Has anyone joined the Zoe Programme?

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'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!

Where did you buy your glucose monitor please FionaG.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 🥰

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!

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?

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.

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 😊

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. 🙄

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

Allsorts - Is this all about carbohydrates?
Genuine question.
I thought Zoe was more detailed than that?

I’m officially a Zoe master now! Yesterday was my last lesson although I have signed up for the full year to take advantage of using the app for logging and keeping access to the info.
I am by nature an emotional binge eater and this programme has helped me tremendously to move to healthy eating, less snacking and hardly any binging. Last night for example I was unable to sleep for a while and my default would have been to go and eat a cheese sandwich whereas I thought about my scores and my blood sugar and the fact I wasn’t hungry and took no action!
I happily cook slightly different meals for myself and my husband, a few tweaks with extra lentils, less meat and more veg for me and I love the logging as I can see how well I have done. I also have had a few extra glucose monitors as I react to sugar and simple carbs with crashes post meals ( I have discovered that I have reactive hypoglycaemia from this programme and can now manage it with the knowledge I have gained)
For me worth every penny and I have definitely saved money as I don’t buy processed foods or alcohol anymore

Well done Fiona
How much time do ^you* spend logging and reading would you say?

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15 mins a day possibly. I don’t have breakfast so have lunch, late afternoon snack (my danger time so best to have something sensible if I can) and supper at 8. Log straight after food so I don’t forget, I do skip the odd day if we are out or I forget!
Todays lunch scored 60 because I couldn’t leave the asparagus butter without mopping it up but had nuts just before so day score is good. I aim for 75 out of 100 but sometimes fail 😉

Can't believe half a teaspoon of butter was enough to "mop up" with 5 spears of asparagus Fiona!

My problem is obviously portion control!
Sounds like this system suits you.

Yes I have. I had the glucose sensor on for the first two weeks and then had to wait a few weeks for my results of blood fat and gut tests. They arrived yesterday.

I have just returned from the shops laden with bags of lentils, veg and Kemchi. I also have bags of assorted nuts, nut butters and fruit. Needless to say everything I love to eat isn’t high scoring but I’m determined to give it a good go.

Allsorts

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

Allsorts
It all depends on the quality of read you eat.

www.sourdough.co.uk/could-eating-sliced-white-bread-be-as-dangerous-for-your-health-as-smoking/

Yes it absolutely suits me as I’m seeing good results with some weight loss and a reduction of those f* it moments when all good intentions going flying out the window! I ate pavlova and berries for the coronation lunch as well as a glass of fizz but then in the evening was back to veg based supper by choice.
The main thing for me was wearing the glucose monitor and seeing just how quickly my glucose spiked after bread and cheese and even a small tube of smarties, no wonder I was practically collapsing sometimes from the wobbles all my life!
When I was 7 (1968) my mother was instructed by a psychiatrist (pretend tummy ache apparently) to make sure I was given plenty of sugar at meals….😳

Well done, FionaG I also like the discipline of logging my meals, it's just become a habit now not a chore.

Allsorts In theory, the human body doesn't need carbs, but in practice it's almost impossible not to have some. The body needs energy (calories), but can use fat and protein if necessary.

Nevertheless, nearly all foods contain carbs, including fruit/veg and milk. I've followed a very low carb diet for years, but would find it impossible not to have fruit/veg and dairy.

If you mean the obviously high carb foods like bread, pastry, pasta, rice, potatoes, cereals, baked goods, I hardly ever eat them and my health hasn't suffered. My diabetes is usually well-controlled as a result.

PS. I wouldn't recommend anybody eats as few carbs as I do without proper supervision - just making the point that it's possible.

I am also very interested in trying this, I suffer badly with various issues caused by inflammation but I am gluten free - does this programme adapt to take that into account? I haven't eaten gluten for many years and would be very ill if I started again now.