CEO & Co-Founder, DayTwo
Lihi Segal, CEO & Co Founder of DayTwo - Feb. 23, 2017
Lihi Segal, CEO & Co-Founder of DayTwo speaking at ILTV studio about Israeli company DayTwo that has created a novel way to boost the body's ability to treat itself.
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About Lihi Segal
In a February 2017 interview, Lihi Segal, CEO and co-founder of DayTwo, discussed the company's approach to personalized nutrition based on the gut microbiome. Segal stated that traditional nutrition research had been asking the wrong question by focusing on the best diet for humans generally, arguing that the correct question is what diet is best for each individual. She explained that people respond very differently to the same food, specifically in terms of blood sugar levels, and that this variation is linked to a person's unique gut microbiome and other clinical parameters. Segal described DayTwo's solution as a service where users provide a stool sample, which the company sequences and analyzes using a machine learning algorithm. The company then provides an app that scores foods and complex meals from A+ to C-minus based on their effect on blood sugar balance. She noted that while about 10% of the US population is diabetic, nearly 38% are pre-diabetic, and that balancing blood sugar is also relevant for weight loss and general health. At the time, the service was available for pre-order in the US at a cost of approximately $2.99.
Transcript (16 segments)
I
Interviewer0:11
With Johnson and Johnson's Microbiome Institute, the Jansen R&D team, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, one Israeli company has created a novel way to tailor the best possible diet for you based on your gut microbiome. Joining now to talk about their incredible innovation is Lihi Segal, the CEO and co-founder of DayTwo. Thank you so much for joining me.
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Lihi Segal0:31
Thank you so much for having me.
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Interviewer0:33
All right, so I guess my first question is: why do some diets work for some and not for others?
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Lihi Segal0:41
Right, so the real answer to that is that until now, we've been asking the wrong question. So until now, all the nutrition-related research will talk about what is the best diet for humans, right? People have a lot of opinions: you think it's low fat... I eat a piece of bread and you will eat exactly the same piece of bread, but we will have very different responses in our body. And when we're talking responses, we're talking specifically blood sugar levels. Okay, and so if you really want to get into a healthier diet, you have to get that diet tailored for you.
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Interviewer1:29
Okay, so that brings me to my next question: what is a gut microbiome? It sounds like science fiction.
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Lihi Segal1:36
So the gut microbiome is a very young area of research. About five to seven years ago, the researchers started to heavily study the trillions of bacteria that reside in our digestive system. Using advanced technologies, scientists are now able to sequence the DNA of the gut microbiome and then figure out who they are and start linking them to healthy and disease pathways.
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Interviewer2:20
That's incredible. So once you find the DNA of your gut microbiome, what can you do about it? How does that lead you in any direction?
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Lihi Segal2:33
Right, so what we are doing is based on scientific research done by the Weizmann Institute. What they tried to figure out was exactly the link between diets and healthy diets and your tailored, specific, unique gut microbiome, because it's very different from you and me. They set out this clinical trial and what they showed was that people react very differently to foods. You can react to some foods better than others, and it all has to do with balancing your blood sugar levels, which is a very important point.
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Interviewer3:19
That's actually what I wanted to ask about. Who should care about blood sugar balance? How many people does that really affect?
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Lihi Segal3:34
Right, so the obvious question is of course diabetics care. There's about 10% of the US population that is diabetic, and they really need to care about balancing their blood sugar levels. But that's just a small part of the people who care. There are almost 38% of the adults in the US who are what we call pre-diabetic, so they're not really sick yet with type two diabetes, not type one. They are the population we are addressing, and we can bring a lot of value to them.
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Interviewer4:13
So what exactly is DayTwo doing? What's your solution?
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Lihi Segal4:17
Our solution is really coming online and filling questionnaires. We ask you about your food preferences, your medical history, your lifestyle habits. Then we ship you a kit via FedEx. You take a stool sample—the only way to get to your gut microbiome is through a stool sample, and it's really just a small amount and quite easy. You mail it back to us, and we sequence it using advanced technologies in our lab. We then have a profile that is an app on your mobile and on the web. It provides you a tailored diet, letting you know which foods and complex meals are good for you and which are not. When I say good and bad, it means it helps you balance your blood sugar levels. Healthy people really should care as well because it's a risk factor for disease and it also assists in weight loss. You get a ranking on a score from A+ to C minus, and we really score a complex meal. So if you eat pasta with meatballs and pasta with cream sauce, you may get a very different score. So you really need to know what to eat.
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Interviewer5:51
So my final question: how much does it cost?
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Lihi Segal6:11
You can order their kits and it's going to cost around $299.
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Interviewer6:17
Wow, that's all right. For all of that work and a tailored diet, I think that's amazing. So thank you so much for joining me.
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Lihi Segal6:24
Thank you so much.