Thinking about the Zoe Nutritional Program? Here’s 3 scientific resources I wish I’d read before throwing money at what’s starting to feel like very expensive common sense advice.
Dr. Guess Blog - The Nutrition Scientist with a low tolerance for nonsense.
Dr. Guess, a scientist dedicated to proving that guessing is, in fact not good enough.
Dr Nicola Guess is a nutrition scientist at University of Oxford. Her stated goal for her blog is to help people understand which nutrition claims are legit and which are rubbish. In essence - she’s a scientific bullshit detector. Guess calls bullshit on the claim that people have distinct metabolic responses to food as well as prods lots of holes in the flawed trial that Zoe ran.
I think this might be my new favourite blog on Substack.
The Oxford Scientist - The student led university scientific publication.
The rise and fall of glucose after eating is not a crisis - it is a perfectly normal response.
Izzy draws our attention to the use of continuous glucose monitors and how healthy non diabetic users are interpreting this data as metabolic doom. Programs like Zoe are not helping often making unhelpful associations between glucose spikes and inflammation in the body.
Yes glucose can rise after eating a bowl of pasta but for most healthy adults this is not a concern.
Eat the goddam bowl of pasta.
BMJ - A British peer-reviewed medical journal
“I’ve lost 10 pounds and its all thanks to Zoe”
The BMJ are one of the Big Daddies in the peer-reviewed world and they call out the phenomenon known as The Hawthorn Effect. Turns out individuals modify or improve their behaviour in response when they are being observed. Your new healthy eating habit is not a scientific breakthrough of Zoe - its just you are finally paying attention.
Zoe asks us to trust the science yet they are marking their own homework and giving themselves A++
Zoe have been open about the fact that their trial was not independent. This fact I was not aware of. It was funded by Zoe co-founders, employees and / or members of the scientific board. Independence in trials matters as it ensures that the results are not marketing disguised as science. It also reduces bias and its tantamount to companies marking their own homework.
Bookmark these articles and read before buying.
