FoodMarble AIRE is a smart little device with the potential to help you identify the foods that do not suit your digestive tract. Forget bloating, Irritable Bowel Syndromes, and difficult digestion. By analyzing the hydrogen level in your breath, fermentation levels are detected, and individual advice is provided directly on the companion app. to take back your gut health under control. With the FoodMarble personal digestive tracker, you will be able to pinpoint the type of foods to avoid to reduce digestive discomfort. Just one word: brilliant!
FoodMarble by Aire
Price when reviewed: $159.99
Funded in 2016 in Dublin (Ireland), FoorMarble is the prototype of what a startup combining a good idea, dedicated team, and technological innovation can bring to the world of Digital Healthcare. The company recently successfully raised another round of more than $3 million to pursue its growth.
Dr. James Brief is a Gastroenterologist, CMO, and co-founder of the company. Digestive troubles are often difficult to diagnose and often require a battery of blood tests, stool tests, and endoscopies.
Not only are these tests uncomfortable, but they often do not pinpoint the type of food responsible. FoodMarble Aire’s idea is that the expired breath will contain various hydrogen levels depending on the fermentation of the digested food. The higher the level of hydrogen in your breath, the higher the chances you will suffer from bloating, flatulence, or other digestive issues.
What can hydrogen breath testing tell?
Digestion is a gradual and complex process that combines enzymes, bacteria, and mechanical movements. Fermentation occurs in the colon during the last step of the digestive process. Bacteria will degrade the undigested sugars such as fructose, lactose, or sorbitol. This fermentation will lead to hydrogen release, whose accumulation will be responsible for bloating, flatulence, and even abdominal pain.
The hydrogen will be absorbed in the bloodstream and detected by the FoodMarble Aire in the expelled breath. As humans do not produce hydrogen naturally, the levels seen will be a direct biological marker of digestion efficiency. A couple of hours after eating, an increase in the amount of hydrogen will indicate bacterial fermentation.
By measuring hydrogen regularly and after ingesting different types of food, it will become possible to identify the type of food most suitable for your individual digestive system or to adapt the regimen accordingly. The device has been clinically validated and the results published in the peer-reviewed journals Gut, and Nutrients.
The Companion app. as a gut dashboard
The FoordMarble comes as a small 6.3 x 2.1 x 1.2 inches box weighing only 0.95 Ounces. It charges using the micro-USB cable provided. We regret the lack of a little box or pouch to store it and carry it in a bag all day long.
The app. is available for iOS or Android devices and allows to display the fermentation levels on a scale of 1 to 10. The app is complete and lets the user record other information such as logging the type of food eaten, discomfort felt, stress, and sleep levels. Pictures of the food can even be taken and linked to the readings.
This way, the app. helps build a real-time and individualized catalog of the effects of various foods on the fermentation gases.
Combining many different types of information, the app. becomes a real gut dashboard that helps define what types of food are most susceptible to create digestive problems linked to excessive fermentation and how the overall health will impact the digestive processes.
The device connects using bing Bluetooth to the app. and requires to expel the air directly in the breath analyzer for the electrochemical sensors to detect the hydrogen and display the results. The sensor being at the core of the technology, FoodMarble recommends not to saturate it and analyze the breath more than 10 times a day.
The mouthpiece is removable and washable. During the times of pandemics we live in, it is recommended not to share your device to prevent viruses’ potential spreading.
Identify the food that best suits your bowel
Everybody is unique and reacts differently to food. Companies sue as Everly even offer Food sensitivity home test kits for more than 96 different food types. FoodMarble goes one step further and lets users detect the foods that will produce excessive fermentation.
The FODMAP testing kit contains packages of Lactose, Sorbitol, Fructose, and Inulin. Once diluted in water and ingested, it is advised to measure the hydrogen levels every 15 minutes to monitor the fermentation process precisely. The results can be especially interesting for people suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or detect your individual tolerance to various foods.
The FoodMarble Air is a well-thought-out device with the potential to change the way we eat. If knowledge is power, using a portable hydrogen breath-analyzer is undoubtedly a great way to detect how our guts individually handle cheese and bread and improve our digestive health.
