The Gut Makeover: 4 Weeks to Nourish Your Gut, Revolutionize Your Health, and Lose Weight

Writing that bacteria too often get a bad rap, nutritional therapist Hyde reminds readers that the microbes in the human digestive system can be healthy as well as harmful. Her informative and well-researched book explains the essential role of bacteria and provides a four-week nutritional plan to getting the gut back on track and maintaining a healthy microbiome (the scientific term for each person’s individual assortment of bacteria). Hyde suggests that the microbiome could even be considered the “control center for health.” The key to Hyde’s “restoration program” is building a strong gut lining by eliminating foods that can be irritating and replacing them with unprocessed, healthy foods to help replenish the gut’s bacteria. More challenging foods are then gradually reintroduced, although some remain off-limits or heavily restricted, such as sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. Hyde provides easily accessible instructions to follow, including an extensive listing of menus and recipes. Readers hoping to lose weight or just feel better will want to give this eye-opening guidebook a try. (May)