Again another informative book about ways to improve the health and diversity of your gut flora. I won't be following the diet but am going to be introducing more fermented foods and wholegrain into my life (and trying to stay away from processed food). ( )

We hear a lot about 'intestinsal flora' and this is an accessible and fascinating account of the digestive system and the stuff it does that we don't realise.
Gamely swallowing a camera for an eye-witness account,the author describes the stomach: "a cavernous,exotic landscape...pink and pulsatile, a place of slobber and rawhide"...the small bowel : "it reminded me of the last time I went snorkelling in a bay full of seaweed" ....churning the chyme "in a frantic corkscrew motion"...note too that the digestive system (a hugely complex food factory) contains as many neurons as the brain of a cat, as it exchanges information with the brain) ....and thence to the colon, wherein dwells this eco system of bacteria, fungi, viruses and "simplre, primitive animals called protozoa."
(Also learnt something about that alleged "white elephant" the appendix: Apparently after a bad attack of diarrhoea, the sufferer needs to reseed his purged guts with 'good' bacteria, and the organ in question acts as "the Noah's Ark of the gut world, ready to repopulate your gut when the waters subside." Fascinating stuff.
Fascinating too to learn that the newborn imbibes its iniial hit of bacteria from its mother during birth: those born in a more sterile manner through Caesarean, are 64% more likely to be obese adults than those not!
The book then goes on to look at WHY these microbes matter...involved in everything from weight gain to IBS, allergies, sleeplessness, stress...
And how to cultivate them through 'prebiotics'(healthy foods that encourage growth) and 'probiotics' (stuff that actually contains microbes direct- yogurt, fermented foods.) They also do well under an intermittent fasting regime, and with exercise.
I was minded to recommend this book to a friend with IBS but may pass on that, since the author's top success story was a sufferer who undertook the rather extreme step of deliberately infecting himself with hookworm. "They damp down our immune responses by secreting compounds that manipulate our immune system...that enables the worm to survive but it also has benefits for us." And yet with the previously ill guy now able to eat the hottest curries...it sounds like a price worth paying!
Includes numerous recipes.
VERY interesting...arent humans brilliantly made?! And all this goes on with us barely aware of it beyond the odd gurgle or bit of acidity! (And they say we got here by accident...puh-lease!!) ( )

The thing that grabbed my attention when I first saw this book mentioned on the blog Booker Talk was the promise that it would cut sugar cravings. My sweet tooth has plagued me my whole life.

Mosley explains why our "modern guts" are out of whack and what we can do to reset them. It all sounded so reasonable that two-thirds of the way through the book, I returned my library copy and ordered both the book AND the cookbook from Amazon.

There is now the need to reread, and to get my husband on board. Once I do, I may rate this even higher. ( )

I've read a lot on what we eat and human biology but I still learnt a few things in Moseley's newest book. Would recommend. ( )

A short book on how gut health is vital to good health. Michael Mosely, famous for the 5:2 diet, provides background information on much that happens in the gut, and how we can improve gut health. ( )