Love Your Gut

by Megan Rossi

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Love Your Gut is a tutorial and lifestyle guide by Dr. Megan Rossi. Due out 2nd Feb 2021 from The Experiment, it's 320 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

There's been a lot of focus in the media the last few years on gastrointestinal research and the fascinating things we're learning about how our GI tract affects and informs our overall health. This book is an accessible, science based look at how to interpret our GI health and make improvements which can pay dividends in emotional health, well being, and everything from brain fuction, weight control, metabolic function, immune system, hormonal balances and more.

The author has an easy to understand style of writing and although she does discuss some of the bio-science and physiology involved, I don't imagine it'll be beyond the scope of the average layperson. The book has a lot of charts and quizzes to fill out to analyze the reader's current gut biome and general gut health as well as a lot of suggestions for improvement.

The second part of the book contains a number of recipes to help improve the reader's diet and hopefully support and increase gut biome diversity and health. The recipes are arranged thematically: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts as well as a capsule survey of fermented foods (including a good beginner-usable recipe for kimchi, one of my absolute favorite things in the world). The recipes have ingredients listed bullet style in the sidebar. Ingredient measures are given in American standard with metric measures in parentheses (yay!), followed by step-by-step instructions. Tips and variations are included at the end of the recipes. Recipe ingredients are mostly easily found at any well stocked grocery store, but some (gochugaru Korean ground smoked pepper, kefir, and a few others) might require a specialist grocery or online purchase.

The photography is clear and attractively done. Tutorial photos are easy to follow. Serving suggestions and food styling are attractive and appropriate.

This is a very well written book full of solid information. It would make a superlative selection for readers looking for sensible science based diet and lifestyle information. The book and the writing are blissfully free from faddish outlandish pseudoscience.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes