A Nutrition Thing: The M&S x ZOE Gut Shot is for Suckers

Whenever I walk into a branch of M&S and see shelves lined with ZOE ‘Gut Shots’ or a cardboard cutout Tim Spector, a little jolt of rage runs through me.

“YOU’RE ALL BEING SCAMMED” I want to scream. And honestly this kind of outburst wouldn’t be that out of place in Hackney Central. But I resist the urge and file it away under ‘stupid shit I need to write about on my stupid little blog’.

Let’s rewind. 

Since many of you are based in North America I’ll explain first of all what M&S even is.

I once heard someone call it ‘The British Target’ and that, categorically, is not it. M&S exists in a league of its own (not a slight to Target, which also exists in its own, but entirely separate league). M&S stands for Marks and Spencers - named after the traders Michael Marks - a Polish immigrant escaping anti-Semitic persecution in Eastern Europe - and Tom Spencer, a Yorkshire lad. They started out with a market stall in Leeds’ Kirkgate Market and Tom Spencer, a Yorkshire lad. They started out with a market stall in Leeds’ Kirkgate Market (1) and over their 140 year history, have morphed into something of a British institution. There’s an M&S - or ‘Markies’ if you’re Scottish, ‘Marks’ if you’re English - in virtually every train station, motorway service stop, shopping centre, and high street in the country. Shops range from the M&S ‘Simply Food’ shops that run in size from selling only the essentials for your train journey or easy dinner, all the way through to a full service supermarket, complete with in-store bakery, bulk bins for buying loose items, and tiny trollies for kids to push around. 

Bigger stores sell clothes, furniture, homewares, and cosmetics (which is where the Target comparison comes from), but critically, (and unlike Target) these are mostly own brand goods. M&S has a distinctively ‘British’ feel about it. Your mum probably buys her knickers and tights there. Your dad probably bought his first suit there. And you probably had a Colin The Caterpillar cake for your 4th, 5th, and/or 6th birthday. Big shops have a Bureau De Change which puts the Post Office’s exchange rate to shame.

M&S is known for being reliable, good quality, and a bit posh.

In fact, most people don’t do their ‘Big Shop’ there because it is eye-wateringly expensive. Not Waitrose expensive. Not Waitrose posh. But up there.

Most people – the people I know at least – go for their ‘bits’. A pizza meal deal (with salad and garlic bread) on a Saturday night and a nice bottle of wine. A fancy box of chocolates or flowers to bring to your nan. Nibbles for having people round. I go specifically for their soft baked cookies and a few other things I can't find anywhere else. It’s my go-to when I need a decent lunch for a train journey, and I want more than a soggy sandwich. And I’m Team Colin all the way. 

It’s not too far of a stretch to say I love M&S. I go in once or twice a week, just to see if they’ve got anything new, or to have a browse on my way home. So I felt personally attacked when I saw the griftiest of collabs show up in Jan: The M&S x ZOE Gut Shot: ‘A little bottle with big benefits’ reads the marketing copy. 

I’ve already spoken a lot about ZOE’s core product - their dubious ‘personalised nutrition’ programme. And how they are very much a diet. If you’re new around here, or have never heard of ZOE, then check those out first.

Personalised Nutrition From an App is a Tech-Bro Fantasy

On why you can’t outsource embodied wisdom

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas

The ‘Do-Diet’

What do Deliciously Ella, Noom, and ZOE have in common?

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas

But back to the Gut Shot, what even is it?

M&S describe the Gut Shot like this:

‘Together, we've bottled up ZOE's scientific research with trusted M&S quality ingredients to create a delicious daily shot packed with over five billion live cultures from 14 strains of bacteria.’

The Gut Shot, which launched in January this year, is a fermented milk based drink called kefir and is sold exclusively at M&S. In addition to the kefir, it has a number of fruit purees and juices from berries, ginger, and lemon, as well as baobab fruit pulp and fibre from the plant, chicory. The Gut Shot boasts that it contains a whole bunch of live bacteria and is a source of both calcium and fibre. 

It all sounds very impressive. But does it live up to the hype?

The first thing to note - as many online commentators already have - is that the Gut Shot would most likely qualify as an ultra-processed food (UPF). The chicory fibre is an extract, the baobab pulp is pulverized and powdered, and the fruit juices would probably need to be concentrated to fit into that neat little 150ml bottle without diluting it too much. Now, I’ve made my feelings about UPF clear already, so I’m not going to reiterate them here. But what sits so uncomfortably, for me, is that ZOE’s co-founder Professor Tim Spector has repeatedly talked shit about UPFs, linking them, among other things, with cancer, heart disease, and worsening mental health. In a Good Housekeeping article from November 2023, Spector explains how you can identify a UPF:

‘The ingredient list will be large. It will contain many things that you wouldn't have in the kitchen and that you shouldn't need in real food’. 

Ahem:

Hilariously, in this video Spector specifically gives the example of a yoghurt with fruit concentrates as typifying a UPF. Yet he is adamant that the Gut Shot is not a one. 

What I take from this, is not that there is a clear, universal, standardised definition of a UPF, but rather it depends on the whims of the ruling nutrition class (Spector has stated that he has baobab powder and chicory fibre stocked in his kitchen cupboards). Turns out that highly processed powders and fruit juice concentrates are fine, so long as they’re found in the right kind of kitchens. Bought in the right kinds of shops. And consumed by the right kind of people.

Another common gripe has been the price point: £2, for what M&S are positioning as a daily shot, adds up to £60 per month. £66 if your local M&S is in a train or petrol station. It would cost a family of four £3000 a year for a supplement which has no scientifically proven benefits and seems formulated largely on speculation and conjecture. Plus, you can get plain old kefir for a fraction of the cost.

And this is really the substance of the pushback on the M&S x ZOE Gut Shot (that I have seen at least). 

But there’s more. A lot more.

Before we tear the Gut Shot a new one, we need a quick microbiology 101; this is key to understanding how we’re all being taken for a ride. 

The bacteria that live in and on our bodies - known as the microbiota - belong to groups called genuses. They're a bit like families. These groups can be further categorised by their species, and further still by their strains. 

Think of it like this. An orchestra is a group of instruments that all play together - they are sort of a family, right? You’ve got the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony and the BBC Symphony. You with me? The orchestra is like the genus - it’s the overarching organisational unit of bacteria in the same way an orchestra is the overarching organisational unit of instruments. [DISCLAIMER: I know nothing about orchestras apart from the 3 month period I played double-bass in one when I was like 10 - hold this analogy lightly].

Then within each orchestra, instruments are categorised further into sections: woodwind, string, percussion, and brass. These are our species. 

Finally, you have the specific instruments. A cello, a tuba, a flute, a kettledrum. These are the strains. In the same way that different instruments within a section sound different and take on unique roles while playing a piece of music, individual strains of bacteria can have wildly different functions with some having virtually no impact on their human host, and others having a notable therapeutic effect. 

In this analogy, each orchestra we encounter is playing completely different music - one is doing the soundtrack to Bridgerton, while another is doing…whatever they do at Proms, and another is in their Mozart era. 

This is how families of bacteria are. They all have different roles and functions, and will express different genes under similar conditions. Once again, no two strains are exactly alike. 

Ok so now we know how bacteria are organised, let’s go in.

The Gut Shot isn’t a probiotic.

Everyone wants you to think the Gut Shot is a probiotic: ZOE, M&S, Sharon in the office who keeps banging on about how great they are. They may not say it in so many words, but that’s definitely the subtext they’re giving. So for the record: the Gut Shot categorically is not a probiotic.

The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) are a group of BAMFs who lay down the law on what can and cannot be called a probiotic. 

They define probiotics like this: ‘Live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host’. That is to say the bacteria (or it could be a yeast, for instance) have to be viable. NO DEAD MICROORGANISMS. There have to be enough of them to make an impact. And they have to show a specific benefit to the human host; nebulous concepts like ‘improves gut health’ or 'increases gut diversity' don’t really fly.

As far as I’m aware, neither ZOE or M&S have not conducted any scientific studies to show that the 5 billion cultures in their drink are alive, and stay alive until they get to your large intestine. And we don’t know what they do when they get there. Even though bacteria belong to the same genus and species, individual strains behave very differently.

Now, I get this may be a little confusing because we throw around the word ‘probiotic’ with reckless abandon. We colloquially call everything from kombucha to kimchi a ‘probiotic’ when what we actually mean is a ‘fermented food’. This is't to say these foods aren't worth eating if you enjoy them, but it reflects the uncertainty and variation inherent in those products.

The ISAPP clarifies: ‘Live microorganisms may be present in many foods and supplements, but only characterized strains with a scientifically demonstrated effect on health should be called probiotics.

So, we can say that Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 can help reduce colic symptoms in breastfed babies because we have a clearly defined strain (DSM 17938) and a demonstrable impact on infant wellbeing when we give the recommended dose to babies. 

When it comes to the Gut Shot, we don’t even know which strains are in there; I could not find any information about the specific strains used in their formulation. The ingredients listed on Ocado.com only shows 5 organisms: 4 at the species level, but one at the genus level. We might know which orchestra we’re going to see, but we have no fucking clue what they’re going to play. 

Now, here’s where things get really interesting. Overall, M&S and ZOE have been really careful not to call the Gut Shot a probiotic. M&S especially will be diligent about complying with labelling rules around nutrition and health claims. They will know not to call this a probiotic (because it isn’t).

Tim Spector on the other hand…

Uhhhhh…

‘This gut shot supports your health in several ways. Firstly there are over 5 billion microbes in there and that’s made up of 14 different strains of bacteria. That’s an incredible range of probiotics that will really boost your gut microbes.’

Professor Spector says in the video, embedded into zoe.com/gutshot - the page ZOE have been directing people to to market the Gut Shot. It’s also on the company's YouTube and has had 13K views. 

Now it may be true that some of the microorganisms in the gut shot have been shown to meet the criteria for a probiotic in studies – remember they have not disclosed what they are so we don’t know for sure.

However.

HOWEVER.