Step by Step: Gradually Introducing Your Viome Food Recommendations into Your Daily Food Routine

Your results are in! What do they mean?

The day your results are ready is an exciting milestone! Take some time to review this important information about your unique biology in the Viome app, or online. We’re here to help as you begin to explore and implement your results and recommendations.

While reviewing your results, you might find yourself wondering – how did we get all those scores and why do they matter? We have a handy guide that will walk you through everything from A to Z.

Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint!

We encourage you to stick with your food and supplement recommendations for at least 3-4 months (listen to your body and retest when you feel it’s time). This will ensure that you see the most benefit. We’ve heard from customers who tell us they felt improvements within just a few days. But the lasting results are those that come with consistency, where any necessary rebalancing to your gut microbiome, cellular, or mitochondrial health can happen.

With your food recommendations, we divide over 400 whole foods into four groups for you to easily differentiate between what’s good for your body and gut microbiome, and what you should stay away from for now. 

Superfoods - we call your Superfoods your “food destiny.” These are your most beneficial foods. Try to incorporate as many of these as you can into your diet as possible.

Enjoy - this will be your largest list, with a huge variety of foods to choose from that you’ll be able to eat along with your Superfoods to make up your daily meals.

Avoid - these are the foods that are your personal “kryptonite.” Removing these from your diet will help decrease the harmful, and possibly inflammatory substances that your gut microbiome creates by digesting them.

Minimize - while you may eat the foods on your Minimize list in moderation, we suggest limiting these and staying away from them if possible.

Special note: get into the habit of listening to your body, to see how it feels after eating. You are your own best baseline for understanding how you feel with certain foods. If there’s a Superfood that doesn’t agree with you, or you simply don’t care for, you don’t have to eat it. 

If you happen to see a favorite food on your Avoid list, don't panic, it may not be there permanently. Foods that need to be avoided due to plant viruses (such as tomatoes, blueberries, and peppers) should be avoided for around 3-4 weeks, which should neutralize the plant virus in your gut. You can then return to eating the food. In addition, it is possible for Avoid foods to shift as you retest, coming back onto your Enjoy list.

Incorporating your Viome foods into your daily eating regimen

While there are those that can jump into the deep end with their results and immediately stay away from all their Avoid foods and start eating all their Superfoods. But this may be a completely new way of eating for you. It’s perfectly fine to incorporate these changes gradually, get used to them, and make the changes stick:

• For your first week, stay away from a few (or one) Avoid foods, while incorporating one or two Superfoods.

• Notice how you feel and any changes you notice in your symptoms.

• Add in more Superfoods and remove more Avoids as you move forward through the next couple of weeks.

• Don’t beat yourself up when you slip! Just pick up and keep on going.

“How do I know how much to eat during the day?”

Your recommended portion sizes for each individual food is located on the information for each food when you touch/click on it. You can see your recommended servings per day from each food group in the Guide to Your Viome Recommendations, listed under "How much to eat: Your food groups & daily servings." Navigate to your More menu and tap on Guide to Your Viome Recommendations to view. You can eat from both your Superfoods and Enjoy foods to fulfill your daily servings, while limiting your Minimize foods to no more than 20% of your food intake per day.

Don’t forget your supplements

The personalized ingredients in your Viome Precision Supplements™ list are driven by the insights from your test results and work in conjunction with your food recommendations. This ensures your body is getting what you need to support key areas of your health.

You can see every ingredient in your formula listed with its recommended dosage in your app. Supplements like these can be found in health food or vitamin stores, but to truly get the precise daily amounts that you need, with the convenience of delivery directly to your door, Viome Precision Supplements are available to you via subscription. Ordering is quick and easy. When you have your results, ordering your supplements can be done directly through your app. From your home screen, tap or click "Shop your custom supplements," then "Subscribe."

Cleaning out your pantry: foods everyone should avoid

One way to help jumpstart your new way of eating with your Viome results is to clear out your cupboards of foods that aren’t healthy for anyone:

• Sweeteners like agave nectar, aspartame, corn syrup, sucralose, and white sugar

• Drinks with sugar or sweeteners like fruit juices, sports drinks, and soda

• Oils such as canola, hydrogenated vegetable oil, shortening, and margarine

• Grains like white flour and flavored, sweetened oatmeal

• Packaged foods with ingredients you are not familiar with (or can’t pronounce)

• Cured meats, bacon, hotdogs

As always, we’re here for you if you need a little support or questions answered. Visit support.viome.com, search through our FAQs, or contact us directly! 

Good luck to you on your new journey, and we’re happy you chose us as your partner in health.