It Starts With The Box

ZOE’s mission is to improve the health of millions. That’s no small task, but we’re on our way with well over 200,000 membership kits sent so far.

But what’s in these scientific kits, and how do they help improve your health? Below, we’ll explain what we test, how we do it, and what each test can teach you about your biology and how to make smarter food choices.

Using the results of these tests, we score your responses. We use these scores to tailor our advice and help guide your dietary choices, allowing you to eat smarter for your body.

1. Test your gut microbiome

It’s growing increasingly clear that a healthy gut microbiome is linked to good overall health. As the public learns more about its importance, there has been an explosion in companies offering gut microbiome tests.

ZOE offers one of the world’s most scientifically advanced home gut health tests and has one of the largest microbiome databases on the planet. This allows us to provide personalized insights and advice you can’t get anywhere else.

Most companies that provide gut microbiome tests use a technology called 16s. This technology identifies bacteria by looking at differences in just one gene. 

Unlike 16s, MetaPhlAn allows us to understand the genetic information about bacteria that no one has seen before.

It’s already helped us identify hundreds of gut bacteria that are entirely new to science. And importantly, it doesn’t just tell us about diversity, it allows us to understand how microbes are associated with health outcomes of interest.

All you need to do is collect a stool sample using our flushable paper sampling sheet and send it to our lab.

Once we’ve analyzed your stool sample, we can score your gut microbiome. We also provide a report that lists your “good” and “bad” gut bacteria and recommends specific foods that will encourage the growth of the “good” species that you lack.

2. Test your blood sugar with a CGM

After you’ve eaten a meal, your digestive system breaks carbs down into glucose, which moves from your gut to your liver and is then dispatched into your blood.

As it moves around your body, it provides the energy you need — it’s vital for your survival.

However, like so much in life, you can have too much of a good thing. If blood glucose levels are too high or remain elevated for a long time, it can make it harder for your hormone system to maintain healthy blood sugar levels, tiring the system out.

This is where the CGM comes in. You attach this clever piece of kit to your upper arm. It measures the amount of glucose in the fluid surrounding your cells, which is an indirect measure of how much is in your blood. 

You wear the CGM for 2 weeks, and it regularly sends your blood sugar readings to ZOE’s analysts. During this testing phase, the CGM records your body’s ability to deal with the sugar in your test cookies, which are identical and created specially for our clinical testing.

For instance, on one day, you try oatmeal with jam, and on the second day, you try oatmeal with berries and nuts to see the difference in blood sugar responses.

Spoiler alert: On the second day, you’re likely to see a smaller blood sugar response thanks to the higher levels of fiber in the berries and the protein and fats in the nuts.

As part of the membership testing phase, we provide specially designed breakfast cookies containing a precise amount of sugar and fat. This allows us to compare your blood sugar response with that of thousands of other people who’ve eaten the exact same cookie. 

3. Test your blood fat

As with blood sugar, you need fat in your blood. Fat provides energy, but it also helps build cell membranes and a whole host of other important jobs.

However, having too much in your blood for too long is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Similar to blood sugar, ZOE’s research has shown that people’s handling of blood fat varies significantly between people. 

Rather than monitoring blood fat in real-time (something that isn’t possible yet), we ask members to eat another of our specially designed blue lunch cookies, which contain a precise amount of fat (we’ll explain why they’re blue in a moment). 

Four hours later, you carry out the blood test with something called a Tasso. While this device is on your arm, a simple push of a button collects a small blood sample from your capillaries.

Once you return the sample, the results show us how quickly your body can clear fat from your blood. Again, we compare your results with thousands of others to give you a score.

Why are the lunch cookies blue?

Eating blue cookies sounds like something you might do at a children’s birthday party, but in this case, it’s backed by science.

Gut transit time is the time it takes for food to go from your mouth to the toilet bowl. The blue dye in the cookie allows you to time how long the journey takes.

In a study ZOE published in BMJ, we showed that a shorter gut transit time — as measured by consuming blue muffins — is associated with better gut health and may even be a better measure of gut health than the standard method — the Bristol stool chart. 

You did the at-home tests. What next?

Once you’ve received your results, the scientific adventure continues with the ZOE App. By entering the foods you consume in the app, we show you how your unique metabolism will respond to any food, recipe, or meal. 

Each meal or snack is personally scored, which generates a day score, helping you slowly improve your health, one meal at a time.

Over time, you’ll see a weekly score and an overall score so you can really see and track improvement and change. The ZOE App also contains loads of delicious, high-scoring recipes and how they score for you.

Our programs cover everything from building a balanced plate to the power of the gut microbiome. And you’ll receive exclusive newsletters with content written by our experts.

We also support you with a personalized week-by-week plan, guiding you to make smarter food choices daily. Over the months, these small changes to your diet will become habits that can significantly improve your long-term health.

Then, further down the line, you can choose to take a gut retest to see how your new diet has improved your gut microbiome.

But does it really work?

As a science-first company, we put ZOE Membership to the test in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) called METHOD. 

We compared the ZOE personalized nutrition program to following general, government-issued dietary guidelines in 347 healthy people in the United States.

Here’s a quick summary of what we found. Compared with people who didn’t enroll in ZOE, those who followed ZOE had:

• A decrease in a type of blood fat called triglycerides, which is associated with heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

• An improvement in their gut microbiome scores with more “good” gut bacteria.

• A reduction in their waist circumference — a risk factor for metabolic disease.

• Weight loss toward a healthier weight.

Participants who followed ZOE also felt better. They were twice as likely to report better mood and less hunger and four times more likely to report better sleep and more energy.

To learn more about this fascinating study, read this article explaining the results in more detail.

Summary

When you join ZOE, you receive three at-home tests that help us understand the health of your metabolism and gut microbiome.

Once your results are back, we guide your dietary choices, helping you eat to support your long-term health goals.

With your meal scores, lessons, and recipes, we help guide you toward a healthier you. If you’d like to learn more, start by taking our free quiz today.