There is no calorie tracking, although if you want to see a calorie count, the app will share it. It also tracks fat, protein, carbs etc., but displaying them isn't the norm unless you want to see them.
Based on the tests/experiments, foods are placed into four scoring ranges:
- 0-24 - eat once in a while (meaning rarely - a couple of times a month or less)
- 25-49 - enjoy in moderation (2-3 times per week in normal quantities)
- 50-74 - enjoy regularly (every other day to daily)
- 75-100 - Enjoy freely (every day in large quantities, if desired)
By combining foods, you can actually pull up foods that score lower by combining them with foods that score higher. For example, you might have something that scores 60 that you pair with something that is 100, which may boost that combination over 75, which means you can eat it freely. That is a bit of an oversimplification, but you get the idea. Within the app you can add in recipes to create meals and the score is calculated for that meal.
There are a couple of caveats to the "eat freely" scores. For example, nuts and avocado are in my "eat freely" zone, but they are also quite fatty, so the app will indicate that I should probably wait a few hours before my next portion of fat due to my poor fat control, but then I can have more if I wish. For example, if I eat avocado at 8:00 am it has a 100 score, but fi I eat another one within a couple of hours, it might have an 84 score, and if I eat another it might have a 73 score, and so on. If there are other fatty foods eaten as well, all of those food scores would be going down because I'm loading up fat faster than I can metabolize it.
The scores are customized to my responses, so if you had gone through this, your scores for individual foods could be completely different, although there would also probably be many similarities.
The app tracks an overall "Day Score" which gives you a goal of meeting a score of 75 or higher most days. They are constantly refining and improving scores as they get more research, and the database includes whole foods, frozen foods, and brand name stuff, etc.
Some of my meal scores from the study (I obviously did not have the app during the study, and I was experimenting with a lot of foods):
- Breakfast Sandwich - Plant-based sausage, egg, cheese on keto bun - 73 - enjoy regularly
- (the keto bun has a ton of fiber which kicked up the score)
- Egg and cheese omelet - 69
- PB&J on Whole Wheat Bread - 38 - this shot my blood glucose through the roof
- Steel Cut Oats w/Nut-based creamer - 52
- Spaghetti & Marinara sauce - 39
- Chickpea Spaghetti & Marinara sauce - 49
- Black bean spaghetti & marinara sauce - 88 (black bean pasta is a 100 food for me)
- Annies Organic Cheese Pizza - 3
- Cauliflower Crust Cheese Pizza - 26
- Strawberries - 84
- Raspberries - 99
- Sweet Cherries - 94
- Banana - 39
- Banana w/Peanut Butter - 48
- Nectarines - 77
- Avocados - 100
- Carrots and Hummus - 99
- Think Protein bars - 31
- Oikos Triple Zero Yogurt - 75
- Haagen Dazs Strawberry Ice Cream - 11
- Halo Top Strawberry Ice Cream - 1 (yes, it scored lower for me than regular ice cream)
- Banana Nut Muffin - 0
Gut Diversity - The number of microbe species in my gut
- 108 - lower 25% (compared to top 25% who have more than 128 species).
Research from the studies has identified 15 good and 15 bad bugs (there are actually a few more, but they narrowed them down to the 15 most prevent and correlate with good health).
- Good bugs - I have 3 of the 15 - not so great.
- The good bugs are associated with favorable metabolism, lower levels of the inflammatory marker GlycA, lower blood pressure, and better blood sugar control. People with higher abundances of these microbes tend to have better blood fat control (lower levels o triglycerides and "bad" cholesterol), and less visceral fat mass.
- Bad bugs - I have 14 of the 15 species, and in large quantities - also, not so great
- These "bad" bugs are associated with less favorable metabolism, higher blood pressure, and poorer glycemic responses. Additionally, people with these microbes have higher concentrations of inflammatory markers such as GlycA, higher levels of triglycerides and bad cholesterol, and greater abdominal fat mass.
- Overall Microbiome Health Score: "LOW" (they assign the number 11 out of 100)
The good news is, this can change with time with good food choices.
Personalized "Gut Boosters" - these foods are pre-biotic foods specific to the good bacteria that I'm missing. These foods will promote colonization of the good gut bugs over time.
- Apples, Zucchini, Unsalted Mixed Nuts, Spinach, Avacado, Seeds (there are several others)
Personalized "Gut Suppressors" - these foods have a negative influence and are associate with the bad microbes that I have.
- Beef, white bread, port, sausages, corned beef (there are others as well, the app identifies them)
I received a complete list of each bacteria in my gut, and how prevalent they are in the general population. There was one that I had which is incredibly rare, which is usually found in the infections of dog ears and is quite resistant to antibiotics. It's not a big deal in my gut, but I'm pretty sure I can than my wife (veterinarian) from bringing that one in. LOL
What I'm Doing Now
I'm doing a 4-week action plan to eat for my gut and minimizing blood sugar and blood fat responses. I'm using the app to calculate a daily score.
No food is off-limits. I had a great cheesecake last night, but my overall daily score was still well above 75. The idea is to get into a pattern and habit of choosing the best foods for my biology and encouraging a more diverse microbiome over time. I am also wearing a CGM again (I asked my doctor to prescribe one for me) so I can see how well the predictions the app and food scores make with regards to blood sugar actually pan out. So far, I have to say, the food scores and their related blood sugar prediction (each food has a predicted blood sugar and blood fat reaction tailored to my biology) has been right on the money and confirmed with the CGM.
I'm not trying to lose more weight, but It may happen, we'll see. Mainly I am doing this to protect my weight loss, maximize my health and immunity and feel great.
I plan to retest next year and see if anything has changed.
If you made it this far, I hope you found it interesting. I find it all very fascinating, and in a very, VERY geeky way, I am enjoying the heck out of this process.
