The Clever Guts Diet: How to revolutionise your body from the inside out

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One reason I’ve written this book is that I’m convinced that many common gut conditions are better treated by a change in diet than by drugs or antidepressants. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I was quite irritated with the section on babies born by Caesarean being proclaimed inferior health-wise to those born vaginally - more likely to be obese and develop allergies in later life.

Without these Old Friends your immune system is liable to over-react, leading to all sorts of gut related problems. And it was these experiments that proved to be truly revolutionary, because they turned popular beliefs about digestion on their head. We tend to think of the stomach as lying somewhere in the middle, down by the belly button, as that is where a lot of the gurgling noises and stomach pains seem to come from, but it’s actually much higher up, right below the diaphragm. This was to ensure that the camera would have as clear a view as possible when it got to the murkier parts of my digestive system. I will also be looking into the latest treatments for a number of gut problems, ranging from gluten intolerance to irritable bowel syndrome.

Down there live creatures that have never seen the light of day, more than fifty trillion of them, at least one thousand different species, a richer diversity of life than you would find in a rain forest. Anyone that's interested in their microbiome or altering their diet to make their gut healthier, and possibly losing weight and making yourself more 'happy' in the process. During my medical training and more recently as a television host, I had taken part in some pretty bizarre and painful experiments, but nothing quite like this.

He then decided to move into medicine, intending to become a psychiatrist, studying at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, now part of UCL Medical School. Also known as gastric ulcers, these are open sores that develop on the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Very informative about what microbiome actually is and how it affects us - our mood, our weight, our cravings. Mosley takes us on a revelatory journey through the gut, showing how junk food and overuse of antibiotics have wiped out many “good” gut bacteria leading to a modern plague of allergies, food intolerances, and obesity. Some of us barely reach half of our daily recommended intake of fibre in the UK, and upping our levels of plant fibre in particular helps to not only keep us regular but improves our gut’s absorption of key vitamins and minerals.

Not a diet book or a fad book but a really useful and interesting account of the complex eco-system that is our gut, supported by decent science.

The reason I haven't given 5 stars is in one part of the book it says to cut out veg like broccoli in phase 1 and then the meal plans in Phase 1 are full of broccoli? At the moment when we hear that over 50% of food eaten in Britain is manufactured and processed by the food industry, it is sobering to be told that that industry is actively wrecking our guts in ways that are deeply harmful. First of all, this isn't a traditional diet book aimed to help you lose weight (and if you catch me with one of those, feel free to tell me off- I am banned from diets for health reasons). Beyond these fun bits, the book amounts to a selection of sensible advice and recipes to sort your stomach aches. We have also seen a huge surge in autoimmune diseases, ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to type 1 diabetes, which again are primarily caused by an immune system that has gotten out of control.The thing that grabbed my attention when I first saw this book mentioned on the blog Booker Talk was the promise that it would cut sugar cravings.