Each month I will feature a favorite book related to health, nutrition, or food. Fiber Fueled by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, or Dr. B, is my most recent acquisition, so I will begin with it.
The author is a whole food plant-based gastroenterologist in South Carolina. This book is about how important the microbiome is to all aspects of health. While the concepts he deals with are not simple, his language explaining them is-which is nice for people like me who have no background in science or medicine. He ends the book with a 21 day fiber-fueled meal plan that looks really yummy (I have tried a few of the recipes and they were delish).
Some of the main takeaways are as follows:
Why the microbiome matters: it's tied to many things such as immune, brain, metabolic, and hormonal health as well as tied to inflammatory issues at the root of many diseases.
Plant diversity is the single greatest predictor of a healthy gut microbiome and the release of important short chain fatty acids. Are you eating at least 30 different plants a week?
Fiber is a necessity for a healthy gut and is not found in animal products. Do you know what the minimum recommended fiber per day is for you? Are you meeting the RDA for fiber? (Try tracking your fiber intake for a week, but Dr. B points out that not all fiber is the same-we need soluble as well as insoluble.)
Should we take pre-biotics and probiotics? Chapter 7 convinced me to buy some pre-biotic supplements (and I am a fiber queen eating machine), but I won't rush out to buy probiotics.
The fiber-fueled foods that we should aim for daily are remembered by this acronym: F GOALS. [Fruit and Fermented foods, Greens and Grains, Omega 3 super seeds, Aromatics such as onions and garlic, Legumes, Sulforaphane or cruciferuous vegetables]
If you have stomach issues, it may not be gluten sensitivity but actually FODMAPS and he has suggestions for dealing with it.
There is so much more I could write about, but I don't want this post to get too long. I give this book a thumbs up and recommend reading it to learn about the importance of gut health.
Courtney, I'm not likely to read this book, but I appreciate that you give your synopsis. Interesting and impressive. My book club is reading a non-fiction book called "The Lost City of the Monkey God" by Douglas Preston. It's nothing about food, but fascinating. I think you might like it because it's full of exploring history. It's fun following your blog! Rosemary