Today we have a special guest author, Primal Kitchenofounder Morgan Zanotti. Sheҳ sharing her experience trying a personalized microbiome program, which includes eating scientific muffins, pricking herself with needles, and tracking her lifestyle, all for the goal of an optimized gut. Take it away, Morgan!ࠁ few weeks ago, I had the chance to interview microbiome expert Dr. Tim Spector for the Primal Kitchenodcast. Dr. Tim founded Zoe, a microbiome program that personalizes an optimal eating pattern just for you using at-home testing, paired with information about your lifestyle and how you experience your day-to-day. The plan and app bring it all together to determine how your body responds to foods, and makes recommendations to help you live your best life. When I do these interviews, my intention is to learn more about the person sitting across from me. But the truth is, I learned more than I ever wanted to know about myself after talking to Dr. Tim and going through the Zoe process! As soon as Dr. Tim gave me the rundown of Zoe and what it does, I knew I had to give it a go. Hereҳ how it works. The Zoe Process First, I took a quiz, which covered the usual age range and gender questions, but also digs into details on how many plants I eat in a typical day, where my energy levels were, things like that. That information generates a rough idea of your inflammation profile, but thatҳ not enough to put you on a plan. From there, you get into testing your actual biology. With at-home kits, you do a gut microbiome test, a blood fat test, and you wear a blood sugar sensor to see blood sugar response to certain foods. No lab visitsנyou do it all yourself and itҳ pretty goof-proof. IҬl admit, I was a little scared to apply the continuous blood sugar monitor on my arm, but it was easy to place, I barely felt it (seriously) and more importantly, it was easy to forget about once it was secured with medical tape. Meanwhile, youҲe eating ӳtandardized test meals,Ԡwhich are essentially gluten-free fancy science muffins. These contain specific macronutrients that you eat at specific times so that you can test how your body responds to certain foods and eating patterns over time. The blood sugar data was especially interesting, because I could read it on my phone in real-time. And unlike pricking your finger, the continuous glucose monitor shows the full curve of your blood sugar response. If you rely on a finger prick youҲe getting one piece of data at a specific time, but you really donҴ get the full picture. Sometimes, my blood sugar responded before I was done eating! IҶe done a lot of self-experiments historically where IҶe gone full keto (total 20g carbs/day), IҶe gone pescetarian for a few months while I was getting my yoga teaching certification, but this felt way more precise, informative and awesomely geeky. How Did ŠContinue reading "Primal Kitchen Cofounder Morgan Tried Zoe and Hereҳ What Happened"The post Primal Kitchen Cofounder Morgan Tried Zoe and Hereҳ What Happened appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple