Has anyone joined the Zoe Programme?

I thought we all needed carbs esoecially bread, what replaces them with as much nutritional value.

Thanks foxie and Tessyo,

I suppose my problem will be that I'm a "bung it" cook for everything so don't have "recipes" except for "special occasion" cakes and fancy pastries- which I don't make often.

Are the podcasts important do you think?
And what sort of tasks?

I'm hardly involved with "big pharma" and rarely eat ultra processed foods. I feel I ought to have agency over my own health - it's just my body that's not convinced. 🙄

There is a Zoe Science & Nutrition podcast and app that you might find useful - I’m due to start their programme shortly & think it’s money we’ll spent (if you can afford it) in order to have more agency over my own health. Always happy to steer clear of big pharma and the ultra processed food industry 😊

Not long, I pop my breakfast in before I get up, then put lunch and dinner in as soon as I've eaten. The time consuming stuff is putting your own recipes in as they are always higher scoring than ready made but I just guess quantities and if I repeat a meal I can find it again easily and it's just a click. I'm at the stage now where I know what is going to score well or not. I look at the Zoe instagram recipes and I get lots more ideas popping up, so will spend 10 minutes sitting in bed in the morning meal planning and doing any tasks that pop up for the day on the Ap.

I'm still not signed up to this but feel it may help.
How much time do you need to spend on reading/recording or whatever each day please?

I've been doing it for three months. I've lost a couple of kilos although I'm not really overweight but I do seem to have a flatter tummy, my skin looks great and I have stopped having energy dips. I've always eaten well, cooking mostly from scratch but I have found my tastes are changing and I'm eating more fruit, veg and pulses out of choice and rather less meat. It's a very supportive system and I'm enjoying eating different things. For lunch today I had spicy courgette and carrot fritters with a homemade tahini dressing, roasted veg and crunchy spiced chick peas. OH had the same and we both really enjoyed it. There's lots of tips on how to batch cook so I had everything except the fritters already in the fridge!

Just seen this post and some very good comments. I started the program last summer and have been delighted as has my very sceptical sister who joined more recently. I have a lot more energy, less hunger and am at the weight I was in my early twenties now. The very clever food scoring system has been developed in a very motivating way and is so different from calorie counting. The intention is to enable you to be free of always recording everything ultimately and that is what I have found now. Nothing is verboten but when you progress through the bite size lessons every day you become highly motivated to choose the most beneficial foods. You also learn about the need to personalise nutrition because we all respond differently. I had been following Dr Chattergee and the Doctors Kitchen podcasts for quite a few years so was keen to do the Zoe personalised nutrition program to maintain and improve my health in any way I could. I have always considered food as very important for health and love to eat and cook! I still do 🥰

Thank you for telling me/us a bit more about it.
I'm not sure how well I'll get on with all the necessary recording to be honest. I'm definitely still interested though.

Have a lovely relaxing holiday FionaG It just shows how different we all are, I wonder what my fat test will show, I've recently gone on statins after always having had "good " results but clearly something has changed. I don't mind getting older (I'm fortunate to have the opportunity) but I'd really like to stay as well as I can and clearly, you do too.

Thanks for posting your blood sugar response, it really is very individual isn't it? Mine has been consistently low and I had a number of times in the early days when I dipped into red. I don't think mine has gone over 7 even when I've had a lot of carbs but I'm sorry to find that once my monitor was removed I also lost my records. this is one I had screen shotted.

I bought the monitor from Freestyle libre who supply the one for Zoe. £50+ and lasts 2 weeks, I will probably do an extra 3 I reckon before I’m satisfied I understand my blood sugar responses well. Today for example I am super stressed as unenjoyed birthday plus just got to France and overtired, cross because house is freezing and therefore ate a sod it (why don’t I ever learn?) lunch of French bread (scores 0 for me with Zoe) and pate. Just wobbling after a high spike and a low crash which serves me right!
Up to today I have eaten within the suggestions, loved deciding what to include in my meals and even a quick meal would include beans, veg, good fat etc….
Once the results come back they give you a list of gut foods good for you and another of bad for you plus lots of recipes. Each food has a score including coffee which makes me happy! I log during the day as I consume and sometime guesstimate but usually weigh as I go while cooking.
Also 4lb down and tum much flatter hurray!

Where did you buy your glucose monitor please FionaG.

I've just finished the first 14 days , Fiona is ahead of me so will know more than I do but I've begun the improving gut biome part and because I've listened to podcasts about this I'd already started to increase the variety of foods in my diet. However, I suspect my test won't come out too well as I had a course of antibiotics in January for a chest infection. I'm also tempted to get another glucose monitor!

Fiona (and others) - presumably you have to log foods all the time?

Is the basic premise of the programme that by levelling the glucose spikes you are limiting inflammation or does it actually recommended foods that will benefit you?

Does it suggest times of day to eat and so on? How "personal" is it do you find and is there an opportunity to actually discuss things with someone?

How much time would you say it takes to follow the programme, log and do the reading etc?

Sorry to be so full of questions.
Please don't feel obliged to answer.

I’m hoping there will be an “after” test at the end, I think they are still developing things. I have continued with the glucose monitor buying it separately as it has been a revelation and I like the discipline of logging, recording etc.
I also record how many plants I eat each week and it’s around the 50 mark so very pleased

Yes. Thank you.
Very interesting.
If you stay on the programme do you have more "tests"?

Thanks foxie and FionaG for more info.

Just to add, you wear a blood sugar sensor on your arm for 14 days which constantly monitors your blood sugar levels. It gives you feedback if a certain food gives you a rapid spike in your level and also how quickly it returns to a pre meal level. The ap also gives you meal tests to try that demonstrate how you can flatten the curve as spikes in levels because this has been shown to reduce general inflammation which can cause problems such as heart disease etc. You also do a blood test which identifies how well you deal with fat. We are all different so this is why the dietary programme, which is aimed at improving your health although most people seem to lose some weight, is individualised.

I am on it and have just finished my 14 day blood sugar monitoring and waiting for the results of my Muffin tests,( sugar and fat) and my gut biome test. I'm finding it very interesting. I'd been having some symptoms which I thought were related to my heart condition but I now know that I was getting some very low blood sugar readings. I don't seem to spike though as all my readings are in the low area of normal I'm definitely not diabetic or pre-diabetic but I started to tweak my diet and have managed to stop them. tbh my biggest problem was eating the three muffins for breakfast in 15 minutes but I managed it by drinking a lot of water to help them down but generally I've found the ap quite intuitive. I'm looking forward to getting my results though!

I’m on it and can highly recommend. The tests are all done at the beginning then everyday on the app there is good info about food/guthealth etc as well as daily logging of food. The results come back after a month or so and with them a comprehensive personalised list of foods good to eat for your micro biome as well as bad foods for blood sugar, fat and gut.
All my life I’ve got the wobbles occasionally post carbs and using the glucose monitor it has shown me that bread, pasta etc have a really bad effect on my blood sugar giving me a high spike followed by a crash hence the wobbles!

Exactly Farzanah - but their own info doesn't exactly "sell" it.
I'd be grateful to know a bit more if your friend is able to tell you that would be good. Obviously they may not want to discuss it.
I know they do food tests as well - with some sort of muffins (?).

Professor Tim Spector is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology & Director of Twins Registry U.K. at Kings College London.

He directs The British Gut Microbiome Project which I believe is crowdfunded, with a team of international and Kings College scientists.
This is a large scientific nutrition research project showing that the individual response to the same foods are unique, even between identical twins.

I didn’t mean for free - for the fee!

I wondered about what you are getting for free too NotSpaghetti. I know blood testing kits and so on are not cheap. and there must be individual assessment and monitoring going on, but I only heard brief details from the friend, so will have to ask her.

I must say the expense has deterred me from joining. I don’t think it is just for those experiencing gut issues, and of course not as simple as just introducing more probiotics into the diet.

The gut microbiome is interesting because research is showing that it plays such an important part in the immune system and general health. It has its own enteric nervous system with millions of neurons, in constant communication with the brain, and has a part to play for example in conditions like depression and Diabetes 2.

I don't believe I have a "gut health issue" vampirequeen but probably you were 'talking' to Fanny?
I have yogurt, kimchi home-made kefir, and prebiotic foods such as onions, wholegrains, legumes and nuts & seeds.

My interest really is in other health issues such as heart, brain, preventing Stroke, BP, inflammation etc.

Thanks Farzanah for info re your friend. It's not easy to see what you are "getting" for the fee. Obviously the study is ongoing.

I'm not keen to do things without a proper basis. I'm not easily influenced by no-evidence ideas.

Thanks everyone who has replied. I'm going to have to find out a bit more I think..