Everyone’s favorite NYT restaurant critic talks about her insides.
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These tests for gut microbiome diversity (and many other genetic tests) are more or less useless and a “scam” for these companies to generate revenues on data which we don’t have enough information how to interpret.
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Looks like a total wellness scam.
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Some articles by Jane Brody on the harder science of gut health.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/well/live/unlocking-the-secrets-of-the-microbiome.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/well/live/irritable-bowel-syndrome-treatments-causes.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/live/belly-fat-health-visceral-fat-waist-cancer.html
Interesting article. Dr Tim Spector, who founded Zoe, is actually a very well-respected medical scientist in the UK. He used to lead some very interesting research on identical twins at King’s College London when I was training in London. The Zoe app was originally designed to collect clinical data during the COVID -19 pandemic. I think he had some sort of personal health crisis after that and adapted the Zoe programme into a more nutritional thing and it has ultimately evolved into a commercial enterprise with some associated wellness guff. Ultimately, the credibility of Zoe stems from Tom Spector’s reputation as a legit medical scientist. It’s a bit of a shame it’s clearly now focused on making money. But medical entrepreneurship is a thing. Just not my thing.
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I remember signing up for Zoe during Covid, but I haven’t really used it since.
If any of you are interested in participating in a federally funded research study that is interested in many of these issues of diet and microbiome, recruitment is currently active. It’s called the Nutrition for Precision Health study. The catch is that there’s only 14 sites nationwide and you have to already be a member of the “All of US” research study. (And I think they’re still recruiting as well) I begin my participation next week and I’m very much looking forward to getting some feedback regarding my diet and my microbiome. More details at this website:
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All I can say is that at this point it seems like the experts are pretty certain that we know more than we did but that we do not know nearly enough, yet.
That will not stop me from eating more kimchi, achar and kefir. It does not hurt and it might help.
But i will probably not stand in line for an analysis of my gut microbiome.
I did do 23AndMe and got a kick out of it. It seemed logical, which was sufficient. All 4 of my grandparents were from families that seemed to have come ftom central England or Wales and that was what we got, plus sizable bits of Norse and French Huguenot, blood as well.
Not sure about the insides but needing some looser pants
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