I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I mostly skimmed this but ordered a copy from the library when it came out—some interesting thoughts and facts about how our gut is driven.

I picked up the original Gut book that everyone usually talks about a couple of years earlier at an airport. The first problem that I encountered in that book was that the author first began by talking about how hereditary eating habits ensure the makeup of a gut and how changing your diet for whatever reason might be harmful overall. She follows that up with an example of switching to a vegetarian diet. Given that my hereditary gut, for at least four generations (longer, I can presume, but this I can confirm), has been vegetarian, I found it off-putting, and I ended up not finishing the book, although a lonely little bookmark still sits in it.
This book is different from the beginning. It might lean more into a plant-based diet than some people may prefer, but she does not neglect to include those people who want to continue to eat their regular diet. She lets them know when and how it can be injected back once they have completed the reset.
The author talks in general about gut health, and given that she has personally used this to help herself, it is an effective tool in helping anyone interested.
The reset is a simple process (to some extent), but one that needs to be followed properly. The author splits the content and instructions into digestible parts (I had to attempt the pun), making it a perfect book for anyone who has contemplated looking into manipulating their gut and trying something new. There are a lot of recipes included with tips to make the process easier and sustainable.
I already recommended it to a couple of people and might even buy a hard copy for next year.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Noted chef turned integrative nutritional training coach, Ellen Postolowski, in an important book brings to bear the importance of maintaining a stabilised and balanced gut health for a rejuvenated. health. At the nub of Postolowski's argument lies the "Reset 90/10 Plan". Adopting a simple logic of not straying from a strict culinary regimen for 90% of the time with a leeway available to depart from the norm for the remaining 10%, Reset is a three-week programme that aims to eliminate inflammatory foods and acquiring awareness of a holistic and total-body wellness that encompasses mind, body and spirit.

The Rest Programme based primarily on plant-based food options, strives to eliminate unhealthy habits, enhance immune and hormonal functions, and strives to facilitate a natural healing process that is not dependent upon pills, or tonics. The protocol underlying the Reset 90/10 Plan revolves around what Postolowski terms '4 Rs' -

Remove (eliminating inflammatory foods);

Replace (substitute inflammatory foods with those that support optimal digestive functions, and digestive enzymes thereby leading to an enhanced nutrient distribution;

Reinoculate (balance gut flora and maintain better and continued gut health by supporting good bacteria)

Repair (repair cells, intestinal structures, and inflammation damage to achieve sustainable gut, hormonal , immune and cognitive functions

In addition to paying importance to the food we consume, Postolowski also exhorts us to be indulgent in self-advocacy measures that would instill an degree of self-belief and optimism as we attempt to lead more meaningful and contended lives. Some of the practical and easily implementable self-advocacy choices offered by Postolowski include:

Self- belief - Possessing confidence and cultivating stronger personal boundaries

Prevention is better than cure - Never compromising on annual and routine medical checkups and blood works

Seeking balance - Attaining a holistic and intersectional balance between the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional aspects of life by reducing stress, eating healthy, practicing simple meditation techniques and staying happy

Staying informed - Understanding more about one's body and one's ailments and taking progressive measures to increase and improve the quality of life;

Planning and strategising - Implementing a concrete plan and running with it to the greatest extent possible. It is not enough to have goals and visions in place if one is not going to follow through to achieve such goals and translate visions into reality

Accountability - Being accountable and pro-active in one's well being.

The book also contains an extensive list of easy to whip up recipes that can be used by the reader to help her both in the "Reset Phase" of three weeks as well as the "Maintenance Phase" in the weeks following the conclusion of the Reset Phase. The latter is very important as some of the inflammatory foods that were avoided during the Reset Phase would be slowly steadily and methodically reintroduced into the diet but in a pragmatic and healthy manner.

"Gut Driven" - a handy companion to ward off many a pestilent health niggle!

Arc Netgalley Review

DNF this ‘diet’ program was not something healthy for someone who already needs to have a strict diet, some of the introduction didn’t set right with me.

I did not read Gut Driven through an educators lens.

Gut Driven by Ellen Postolowski was a great resource. I appreciated everything about this text - the information was well organized, easy to follow and understand, and included so many practical and easy to use strategies and recipes. The one draw back with the book is that is so similar to The Elimination Diet. Having this knowledge and having had done The Elimination Diet before, I found Gut Driven to be less friendly for someone who is just beginning their journey into their health and would suggest this one for someone with some background on the concept and who has attempted to eliminate and reintroduce foods before.

I read a few health-related books every year and many of them focus on foods. Gut health and its impact on our overall well being is a topic of high recent interest. This book does a good job of providing a systematic approach to better eating to improve gut health.

What we eat majorly influences our health, far more than we think. There is a growing convergence in this and other recent health books that the explosion of diseases such as Diabetes, Hypertension, Alzheimer’s, and even some Cancers & Autoimmune conditions is attributable to diet & lifestyle – processed food, high sugar intake, nutritional imbalance, poor sleep & lack of exercise. Many take up short term measures, often for weight loss, such as the Keto diet but find long term sustenance tough. As the author quips, maybe we should refer to “lifestyle medicine” for people to take diet and other long term lifestyle changes more seriously.

The author advocates a 90/10 reset program which after an initial strict regimen allows you to loosen up a little on the diet. The first 3 weeks are focused on a remove, replace, re-inoculate, and repair program for the gut. Many foods we eat are Inflammatory and cause issues in the longer term. So, in the initial period, some will find a lot of what generally comprises modern day eating is out – meat, dairy, processed food, sugar, nuts, grains, and even caffeine. The first 3-week diet is largely centered around vegetables, fruits and rice. After the 3 weeks, you enter a maintenance phase and can include nuts, grains and a limited amount of the other stuff (maximum 10% leeway) though processed food, meat and sugars are best avoided as much as possible.

The last 40% of the book has a long list of recipes. Through the book, there is detailed information on foods, including with recommended brand names. However, the brands, as also the recipes are entirely US focussed. That said, with the broad principles in mind, it is not too difficult to work out good foods & associated preparation methods.

I am sure the advice in this book will work.

My rating: 4.25 / 5.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very informative book. I learned a lot from reading it.

What does “healthy” mean to you? Consider that you are only as healthy as the food you can digest.

What you put into your body is essential—but unless your digestive system can effectively process the fuel you give it, even the most nutritious foods can go to waste or cause digestive issues. Our resilient gut microbiome is fundamental to the harmony and balance of cognitive and physical functions. It’s time to get back to the basics of healthy eating and jump-start optimal well-being with an integrative health coach and nutritional food chef Ellen Postolowski, working from the inside out. With a focus on improving gut health—a vital component of whole-body wellness—Gut Driven helps you heal your body, achieve balance, and reset your relationship with what you eat.

Postolowski’s easy-to-follow and supportive Reset 90/10 plan is a comprehensive three-week plant-based program focused on eliminating inflammatory foods often associated with illness, chronic diseases, and autoimmune issues, and examining coping mechanisms that aren’t serving you or healing body, mind, and spirit. Then, you’ll move on to the Maintenance phase, where the author’s proven approach to reintroducing eliminated foods one at a time helps you identify and focus on potential sensitivities and intolerances, all with the goal of becoming mindful of what “healthy” means to you by embracing that self-care goes beyond food, water, and exercise. With over one hundred simple and delicious Maintenance and Reset recipes to support your Reset 90/10 experience—emphasizing whole-food, nutrient-dense meals—Gut Driven shows you how to use food as medicine to help you become your healthiest, happiest self.



I got this to help me to learn more about my gut and how to go about changing my gut health. It was very fascinating and filled with tons of information. I will probably be reading this every so often to keep fresh in my mind.

Having IBS I did know some of the things in the book but this certainly expanded my knowledge. I will find this very useful and will continue to follow many of the suggestions and ideas in this book.

Quite a few books have come out recently on the importance of our gut microbiome (most notably, Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz) and changing your diet to fix directional issues. Most are about lifestyle changes while this book focuses on a temporary fix: an elimination system over three weeks to determine what is causing your issues. The author does a good job of setting it all up for you: explaining the issues, how the plan will work, how to stick to the plan, and how to address confounders such as stress and support systems.

The book is broken down into four sections: the foundation of gut health, the 90/10 reset program, going into maintenance mode after the three weeks, and then the recipes. As well, there are additions in the back including charts for your reset program, lists of good and bad foods, suggestions for the program, symptoms and food tracker, notes, and of course resources.

The basis of the program is to be 90% compliant and have 10% wiggle room. Over the three week period, you have a heavy elimination of animal products (milks, eggs, meat) and plants that are problematic (such as tomatoes or skins of apples). The three weeks focus on these four topics : remove, replace, reinoculate, and repair. Week one is about detox, week two is the honeym0on stage, and week three is the transformation stage. After that, the author lays out how to evaluate how the weeks went, what was discovered, and whether you would want to stay in the program an extra week or go straight to the maintenance recipes/stage.

There are pages and pages of recipes for each stage. It is important to note that this isn't a diet and it isn't about losing weight. Instead, the focus is on identifying which food items are causing problems. Yes, it is mostly plant-based in the beginning stages as a result.

The author is friendly and keeps it light throughout. The plan is fairly easy to follow though if you have a family, you'll have to figure out how to avoid the temptations from the foods in the pantry that they want to eat. But this is only three weeks so it isn't a terribly long investment of time to learn more about your own body.

In all, nicely written and laid out. Friendly and informative - the author takes pains to cover all aspects of digestion health. This is definitely not about weight loss or healthier eating (though since the 3 weeks are mostly plant based, it is rather healthy by nature). Other topics affecting the gut such as stress, companionship, chemicals, etc. are also discussed briefly. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Gut Driven
Author: Ellen Postolowski
⭐️⭐️⭐️

This would be a great book for anyone beginning to learn about gut health and basic wellness plans. However, if you are fairly knowledgeable about the gut microbiome and nutrition this book doesn't provide anything new and the meal plan is a pretty basic elimination diet. Some of the recipes did sound like they would be tasty so I will be trying them out. There were quite a few typos and odd formatting in the digital copy which got a bit distracting but I'm assuming that will be corrected in the final book. Overall, I found this to be something that would be helpful to those starting on the path to better gut health.

Thanks to NetGalley, Frankie Mahwah Publishing, and Ellen Postolowski for an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Ellen Postolowski's Gut Driven: Jump-Start Digestive Health to Nourish Body, Mind, and Spirit is a fascinating read. Filled with information, Postolowski explains all the things which can contribute to wreaking havoc on our digestive systems. Don’t worry, there’s also detailed information to help fix it all.

I know a bit about gut health because several members of my family suffer and have been helped by special diets. Hoping for some creative recipes, I think I can tailor several of the ones included in Gut Driven.

I would 100% recommend this book to folks looking to find out more about how diet affects their body’s health. There’s a ton of helpful info here.

I appreciate the focus on whole-food and nutrient dense meals. This book has me looking at my digestive system and inflammatory foods in whole new light. The Reset 90/10 appears manageable and I can wait to try it.

Gut Driven is a very interesting book. There is so much that most people don't know about the gut and microbiome in regards to health and how to heal your body and it is an area largely ignored by most doctors. Our body is what we eat and all body functions are affected by the gut.
I found the 90/10 plan to be extremely challenging the three week restriction phase is extremely restrictive, and I couldn’t commit to that 100% and I’d say my 10% was more like 40% but I still noticed improvements and although you don't have to be perfect all the time I’m far from on the program but as I slowly make changes and focus on more plant based foods, whole grains, and unprocessed foods in my diet I am seeing heath benefits and changes in my body that are helping me to continue down this path. Packed full of information and very strict but beneficial. If you want to improve gut health this book is filled with excellent information to help you achieve your goals.

This was a very interesting book. I am very drawn to books especially regarding gut health, as it seems to be an emerging area of interest. There is so much we don't know about the gut and microbiome, and it seems to be an area of huge growth potential. So many systems and body functions are affected by the gut.
I found the 90/10 plan to be very challenging in my own personal life. With young children, it just doesn't seem like a great time to endeavor to take it on. The three week restriction phase is VERY restrictive, and I just cannot commit to that at this point. I do like that she includes the 10% so you don't have to be perfect at all times. I definitely plan to focus on more plant based foods, whole grains, and unprocessed foods in my everyday diet.
Thanks to Netgalley for the book to review.

I have two daughters who could have written this book… Searching for a better diet has been going on with them for a long long time … when they got started on a plan like you suggest in your book it worked. so I know your book is right on. Reading this book has wonderful helpful ideas and definitely nails the regimen needed for a healthier life.