I Took the CircleDNA Vital Test: Part 1 (Diet, Nutrition, and Fitness)
So the day after my birthday last year, I placed an order for the CircleDNA Vital Test. I’ve been pondering this test for a long, long time. I had also decided previously that I’ll start taking a healthier and more holistic approach towards my diet rather than eating as I wish – so things like monitoring my salt intake, fat intake, you get the gist when I turn 30. Because I understand lifestyle adjustments can help to mitigate your chances with chronic diseases. And lifestyle adjustments is where things like understanding if you have higher needs for specific minerals, or understanding the food that your body can and cannot digest, could come into play. Maybe working out too. Now, while I personally believe nothing is more sustainable than consistency when it comes to diet, nutrition, and exercise, I wanted to understand my body to come up with a sustainable plan towards a lifestyle that’s more suited to my body’s needs. CircleDNA’s Vital Test delivers on that and so I was incredibly attracted to this component of the test.
Of course, I’ve also been curious about my ancestry makeup which the Vital Test includes and I was already leaning towards hitting “check out”. I looked at the other tests CircleDNA had, some of them giving information on diseases and cancer markers and that just felt a bit much. Maybe I’ll do that when I’m 40 but right now, the possibility that I might need to cut out caffeine or sugar was terrifying enough for me. So don’t tell me about my risks for something like breast or ovarian cancer just yet. I just want to hang on to my fading youth while I still can. I know it might sound a little irresponsible, like why not go all out, but I know myself. I know slow and steady steps are the way for me. Understanding how to change my diet is enough for now. If we went diet, diseases and cancer, there is an EXTREMELY high chance I would go, “Ah FUCK it, I’m probably going to get (insert disease) anyway so what’s the point of eating healthy??” It would be counterproductive. So I placed the order for the most basic test they had and waited.
Living in Singapore, the kit came from their Hong Kong warehouse and it was super quick! Getting my DNA was also super easy – I just had to scrape a swab stick against my inner cheeks. Now, considering the number of times I inserted a swab stick into my nose (technically, nose, experientially, brain) this year, this was nothing. I sealed my sample, sent it back to them anddd… the waiting games began. Again, my DNA reached Hong Kong rather quickly. Butttt…it took 23 days (23 actual days, not business days) for the results to come in. Which I can respect considering it was 125 reports but also, I just wanted the results to be in and have this over and done with. Over the days I started to get more antsy, I started looking at other people’s results, wishing I didn’t have this or that. I was a nervous wreck.
On January 5, I get the email saying my reports were ready. And I didn’t want to open it! I was so nervous! I know there was nothing in there I could change but I was still nervous. Eventually, I muster up the courage to get around to opening the report. Page 1 was easy, the only thing red was “salt sensitivity” which I could accept because hypertension runs in the family. I made a mental note that it was time to start looking at low sodium options when I can then.
Page 2 was when I had my rug pulled out from under me for the first time while looking through my entire report.
A higher predisposition for coeliac disease? ME?? Prior to all this, my knowledge about the whole gluten thing was, some people have an actual disease around this and some people pursue gluten-free options to be “healthier” (read: annoying, really). That’s about it. And I thought gluten intolerance was another intolerance like lactose and kiwi. Turns out it’s not? Apparently, gluten intolerance is an immune level reaction and coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition which is when it all clicked for me – autoimmune runs in the family. And I wondered if this is why I’ve been feeling so ill for the past year or so. Because the symptoms for gluten intolerance and/ or coeliac disease were listed as “stomach pain, bloating, irritability and brain fog”. Add heartburn and discomfort in my lower abdomen to the mix and that’s exactly how I’ve been feeling. I mean these could be symptoms for when I’m on my period too but I’ve not had a year-long period, have I! And so I decided to cut gluten from my diet for a couple of months to see how I feel.
And THAT’s when I went through the five stages of grief. Gluten!! GLUTEN!! I don’t just have gluten once a day, I have one portion of gluten in every meal! I got these results around lunchtime of January 5 and these are the gluten-based products I had eaten from December 31st to the morning of January 5: croissant, Milo, chappati, ramen, wholemeal toast, sourdough, pasta, a lone Kinder Bueno, naan, wholemeal crackers, samosas. Yes, this is a bit much because I did indulge a little over the NYE/ NY festivities and was also on my period when I eat a little more than usual, but still??? I eat chappati twice a week! My breakfast has been wholemeal bread or sourdough or something from the bakery every day for nearly years now. I have some type of soup based noodle dish at least once a week and pasta every other week. I was raised on the whole “wholemeal is better than rice” thing and that white rice is the devil (It was like the one time being brown is beneficial is when it comes to grains). I was out here trying to switch from regular pasta to wholemeal pasta. And now, picturing a life without gluten is like… where do I even start?? I mean it’s in the most random things – like soy sauce! Why is there gluten in soy sauce?? I know cutting out gluten might seem like an overreaction based on “higher predisposition” but I do know how unpleasantly ill I’ve been feeling and I’m ready to give it a shot. I’m not taking chances with the whole autoimmune thing either. I was wondering but if I’ve been eating gluten since I was at least six, why now?? I just had to scroll further down in the report: it’s possible for you to have had a gluten intolerance all your life, only for it to show up later. I guess thirty is when my body broke?
So that’s quite enough about gluten and the single most shocking discovery of my life. Needing more cruciferous vegetables than the average person for better toxin function was a bit of a surprise but I’m also not complaining. I love cruciferous vegetables and actively stop myself from eating too much of them so I can eat other vegetables too because you know “have a colourful plate of fruits and veggies” and “eat 2 vegetables and 2 fruits a day” and “have 5 a day”.
Super-taster is kind of cool! I thought super-tasters just taste things better in general but apparently, it means we taste bitter stuff better! I guess that explains why I like coffees with a bitter profile and bitter gourds!
My “nutrition” report was very surprising for me because I couldn’t believe 1. How pretty much everything is at normal needs and 2. My ONE higher than normal need is …“antioxidants”?? I was convinced I would have higher than normal needs for folic acid/ iodine/ iron/ magnesium because of my increasingly difficult periods! Sidebar, turns out eating gluten while having gluten intolerance can also impact your periods so let’s see if I have easier periods? I have also been found to have low levels of iron in the past. So even at normal levels, if I’m not reaching it, oh god, is it time for some supplements then?? And also – of all things, antioxidants?? I feel like asking my body “How dare you??”
Then I got to “Sports & Fitness”, saw this little chart and just wanted to scream “VINDICATIONNNNN!!!” I went from being a small kid to being a hormonal, overweight teenager literally overnight. It was like the weighing scale said “acceptable” yesterday and “obese” today. Not even overweight. Just obese. And all my life, PE teachers and people around me kept telling me to run to lose weight. It was the only way. Never worked. Plus from the ages of 11 to 17, I sprained my ankle on a yearly basis. I don’t know how but I did (maybe because I have an elevated injury risk?). I told my PE teachers I was willing to try something else like badminton since all the schools I went to had actual badminton courts. Nope. “Run.” I just got the impression all they saw was a fat kid trying to get out of PE with an ankle injury she’s probably faking. It wasn’t until I was working that I coincidentally found Muay Thai and HIIT, tried them, and discovered for the first time in my life that I like working out. All the time PE teachers said “look at you, you don’t even look tired”- which is true, I can literally climb a mountain and come out looking mildly tired at the end of it – I just had a high resistance to fatigue and my heart doesn’t even pound while working out. Which HIIT uses to my advantage! And I LIKE doing weights, especially deadlifts – look at my “high” strength profile! I’m basically Baahubali!
I don’t know how to explain it other than that I found this whole section to be incredibly motivating; that before the pandemic and associated bleakness, I was actually on the right track fitness-wise! I also don’t know if the workouts I liked were simply a personal preference or my DNA was actually at play. But what I do know is, I constantly explored different diets, tried getting up at 5 am to go for a run, huffed and panted my way through PE, felt like a fat fuck and HATED myself from the ages of 13 to 23. Yet, I was just getting bigger and bigger. But between 2015 and 2017, I went from UK14 to UK10 doing yoga, Muay Thai and HIIT. I wasn’t restricting my food all that much either! And that was all teenage me needed – the option to try different exercises so I could find something I like. And maybe I could be considerably healthy now. With a healthier relationship with food and much less trauma. But there’s no undoing the past and I guess now that I know better, I can only do better. It’s so funny how I never paid that much attention to most things deemed “normal” by my DNA and felt so strongly about things that are actually extrapolated in my DNA.
So, before I wrap up Part 1 of my CircleDNA Report, I just wanted to share some interesting findings from the sections titled “well-being” and “stress & sleep” to round things out:
I have “increased” lean body mass! Which is just… wow. Like, are you telling me I could be ... an athlete?! Could this be my ugly duckling story? The overweight, uncooperative duckling shunned by PE teachers transforms into a weight-lifting, athletic wonder?? Oh my.
Between “lower” and “normal, I have “normal” appetite control which feels like fake news because everyone who knows me knows I go from hungry to cranky in the space of 5 minutes.
My metabolic response is normal. While I fussed over this one point in my life, it doesn’t matter to me if my metabolism swung towards either extreme anymore now that I know I was just doing the wrong type of exercises anyway.
Between “morning lark” and “night owl”, I’m genetically a “morning lark” which again was a “Huh???” I’ve associated with the night owl lifestyle since secondary school!! Should I try reprogramming my brain?
Between “worrier”, “neutralist” and “warrior”, I am a “warrior” for stress tolerance (i.e., I have “a strong sense of calm when faced with obstacles”) which INSTANTLY made me wonder if my ancestors were actual warriors but also! My poor heart!! No wonder I don’t realise I’m stressed out or maxed out until I break out into hives or am standing knee-deep in a sinkhole, buffering like, “Wait, how do I get out? Oh, I’m too far in already? Well then. That’s inconvenient.”
There’s still so much more interesting stuff from the reports like my ancestry and IQ and what not but that’s for Part 2 and I think this is a good place to stop for now. So, what are my takeaway messages from this part of the report?
I'm so fucking glad I don't need to switch to some low carb or low-fat diet or even something like a Mediterranean diet (which the report actually tells you). I just need to focus on a balanced plate which I’m OVER the moon about because it’s what I've been training myself to gradually do more of over the years already.
I’m also incredibly grateful I don’t have a chilli or carb (read: rice) sensitivity. Gluten intolerance is hard to digest (see what I did there!) but if I had chilli and/or rice sensitivity, I think I might actually do shots of chilli and rice until I passed out like, "This has been a fun life, see you all in the next one."
I’m going to put a pause on the gluten and live a gluten-free lifestyle for a few months to see if my digestive track feels better.
I’m going to train myself into doing yoga once a week, then twice a week, then twice a week yoga with once a week HIIT training until I’m doing something (yoga or HIIT training) five times a week. It feels overwhelming to start my exercise routine from zero again but here’s the thing. I’ve actually done it before and I can damn well do it again.
Start monitoring my stress – maybe stop expecting so much from myself.
See if I can become “that girl” with a 5 am morning routine (Oh god 5 am?? It’s literally the middle of the night) – this is much further down my priority list, to be honest. Maybe I’ll try it in the latter half of the year. Gluten and workouts are much more important to me right now.
And that’s everything I’ve found significant and interesting from my CircleDNA report for now. I’ll update you three or six months later with what life feels like eating and exercising according to my DNA!
Pssst: Read part 2 here!
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