Lots to learn about the gut! This book made it easy to understand and easy to try to improve the health of your gut.

A thoughtful look at the new fad 'fix-it-all'. Provides some good theories and suggestions for those willing to give it a try.

A wonderful guide for correcting gut health for everyone concerned with stomach health. This is a new view of how we manage our stomach health going forward. The author has researched and meticulously documented here how the bacteria in our stomachs affects our overall health as it does our stomach health. It is at must read for anyone concerning with fighting off stomach cancer, increasing your stomach health and taking better care of stomach health going forward. I lost my entire family to stomach cancer and have life long colitis so I am putting this book to good use and following the doctors guidelines. Thank you for this excellent book .
The ARC did not influence my opinion.

Good information, some diet books published the last two years are getting to be repetitive with information readily available on the internet.

I am a person with many responsibilities, very busy, and stress impair my sensitive digestive system. I have noticed how processed food, flour, bread, milk and meats cause problems and inflammation, too much sugar causes me headaches. Instead feed on fresh organic raw vegetables, herbs without pesticides from my garden, wild fish and nuts, intermittent fasts, invigorate me. I am constantly improving my quality of life, that of my family and the people to whom I offer my services as an alternative energy therapist, that is why I was interested in this book that I enjoyed very much, it has provided me with valuable information, clear, concise, practical guidance, based on the latest digestive health science coupled with her clinical experience based on it.
There is a growing body of research showing that processed foods may change the balance of bacteria in the gut, and key recent concepts to controlling weight, beautiful skin, improving mood, developing a strong immune system and also protect us from developing autoimmune disorders are: a diet that creates a high-performance digestive system and gut microbiome that thrives.
The author Jeannette Hyde designed a four-week restoration program that guide us to cultivate a healthy gut and microbiome with a diet which stimulates the flourishing of a wide diversity of species and to build a strong gut lining.
This eating restorative strategy seeks to imitate the hunter-gatherer's diet, where industrialization was not present, includes natural unprocessed foods, deliciously varied in vegetables and seasonal fruits (I recommend organic only), nuts, eggs and birds (I recommend farm), fish and meats (I recommend wild preferentially or organic pasture / grazing meat). And after the program also the author proposes a diet of long-term care, based on the diet from the pre-1960s.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

In The Gut Makeover, Jeanette Hyde, a nutritional therapist with a practice in London, examines the findings in recent nutritional science that focus on your microbiome, the bacteria living in the human gut, and how this affects your weight and health. As well as examining and explaining the research in easy to understand terms, Hyde shares a 28 day plan to boost your digestive health and lose weight including recipes that can be followed by meat eaters or vegetarians.

March 15, 2017 – Started Reading
Review Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Gut Makeover. Below is my unbiased review.
I read this book after completing the Whole30 challenge. I was interested to see how the plans differ and the different approaches between the two. I also choose my husband as the lab rat for this plan as his gut was in desperate need of a makeover.
The plan works!!! My husband stayed on the diet, did not suffer any side effects ( like headaches or cravings) he lost some weight and definitely took a bulge out of his middle. This book is written clearly and simply making it easy to under and follow the plan. The recipes are helpful and tasty, not complicated or requiring tremendous effort or time. After 30'days, my hubby has opted to stay with the plan and not begin maintenance or reintroduction of certain foods,
I think this plan is more manageable than Whole30 and easier to sustain. The basic concepts are similar.
I highly recommend this plan for anyone who is willing and wanting to make a serious change to their poor eating habits. You will look and feel so much better after just 14 days!!!

First of all, don’t pick up this or any other ‘fix it’ book without consulting your doctor. No one should ever try any food plan without doctor’s approval. There are plenty of fad diets / ideas / supplements all claiming a revolutionary change for your health and body weight. Just stop! Talk to your GP - if he or she says that you have a diagnosed problem, they will most assuredly give you directions on how to fix the problem too.

There’s a lot of research on gut and autoimmune disorders on the net, so technically, there’s no need to read this book. As for the 4-week plan to ‘fix’ the gut that the book touts - leave it to the doc, blood tests and common sense.

We all have our own food stories - what worked, what made us fat, ill; what we looked like in our 20s versus 40s, do we have an infection or inflammation? etc. My advice: Listen to your body. We are what we eat: what we eat shows up on our face, skin, belly. Destroys or builds within. Be conscious of what you are eating, eat organic not processed food, eat fruits and veggies more than meat and butter, take natural (non-salty) dry fruit, add probiotic & vitamin/ iron supplements, drink water, move your ass. That’s about it.

It goes without saying that when you stop eating all the junk food and leave behind all the careless eating (and drinking) habits, you will lose weight. Any book that claims you will lose 6-13 pounds in the first month (as this book does) is actually betting on your insecurity: you picked this book because you are most definitely obese, feel miserable, may / may not have a gut inflammation, and want a quick way out. Trust me, fast track weight loss is not the solution, and neither is doing experiments on your body. There is also no need to note your waist measurement ‘at the start of Gut Makeover Plan’ because trust me, belly fat will be the LAST thing to go lean in your entire body, years after your eating, living and exercise habits first changed!

And you have to stay on course for the rest of your life - not just 2 or 4 or 6 weeks as this and other such books claim. Also, proper breakfast is NOT a ‘liquid breakfast’. And the ‘Kitchen Essentials’ section in the book is plain silly. First item: ‘Knife’.

Readers may find ‘Recipes’ something to try in the kitchen though.

The references and ideas in the book may not necessarily be those of the author - and may just be lifted from books & journal articles mentioned in the ‘Index’ section. There is no concurrent labeling / numbering of where they are specifically mentioned in the book (though it’s easy to decipher).

For the benefit of anyone reading this review, I’ll share an email I wrote earlier this year to a (male) cousin of mine, a married father of two, who wanted advice on how to lose weight:

‘Mudsy, hi, first things first: there is no shortcut to losing weight. You have to work at it, be disciplined about it, and think long-term - it took you year/s to put on weight, so you will lose it and get in shape in more than a year . The good news is that if you start working on a plan today, you will feel and look different in a few months. So its win-win. Don’t go for shortcuts like fat burners, heavy exercising, dieting, fasting, not eating at all, eating only veggies, eating only liquid / juice, etc. - those will only make you ill and your body weak and you will be miserable and moody!

The only way people all over the world lose weight is by cutting down on all the fattening foods, and working out. There is no other way. You become more active and eat less - that’s it.

It is not easy to do this: you live a simple life and love life and food, and it shows. Everyone has favorite foods that they like to eat every day. Cut on fried foods. Put fruit and home-made salad in your daily diet (salad can have veggies, fruits, dry fruit etc.). Trust me, once you start eating a salad of this sort, it will be like a full lunch! Try to eat something after every 2-3 hours and you will not have food cravings (don’t eat chips, samosas, tikka etc. instead eat almonds, chickpeas, apple). 

Start eating boiled chicken instead of gravy-filled chicken. and if you cannot give up gravy chicken, then just start eating less of it, or with less oil. I’m not going to tell you which oils are healthy or not, organic chicken benefits, non-chemical veggies, because that is a totally different discussion and you don’t need to get bogged down by details. Just focus on eating healthy and being more active than before.

Drink lots of water (more than 8 glasses of water a day is a must)

No cakes please. Eat fruit instead (or dry fruit which has fig, raisin, date in it). 

You will have ups and downs in motivational level - some people lose interest and eat cakes/ sugary stuff because they can’t seem to see the difference in a few weeks. But you have to trust in what I’ve said in the beginning - think long-term - it did not take you a day to develop a paunch, it will not take you a day to lose it either.   

Always consult a doctor before any exercise . work out plan - overweight people tend to exert themselves and get injuries or bigger problems. I’ve told you to just start noticing how much you walk / or are active and do a bit more. Move yourself and commit to 15-minutes of daily ‘exercise’ (it can just be ‘walking’ while standing still watching TV! moving arms and legs, playing more with your kids, running after them) - you don’t have to be pulling weights or jog etc. - just take it easy and let you body get used to your exercising. Once you get into the habit of it, it will be like second nature to you.

Youtube has so many videos - you can exercise while watching comedy! Or exercise with your wife!

Another good way - and you will laugh at this- is to take a picture of your paunch or shape on a monthly basis - you will start noticing a difference in the belt-line after a few months, not immediately - and that will spur you on to continue to eat healthy and be healthy.

Don’t look at the weight-scale too much - people tend to lose weight in a slow manner and get dejected when weight remains the same on the scale while they have been on a health plan. They start to think that dieting is not working when it’s not true. 

Your complexion will also improve if you do what I’ve said. Whatever that is inside shows on the outside so what you eat will reflect on your face too.

Remember, the only way you will lose your paunch is when you lose weight all over - so don’t do spot-fixing stomach exercises, they will not make any difference because you have fat all over the body and belly fat is the hardest to get rid of - once you lose weight, stomach will start going in too. 

Also, look at (your 65-plus mom) - she has managed to lose weight at her age - so you have inspiration right at home to get in shape - so don’t lose heart, don’t go for fad diets and make eating healthy and exercising healthy a daily priority.

Good luck - see you in a few months!’

Well written with a lot of easy to understand ideas on how to reduce the stomach via eating the right foods.

This book gave a lot of insight into your gut. It didn't bog you down with all the science talk, but it did lay it out in a way that you could understand. The one problem I personal had with the book was how the meal plan was constructed. It is great for those people that wanted flexibility, but not so great for someone like me that would have like a sticker meal plan. With such big changes, I didn't really want to have to think and worry about the food.

The introductory analysis of foods that aggravate good gut health is informative without being overly scholarly, making it accessible to the general public. What follows is an intense diet of cutting a wide array of foods and drinks, including sugars, beans and alcohol, to name a few. This book would be of interest to those looking for a regimented, four week plan comprised of what is essentially a detox diet.

Because the gut bacteria is so important, this is a really good book to learn how to makeover your gut. The author steps you through a very easy four week makeover plan. The meal plans are simple and the recipes are delicious and easy to make.

Great self help book! Looking forward to reading more books by this author!