Zoe, what should I eat?

[Nearly Sane]

Seeing a lot of adverts for Zoe, the personalised nutrition app. My immediate thought was that anything that seems to run off 1 metric is not 'personalised' without huge wodges of research - which in this case don't exist.

As the article covers, people thinling about what they eat, is generally a good thing but this serms overly expensive. There's a certain amount of self psychology in thinking that spending 300 quid to start with might helo encourage you to eat better. It's a bit like people taking out gym memberships to help them commit to exercise, though many don't.

I don't think this is 100% guaranteed snake oil, but the best snake oil sneaks in something that might work sometimes. This feels like that, but I would worry at a greater overall cost.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/zoe-the-personalised-nutrition-app-giving-doctors-food-for-thought/ar-AA1iTdkY

[SteveH]

Some British doctors have even suggested that Zoe ... could in fact lead to unnecessary health worries or even disordered eating.

This immediately occurred to me, before I even read the linked article. There's too much food-faddery around these days as it is, with people self-diagnosing gluten intolerance (which I realise is a real condition, but it's also a fashionable one, and I suspect that far more people think they've got it than have actually got it), dairy intolerance, etc. We all know, or can find out, what a healthy diet is, without the need for gadgets like this. I have recently decided to avoid red meat and eat more oily fish. In other respects, my diet is very healthy, and I don't need Zoe to tell me what to eat.

[Nearly Sane]

This immediately occurred to me, before I even read the linked article. There's too much food-faddery around these days as it is, with people self-diagnosing gluten intolerance (which I realise is a real condition, but it's also a fashionable one, and I suspect that far more people think they've got it than have actually got it), dairy intolerance, etc. We all know, or can find out, what a healthy diet is, without the need for gadgets like this. I have recently decided to avoid red meat and eat more oily fish. In other respects, my diet is very healthy, and I don't need Zoe to tell me what to eat.

Surely there's a bit of verb conjugation going on here
I watch what I eat
You are food faddish
He/she are a dupe.

We like our labels, and so it feels better and easier to say you are lactose intolerant than that perhaps you should moderate your intake. It's also more profitable for some to treat everyone as if they are ill which this seems to do.

I know a couple of people using this who are intelligent and rational but see the cost as a sort of 'fat tax' - their words, not mine - as I was covering in the mention of gym memberships.