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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Lumen

Lumen, the Handheld Metabolic Breathalyzer, Goes on Sale

If you’ve been sheltering in place for the past couple of months, you’ve probably been eating a ton of carbs. Between that and the constant wearing of sweatpants, you may have put on unwanted pounds (or maybe you welcome them!).

If that’s the case and you want to get back to your pre-pandemic weight, perhaps you can pick up a Lumen, which is now available for purchase. Lumen is a handheld breathalyzer that promises to help you “hack your metabolism” by measuring the CO2 in your breath. The device then tells whether you are burning fat or carbs and provides personalized nutritional guidance based on your metabolic efficiency.

You can check out this video Catherine did with with Dror Ceder, the Founder and CEO of Lumen at CES last year.

The Spoon look at Lumen, a handheld breath detector for measuring metabolism

The device started out as a crowdfunded project on Indiegogo back in 2018, and has gone on to raise more than $2.5 million dollars. In September of last year, Lumen raised an $8.5 million round of funding (the company has raised $15 million in total). At that same time, Lumen said that it had sold 11,000 devices.

Now the Lumen is available to general public for purchase. The device is available through Lumen.me, costs $299 and is shipping worldwide.

We can’t speak to the device’s accuracy, but we do know that Lumen isn’t the only company out there that wants you to breathe out. The Keyto breath sensor is $99 and gauges whether or not your body is in ketosis.

Exhaling has certainly taken on new weight during this pandemic (wear a mask!), but perhaps breathing out can be a way to help people find some post-pandemic fitness.

Not Sure What to Eat? Just Breathe (Literally)

When deciding which diet to follow, most of us rely on friends’ recommendations, online questionnaires, or internet wisdom. Then again, why not shape your food choices off of your actual breath.

Israel-based startup Lumen gives dining recommendations based off of the amount of CO2 which you exhale into their proprietary device (which reveals whether you’re burning carbs or body fat).

We think that breath-based dietary guidance is pretty cool, so we invited Dana Varrone, Lumen’s VP of Strategic Partnerships, to speak at Customize, our food personalization summit, in NYC later this month. Join us there to hear her talk about how personalization can unlock the power of food as medicine (use code SPOON15 to get 15 percent off those tickets).

But first — if you want to learn more about how your breath can indicate what you should be eating, check out our Q&A with Varrone below.

Tell us a little bit about what Lumen does.
Lumen is a device and app that helps you take control of your metabolism. Through your breath, the Lumen technology measures your fuel source in real time, telling you if you’re using fats or carbs for energy, and provides you with a personalized nutrition plan to help you reach your health and fitness goals.

A metabolic measurement (RQ) that was once costly and time-consuming in a clinical setting is now available through a single breath with Lumen.

Why do you think that there has been a rise in interest around personalized nutrition over the past few years?
I think there are three main reasons for the rise. Firstly, people are fed up with going on diets and not getting the results they want, and are starting to recognize that what may work for one person may not work for them. “Go Keto as carbs are the devil” is on the one extreme and “follow the myplate and eat a balanced plate of grains, protein, fruit, veggie and dairy” is on the other extreme of the advice spectrum. Couple this with advanced research being published on how various foods may impact your gut and the increase in allergies nationwide, and question marks start going off in people’s minds of perhaps one size does not fit all.

Secondly, with the rise in technologies such as the AppleWatch, fitbit and the like, consumers are seeing the value in getting personalized feedback. Consumers can now see how many steps they’ve walked, calories they’ve burned and can even get feedback on their heart rate. This immediate feedback empowers consumers to feel like they can now be in control of their own lives, whereas before it was left to your doctor and your yearly physical visits.

Lastly, with the rise in social media and newsfeeds being curated for you, people are demanding speed and instant gratification. This is specifically the case with the millennial generation that have grown up with this being their norm. This results in people wanting answers fast, based on them and their needs, now.

What are the biggest hurdles towards creating personalized dietary guidance towards consumers?
I think the biggest hurdles are in asking the right questions to the consumer at the onset and being able to adjust the personalization over time based on both qualitative and quantitative data that takes into account lifestyle changes, life events, food tolerances, goals, and physiology.

What do you think personalized food or drink will look like 5 years down the road?
I think data from a variety of touch points will be the primary driver in personalizing a consumer’s nutrition and will be housed with an engagement app that makes sense of all the data, with Lumen being at the helm of this.

If you want to see Dana speak about how personalization can unlock the power of food as medicine, join us at Customize this month in NYC! Use code SPOON15 to get 15 percent off tix.

Lumen Raises $8.5M, Says it Has Sold 11,000 Breathalyzers for Metabolic Hacking

Lumen, which gives you personalized diet recommendation based on your breath, announced today that it has raised $8.5 million in funding. The news was first reported by CTech, which writes that the new money was led by Hong Kong-listed H&H company and Unorthodox Ventures, with Disruptive Venture Capital and Gigi Levy participating. This brings the total amount raised by Lumen to $15.5 million.

Lumen launched its handheld breathalyzer on Indiegogo a little more than a year ago. At the time, we described it like this:

The eponymous Lumen device looks (sadly) like a vape pen. Blow into it and the device measures the CO2 of your exhale to see if you are burning carbs or body fat. According to the promotional video, you can breathe into Lumen in the morning to get a personalized meal plan for the day, adjust that meal plan with breath check-ins throughout the day, and check your breath before a workout to see if you need to carb up for additional energy.

The device was a crowdfunding hit, selling roughly 11,000 devices and generating $2.3 million in sales, according to CTech.

We checked in with Lumen cofounder Dror Ceder at CES earlier this year and learned that in addition to meal planning, the company is also working on ways integrate food ordering (meals and groceries) based on your results.

The Spoon look at Lumen, a handheld breath detector for measuring metabolism

It’s not a lot of hot air to say that several different companies are looking at your breath to help you hack your metabolism. The Keyto is another crowdfunded device uses your breath to measure acetone in your breath to determine if your body is in the fat-burning state of ketosis.

Having tried the Keyto, I’m curious to test out the Lumen as it seems to offer a broader application of useful advice. If it works as promised, I’d love to know if I’ve carbed up enough before a workout, and also get ongoing meal recommendations throughout the day based on my metabolic rate.

Lumens are available now for $249 directly through the company but the devices aren’t shipping until January, so I’ll have to hold my breath a little bit longer.

CES 2019 Video: Lumen Gives You Personalized Diet Plans with One Breath

There are a bunch of companies offering personalized gadgets at CES this week, from smart mirrors to color-changing jewelry to toilets (for real). But Israeli startup Lumen is applying personalization to what’s going on inside your body. The company’s handheld breath detector measures your metabolism, then builds specialized meal plans based on that information and your dietary preferences.

We spoke with Lumen cofounder Dror Ceder on the CES show floor to learn more about the breathalizer-like device, and why he thinks it can help people diet more effectively and eat healthier.

The Spoon look at Lumen, a handheld breath detector for measuring metabolism

Lumen Analyzes Your Breath to Help You Lose Weight

When it comes to losing weight, a lot of us just want to be told what to do. That’s why we go to a spin class, or follow specific diets. Lumen is a startup that wants to make that type of advice more personalized for you with a handheld breathalizer that measures your metabolism.

The eponymous Lumen device looks (sadly) like a vape pen. Blow into it and the device measures the CO2 of your exhale to see if you are burning carbs or body fat. According to the promotional video, you can breathe into Lumen in the morning to get a personalized meal plan for the day, adjust that meal plan with breath check-ins throughout the day, and check your breath before a workout to see if you need to carb up for additional energy.

The results, according to the site, are sustainable weight loss and optimized workouts.

Lumen launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund its eponymous device. It has already blown past its $50,000 goal, raising $213,816 with a full month left to go. Early birds can pick up a Lumen for $199, after that the price jumps to $219. Devices are estimated to ship in February 2019.

The Lumen site has an entire section on the science behind its device. We can’t validate the company’s claims here, but the idea behind Lumen fits in with two trends we’ve been following here at The Spoon: handheld analyzing devices and personalization.

With technology getting more powerful and smaller, there is a crop of new devices coming to market to help us better understand what and how we are eating. The Nima sensor helps consumers detect the presence of peanuts or gluten in foods to help avoid allergens. And the SCiO uses spectrometry to scan food for nutritional information.

All these personal devices aim to help people make better choices when eating. Personalization has become a hot topic at our Smart Kitchen Summits: companies like FoodPairing are creating tools for hyper-personalized recipes, and further out, Intellectual Ventures has a patent for a personalized food manufacturing system. They’re also eyeing a future where 3D printed foods deliver the exact food we want to fit dietary and nutritional needs.

If Lumen works as promised, getting personalized meal recommendations and losing weight is not something you’ll need to hold your breath for.