The Wildbiome Project involved members of the Association of Foragers participating in a citizen science research study. They ate only wild food for either 3 months or 1 month. They were monitored for changes in body composition, did blood tests and their gut microbiome was tested against a control group of people eating normal shop-bought food. What we wanted to know is what would happen to our bodies if we had to go back to eating only wild food? The project was discussed on BBC Radio 4 ‘The Food Programme’.
A huge thanks to all the participants in the Wildbiome Project who also all teach foraging. They are (in no particular order) as follows:
Three month cohort: Myself (Mo Wilde), Lucy O’Hagan, Lisa Cutcliffe, Matthew Rooney, Rupert Waites, Alexander McAllister-Lunt, Amy Rankine, Craig Worrall, Miles Irving, Gemma Hindi, Michael White and Richard Mawby.
One month cohort: Graham Whitehouse, Ben McNutt, Katy Fennema, Natasha Lloyd, Joanna Ruminska, Stephanie Marsden, Courtney Tyler, Ru Kenyon, Debs Nickolls, Christine Whitehouse, Charlotte Flower and Daniel Evans-Pughe. I would also like to thank Fergus Drennan and Kat Milligan who started but were unable to finish due to life intervening.
None of the microbiome tests would have happened without the assistance of Dan Saladino (presenter of BBC Radio 4 Food Programme and author of Eating to Extinction) who introduced me to Professor Tim Spector OBE and his colleagues at the ZOE Health Study. A huge thank you to you all!
Without funds none of the additional tests would have happened either. We’re grateful to The Association of Foragers for their donation and to everyone who sponsored us via GoFundMe. All funds raised are accounted for in this project and we continue to raise funds for the next study in 2025.
For anyone interested in participating in 2025, please email me and ask to be put on the Wildbiome 2025 list. You will be contacted nearer the time with more details.
Headline Results
The results below are the ‘headline’ results. This will give you an overview of how some key markers moved during the study. Full details of the study will be released at a later date. I have written up the results for publication in an academic journal. Until that is published we have to restrict access to the results to avoid any problems with publication.
ZOE Microbiome (MB) score
The ZOE Microbiome (MB) score is a measure that the ZOE Health Study has developed. Our group saw an overall improvement of +13 over the control group of +1.
Body Composition
Our ‘obese’ participants lost an average 5.6 kg and our ‘overweight participants’ lost an average of 2.6 kg. All participants improved their BMI and WTR.
Blood Pressure
Blood pressure came down including those with Stage 1 hypertension.
Blood Sugar
Blood suagrs came down including one with diabetes.
Cholesterol
High cholesterol was mixed. It improved in most but not all, and a few increased.
Inflammation
Inflammation came down.
Iron status
Ferritin levels increased.
Magnesium
Magnesium remained constant.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 remained constant.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D levels improved.
Full results will be published soon.
Very interesting. Great project!
Fascinating. Well done to all involved.
I hope all your hard work gets the recognition it deserves. It’s very interesting to note the improved results of the gut microbiome – an area of study which richly deserves more attention. Well done to everyone involved.
Interesting results! Very promising!