With every new year comes the rallying cry of self-improvement; a better lifestyle, more balance, better health or bigger life goals. It’s hard wired into our psyche of innovation, leaving us striving for a better world at every turn and a better experience for ourselves. When we look at the motivations of an employee population, it’s no surprise that we typically find aggregated trends for individual yearnings and often this shows up as improved health in one form or another—from a flurry of new exercise programs to sign ups for new wellbeing and health programs around mental health, nutrition and virtual or physical care.
Something which is becoming clearer is that our physical and emotional health and diet are intrinsically linked. The science around the role of our gut microbiome and how it can impact our health has matured to the point of wide-spread acceptance that it relates to everything from mental health to mood and metabolic disease (prediabetes, diabetes, obesity and fatty liver disease).
Then, when it comes to our physical health, the science is even more advanced. For example, large quantities of certain bacterial families such as Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes have been linked to obesity by several studies and may represent an unhealthy BMI score. Conversely, Prevotella which is the most abundant bacteria in the genus level of the microbiome, is strongly associated with a high fiber diet and all the digestive benefits that come from this.
In fact, DayTwo’s precision nutrition solution, which uses microbiome profiling and machine learning to predict an individual’s biometric response to foods, has been fundamental to this shift in our health education. After conducting the largest clinical trial globally on precision nutrition, involving 1,000 patients and over 2 million meal entries, DayTwo was able to categorically prove that people have a unique blood glucose response to foods. While one person may eat a snack of banana and peanut butter without any blood glucose response, another may eat the same snack and experience a spike in their blood glucose which can have harmful consequences for their metabolic health.
It’s been widely reported that many employees are struggling with poorer health during the COVID-19 pandemic from the change in our routines and a lack of social interactions that is causing a surge in poor food choice, or lack of access to fresh foods, and emotional comfort eating in an attempt to expunge the realities of the new normal. The latest data released recently in September 2020 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that the prevalence of adult obesity is increasing and the disparity between races and ethnicities is deepening.
However, the new year is notoriously a pivotal moment for setting health goals and many are reaching to get out of the metaphorical hole the pandemic has put them in. Yet despite best intentions, and especially for those whose health outcomes are severe or critical, the tools and techniques to actually achieve better health have been limited in their usefulness to date. Most nutrition and wellness programs that are available to employees are generic or involve elimination diets and thus see very low engagement rates of 15% or less after 3 months. DayTwo’s solution uses a combination of factors to keep members engaged to record levels of 85% after 1 year. So, how can this be?
While many obesity interventions require highly restrictive diets, the DayTwo solution allows members to enjoy the foods they love. DayTwo’s proprietary technology takes gut microbiome data and other clinical measures and feeds them into the prediction engine that generates a Food Prescription™ via a digital app. Members are also supported by a personal dietitian who is trained in behavioral coaching. So employees looking to get their diabetes under control now have the tools and techniques to sustain that control.
Do you want to learn more about how DayTwo’s precision nutrition can change the course of metabolic disease for your employees and members? Simply email us at daytwosolutions@daytwo.com.
