Top health trends of 2023 to boost your gut health
Have you ever attempted to boost your health by tweaking your diet or lifestyle? If - like most people - that’s a yes, then you’ll know how tough it is to navigate the maze of conflicting recommendations.
Gluten free, paleo, intermittent fasting, keto, or sugar-free…. When it comes to losing weight, improving gut health and fitness or managing energy levels, finding the approach that’s right for your body can often feel like a guessing game.
But - thanks to several exciting breakthroughs in the healthtech space - the wellbeing trial-and-error dilemma will soon be a problem of the past.
Once the preserve of elite athletes and celebrities, hyper-personalised health data is increasingly being harnessed by ‘ordinary’ people to achieve their health goals.
Here’s everything you need to know about the trend:
Smart devices track, hack and optimise so many aspects of our lives - from sleep to exercise. But increasingly, people are using affordable, sophisticated technologies to monitor and analyse their health. These data points - when coupled with guidance from health professionals - are used to build unique diet plans and guide lifestyle changes that deliver real results.
Example 1: Precision gut health data
It’s been known for some time that the activity of our gut bacteria (the microbiome) plays an important role in weight management, in energy and hormone regulation, and in the prevention and reversal of chronic disease. The short-chain fatty acids (or SCFAs) produced when these bacteria ferment fibre in the colon have been shown to help stabilise blood sugar, and to regulate fat storage, nutrient absorption, appetite and metabolism.
However, until very recently, it’s been impossible to know which types of fibre you should be eating to best fuel the activity of your unique microbiome.
Following innovation in the microbiome diagnostic space, high-tech self-test kits are helping people learn about their unique microbiome profile. Market-leading kits, such as myota’s, allow users to access incredibly specific data about the fibre fermentation capabilities of their gut bacteria, supporting them to tailor their diets in a way that directly promotes gut health.
Example 2: Metabolic breath data
If someone had told you in 2012 that your breath could hold the secret to weight loss, you’d have probably laughed at them. But in 2023, this is very much a reality.
Metabolic breath analysers are gadgets that gather data from your breath to provide you with an array of useful information about your unique metabolism. Pioneers in this space, including Lumen, claim that this data can be used to ‘hack’ weight loss and fitness goals.
No two people have the exact same metabolism, which makes it tough to know what quantities of carbs, fats and protein your body really needs. However, advocates of Lumen say that breathing into a device before a meal or workout will tell you whether your body is burning carbs or fats for energy. Using this information, users can adapt their meal plan and exercise regime to better fit their personal health goals.
Example 3: Blood sugar data
Anyone who eats sugary foods and refined carbohydrates across the day will experience the extremes of both high and low blood glucose (otherwise known as blood sugar ‘spikes and crashes’). The rise and fall in blood sugar is normal, but when they occur too frequently they can impact various aspects of health like energy, sleep, appetite, metabolic health, and exercise performance. In the long-term, this can increase risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and weight gain.
This is why monitoring blood glucose levels is becoming increasingly normalised. Continuous Glucose Monitors - devices which have been used by diabetic patients for years to track their blood sugar levels - have recently been adopted as tools of the data-driven health phenomenon.
Because everyone’s blood sugar levels react to foods in different ways, collecting data from a CGM is an effective route to understanding how an individual can tailor their diet and fibre intake to avoid spikes and crashes, stabilising energy levels and supporting weight loss efforts. Supersapiens is leading the way in this space - myota recently used their app technology in our Metabolic Booster research.
Are you intrigued by the data-diet trend? Are you ready to learn more about the intricacies of your own health, and to discover how to improve your health outcomes?
Sign up to our exclusive waitlist to be the first to try myota’s NEW gut diagnostic kit.