FoodMarble AIRE 2 Review: Now Measuring Methane
Almost everyone has experienced digestive issues in their life. Bloating, constipation, diarrhea, gas – it’s not fun to talk about but most of us can relate.
For some folks, occasionally discomfort and inconvenience can become chronic pain and can really interfere with their daily lives. In this case, what do you do? You can try eliminating foods from your diet to see if that helps, but where do you start? You can try to get help from a doctor, but these kinds of issues are hard to diagnose and require lots of time and expensive tests.
Affiliate Disclosure: AppMyHome.com is a participant in the FoodMarble Affiliate Program. We received a device as part of this review. Opinions and conclusions are our own.
FoodMarble estimates that one in 8 people experience this kind of frequent digestive disruption, including founder Aongus Shortt’s wife Grace, who suffered for years with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Her issues inspired Aongus to build a prototype device and the FoodMarble AIRE was born.
There are two different types of breath tests commonly used to help diagnose gut health issues – hydrogen and methane. When your body is digesting food, you may produce one or both of these gasses, so by logging your food intake and measuring your breath with the FoodMarble AIRE 2 device, you can better understand which foods trigger your digestive problems.
AIRE (the original)
I originally reviewed the FoodMarble AIRE in March 2020, shortly after we met Aongus at CES. I received the AIRE device that measures hydrogen only, plus the FODMAP testing kit. FODMAPs (Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols) are a group of carbohydrates and sugar alcohols that are known to trigger symptoms, and FoodMarble created four packets of common ones as a way to help users figure out which ones trigger their own digestion – Lactose, Sorbitol, Fructose and Inulin.
I used the FODMAP testing kit, along with the AIRE and the FoodMarble App, to log my food and my symptoms over a couple of months so I could see how it worked. I didn’t have serious issues, but I suspected there were some foods I had trouble digesting so I wanted to learn more.
At the time, I thought I might have been lactose intolerant because I would often get an upset tummy after my morning greek yogurt. I couldn’t figure out why sometimes the yogurt bothered me and sometimes it didn’t. With the help of the FODMAP packets I quickly learned that while I was clearly not lactose intolerant, I did have problems with both sorbitol and fructose. I stopped putting honey in my yogurt and now I can eat it every day without a problem.
This was so quick and easy to figure out that I was stunned. If I had gone to the doctor to complain about these issues, I could only imagine how long it would have taken to figure it out. If I had tried an elimination diet, I would have probably eliminated both the yogurt and the honey because in my mind, it was the same meal – I had been eating it that way for years.
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Measuring Methane to help with SIBO
While I was doing my research and reading the comments on the FoodMarble facebook group, I started to read about a lot of people dealing with something called SIBO – Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.
SIBO is a medical condition caused by the presence of an abnormal number of bacteria in the small intestine and once diagnosed, it is treated with antibiotics. Like a lot of digestive problems, it’s hard to diagnose and requires lots of visits to specialty doctors and breath tests, for both hydrogen and methane gas in the breath. If there’s methane present, that’s important because that might influence the type of treatment to address that specific bacteria.
While the original AIRE was doing a great job measuring hydrogen, it didn’t measure methane, so these folks were still left in the dark about that part of their digestion.
AIRE 2
To help address this need, FoodMarble developed a new device, the AIRE 2, that measures both hydrogen and methane gas in the breath. Now if you’re having digestive issues you can get a more complete picture of these measurements plus your symptoms so you can understand how these foods affect you.
Beyond SIBO, you may have gut microbes which produce methane, which is commonly linked to constipation. Not everyone produces methane but for those who do, tracking both gasses can be really helpful.
Other Design Improvements
In addition to the methane sensor, the AIRE 2 also has a number of new design enhancements over the original.
The AIRE 2 has a large button that you press to start the device and get it ready for testing, that includes a light ring that lights up as it warms up and gives you haptic feedback when it’s ready to go.
Since you need to blow slowly into the device for three seconds, which can be hard to get used to, the device also gives you haptic feedback when you’ve done it right or wrong. You could always see this in the FoodMarble App, but also having it on the device makes it easier to learn.
The ring on the device also gives you immediate feedback on how good or bad your breath results are; and it also shows you whether or not your device needs charging.
I also love the new case for the AIRE 2. If you’re going to use this device effectively, you’re going to have to take it with you and the case makes it easy to transport, while providing airflow to the device so you can allow it to stay dry between readings. The sensors are sensitive to condensation and it’s best to allow it to clear after each breath test.
Finally, the AIRE 2 uses USB-C for fast and convenient charging like all our other favorite electronic devices.
FoodMarble 6-Week Discovery Plan
For new users, FoodMarble now sells a 6-Week Discovery Plan that you can use with either the AIRE or the AIRE 2. The FoodMarble app guides you through the process every step of the way so you can methodically set a baseline by logging your meals and symptoms, perform a reset to experiment with removing commonly hard-to-digest items from your diet, then discover your reactions to each of the four FODMAP packets to see where you might have some issues. It’s much more intuitive and impactful than just jumping in and starting to do breath readings.
While you can certainly use the FoodMarble AIRE or AIRE 2 device without the Discovery Plan, I would definitely recommend getting it. Going through the process and the four food challenges will really make a big difference in your results.
Using the Device
Whether you choose the AIRE or the AIRE 2, the process is the same. Download the FoodMarble App, pair your device, then it will show you how to take a breath reading.
Then after each meal, you’ll log your food and the app will prompt you automatically to take three breath readings, generally starting about an hour after you eat. It will also prompt you to log any symptoms you may have, as well as their severity.
Even after just a few days, you may start to see patterns in this data that will help you (and potentially your doctor or other health professional) understand what foods trigger what symptoms. You can easily see these trends from the homescreen on the app.
The app also encourages you to keep track of sleep, stress, poop, and, for women, your menstrual cycle, so you can get a more complete picture of what may be triggering your symptoms. In my case, I definitely notice a difference in how I feel when I’m stressed and/or don’t get enough sleep.
Helping make better food choices
Once you have completed the 6-Week Discovery plan and start to learn more about how your body reacts to different FODMAPs, you can also use the app to help you follow a low-FODMAP diet.
FoodMarble has a comprehensive library of foods with their component FODMAPs. So when you log your meals, you can immediately see which FODMAPs are highlighted. If you’ve done your discovery plan, the app creates a unique discovery profile for you, color-coded based on how your body reacts to each FODMAP component and it will highlight which ones impact you.
You can then search the library for foods that will work with the personalization filter on, and you can see different foods color-coded red, yellow and green so you can easily see which ones are good. If you already know how you react to the food item, you can give it a thumbs up or thumbs down in the library.
The app also has color-coded recommended recipes, and if you make one, you can click right from the recipe and it will log it for you.
FoodMarble App Improvements
FoodMarble has greatly improved their food logging and food library since the first time I tested it. When you log your food, you can type it in, add a photo, or use the barcode scanner.
When I first tested the app, the database was still very European centric, but since then it’s improved significantly and now a lot of foods have both names listed – such as arugula and rocket; potato chips and crisps.
I have been testing the barcode scanner for a while, but so far I’ve not been able to locate many foods by barcode. The app does give you the ability to add your own food, but usually I’d rather just find something else close in the database, unless it’s something that I eat really often.
If you’ve ever used a meal logging app before it is important to note that FoodMarble’s library is more sophisticated than apps that just track basic nutritional data, since it includes the component FODMAPs of each food. So you won’t find as many foods, but it continues to expand over time and with more users.
The app also now allows you to log medications and supplements, which can be really helpful. I found that most of the vitamins I take on a regular basis weren’t in the directory, but I was able to add them and set daily reminders to log (and take!) them. It would be great if I could log all these at once, once a day, instead of having to click each reminder separately.
Summary
The FoodMarble AIRE 2 device has a lot of improvements over the original AIRE and the companion FoodMarble App is easier to use, especially with the 6-week discovery program.
Using the original AIRE with the FoodMarble App will also give you similar insights, but if you’re not concerned about the price difference, we’d recommend you buy the AIRE 2. For me, the haptic feedback and the sleek new design are worth the cost, and being able to measure both hydrogen and methane gas in the breath gives me a more complete picture of what’s going on in my gut.
The FoodMarble device and app is not a test that you can take once and immediately see your problem foods. If you want to really understand your digestion, you’ll need to put in the effort to log your foods and test your breath at least a few times a day.
If you use the AIRE device and app consistently for 6-weeks or more, you should be able to see trends and use that data to understand what foods work best for you.
Want to try the digestive tracker?
Order from the website and get up to 15 percent off.