Biohacking ... Nutrigenomics

[YojanaFitbit]

Lately I've been listening a lot this term, basically it is described as citizen or do-it-yourself biology. For many “biohackers,” this consists of making small, incremental diet or lifestyle changes to make small improvements in your health and well-being.

Nutrigenomics	DIY biology	Grinder
Nutrigenomics focuses on how the food you eat interacts with your genes. How different nutrients affect how you feel, think, and behave.	Is a type of biohacking spearheaded by people with education and experience in scientific fields.	Grinder is a biohacking subculture that sees every part of the human body as hack-able. (combination of gadgets, chemical injections, implants...)

Taking your health into your own hands is a pretty widely accepted concept these days. Those who are into health and wellness are constantly "hacking" their bodies for the best possible results-whether it's by using exercise to stay on top of mental health, adding butter, coconut oil, and more to their morning coffee for a natural energy boost, or even eating based on their menstrual cycles to relieve PMS symptoms. It makes sense, then, that the concept of biohacking is making its way into the mainstream.

Biohacking goes beyond food intake, it means considering that everything we put into our bodies – from food and drink to movement and ideas affects outcomes, whether it’s disease, weight, energy or performance in business or athletics.

What do you know about this? 🤔

[emili]

I have actually never heard of this term until just now, but the concept has been around for hundreds of years. If you think about Buddhists or those who practice martial arts or those who eat only from the earth to foster circle of life- it is all based on mind, body and soul. That one area feeds the other. I think the best way to hack yourself, is to find balance. Figure out your stress, your happiness, your fatigue, your curiosity, etc and balance them daily to achieve your best self. 

[YojanaFitbit]

@emili I think it depends on how we see this information. Since technology has advanced for the past years, we have the option to see more and more information about these topics. I'm surprised to see the Grinder biohacking, not sure if this is for me. 🤔

[nickboaar]

I am very familiar with this term because I was doing my dissertation in college when I was studying human biochemistry. I dreamed of working as a nutritionist, but I needed to get a higher education. I myself now also practice biohacking in my family and teach children to rational nutrition and a healthy lifestyle from childhood.

Moderator edit: format

[MysticL]

I have to agree with you 100% emili.  We spend some much time looking for the next magic pill when we have it all along.  Within ourselves.  Finding balance, eliminating stress and feeding your body what it requires to sustain and enhance the living of this life to its fullest potential and beyond. But what I am also see our ability to be responsible for our own wellbeing has been handed over to someone/something to be care for, losing the "listen to what your body is telling" instinct that has been conditioned out of us.

[CarlaSpensieri]

FitBit APP DEVELOPERS, PLEASE MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE:

First, 

Great all-around fitness and diet app, but there are so many opportunities for improvement. 

What am I supposed to do with a recipe video with out the written recipe? I need portions. I need to be able to modify the number of people eating the meal. I can't log the recipe into my daily food log. All of these features are easy to create. Did Eating Well make a deal with FitBit, so that FitBit users are forced to visit Eating Well's website to retrieve the data they need to actually make the recipe? 

Too many clicks required for me to actually do that. Very frustrating. I am willing to pay a higher subscription rate if FitBit adds these features to make the recipes interactive and dynamic. So obvious.

Most calorie-counting apps, including MacroFactor, allow you to scan any food item that has a barcode. That is the quickest way to log food. However, if you follow a healthy diet, you are eating mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc. None of these items have a barcode. So, most of the food I consume must be logged manually. To save users time, MacroFactor allows users to create an original recipe and save it to a favorites folder. Still, it is time consuming to manually create a new recipe the first time. Once the recipe is set up, I would say it’s the second fastest way to log a meal, after scanning a barcode. 

Using a calorie-counting app is helpful. That being said, I see two ways to improve the apps.

First, how can we log meals faster? Oftentimes, I’ve said, “I wish I could take a picture of my meal and the nutritional data would automatically aggregate in my daily calorie agenda.” 

This technology already exists. There are a few food scanning apps that incorporate artificial intelligence. They make logging meals less time-consuming.

Second idea: how can we make calorie-counting apps more helpful for women? Recently, I read the book Womancode by Alissa Vitti, a nutrition and hormone expert. I’ll give you the TLDR version. As we know, pre-menopausal women’s bodies follow the menstrual cycle. There are four phases of the menstrual cycle. Typically, each phase lasts about a week. Vitti draws on scientific evidence to teach women about cycle syncing. Cycle syncing is when a woman syncs certain lifestyle choices to the phase they are currently in. In each phase, hormones and hormone levels are in a unique configuration. Women should proactively plan for these hormonal changes. How? By changing aspects of their diet and exercise, on a week-to-week basis. 

After finishing Vitti’s book, I fact-checked it. Vitti’s advice is supported by medical science. 

Vitti had me sold. I am now interested in following a diet and exercise regimen that compliments my menstrual cycle. The only problem is feasibility. It is time-consuming to find healthy recipes, take inventory of my kitchen, do the food shopping, meal prep, and clean the kitchen. Now you’re telling me to eat certain foods in certain weeks? That sounds overwhelming. 

There are a few cycle syncing apps that break down the information overload into digestible daily instructions. However, there aren’t many.

Separately, I read Dr. Mindy Pelz’s book Fast Like a Girl: A Woman's Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones. A lot of the content and advice about intermittent fasting is designed for men. So, it does not take into account a woman’s menstrual cycle. In Dr. Pelz’s book, she describes various intermittent fasting programs. Each program has different instructions to help you achieve different health goals. Dr. Pelz modifies each program to sync to the menstrual cycle. This increases the feasibility of intermittent fasting for women.

After reading Dr. Pelz’s book, I fact-checked it. Her advice is also supported by medical science.

Dr. Pelz had me sold. Cycle synced intermittent fasting could improve my overall health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, with my busy lifestyle, I can not keep track of cycle syncing an intermittent fasting program and exercise regimen in my head.

There are various intermittent fasting apps. They are all unisex. None of them offer cycle syncing as an option. 

Unfortunately, there is currently only one cycle synced intermittent fasting app. It is in a read-only format, like Dr. Pelz’s book. It is not an interactive, food logging app. 

Add MacroFactor's functionality to FitBit food logger. Bring FitBit's food logger into 2024, please. When the user sets up her account, she will be offered the option to join an intermittent fasting program, and/or receive a cycle-synced recipe program. The cycle-synced recipes will be pre-filled into the daily calorie agenda. The daily agenda will tell the user the quantity of the meal that they should consume. The app will provide a shopping list with appropriate amounts of ingredients, calculated for the user. If the user wants to modify the number of people eating the meal, she can do that, and the amounts of ingredients will change. 

This app would have a positive impact on the health of all women. Furthermore, it would be especially helpful for those dealing with painful periods, PCOS, endometriosis, infertility, and low libido. 

Here are some popular apps:

MacroFactor costs $72/year.

MyFitnessPal costs $80/year.

FitBit premium costs $80/year.

Noom costs $209/year.

MyFLO costs $280/year.

Each app covers some aspects of what I want in a wellness app. None of them have everything. 

For my busy lifestyle, I want one app where I can keep track of everything, please.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Carla

[keyy]

Generally, 'biohacking' implies working with the natural homeostatic systems of your body - what Dave Asprey refers to a 'Meat OS', meat operating system ; )  Understanding the natural homeostatic functions of your body will allow you to best optimize your health without having to rely on invasive techniques that modify the body via artificial means which generally is not a good thing since it bypasses your innate system of checks and balances - as do many medications.  The more you educate yourself on related topics, the better you can relate to and understand the principles behind biohacking that force your body to adapt in a way that helps optimize your health rather than allow it to become lazy.  It's more important as you age and your body loses homeostasis or ability to maintain it - via excess weight, drop in hormones, excess stress or lack of exercise etc. All of which can be addressed via basic approaches of a healthy diet, nutrition, exercise and stress reduction - basically what the system of Yoga attempts to provide, which also includes 'spiritual health' which (in theory) will allow you to be more in sync with your body/mind and 'greater reality'...  However it best suits your ideals and objectives vs. just looking at the body as a biological machine and how to optimize it's functionality while maximizing it's performance - more or less what Biohacking implies. ; )