Those of you who know me well know that last fall I took part in a nutritional study called Predict 2. Here is a description of the study from their website: PREDICT 2 is a study run by a collaboration of ZOE, a commercial company, Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford University that aims to measure and understand the unique metabolic responses to food (for example how blood sugar and fat levels change after we eat) in a group of 1,000 study participants. I first heard about it while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Gastropod, where the two hosts took part in the study and documented the process and results on the show. Here is a link to that show for those interested: Gastropod.

I have always found nutrition to be fascinating and difficult. Both my mother and grandmother were home economics teachers, so I was raised with a certain amount of awareness to the nutrition standards of the day. But what became clear to me about 6 years ago when I visited a functional nutritionist for some guidance, was that the science was very different than I had, we all had, been taught. Movies and articles like Fed Up pointed out a lot of what has been going wrong, sugar. So I have been working on a sugar-free diet for several years. Not easy, I like cake, and cookies, and fruit. The list goes on.

So recently they gave me some of my results. Not all the results, I am told, but a part of them. I took part in an additional study where they gave me a food plan based on my results. Still working on that but, here are the key take aways:

1. My body is horrible at metabolizing both fat and sugar. Surprise.

2. My highest scoring Carbs (from the week they tracked my intake) are: Carrots, Fennel, and Strawberries.

3. My lowest scoring Carbs (from the week they tracked my intake) are: Kombucha, Watermelon, Gelato. (shocking at first, but apparently everyone scores pretty low with watermelon).

4. My highest scoring Fats (from the week they tracked my intake) are: Edamame, Walnuts, and Avocado.

5. My lowest scoring Fats (from the week they tracked my intake) are: Prosciutto, Bacon, and Baklava. Whatever…

6. Take away, animal fats are terrible for me but I can eat as many persimmons as I would like. Joy!

Why bring this up?

Because this same team has put their nutrition research on hold and created a COVID Symptom Tracker. You update it once a day, even if you are feeling fine. This will help track people with symptoms world wide. You do need to give consent to use this app. I find them far more trustworthy than Google or Apple, but I have already given them my DNA for the food study so, who knows. Be a part of the big picture, download the app here.