Fiber Fueled Book Review #Q15
Picture from Amazon^^
Back here at the Quarantine 15 club, we listen to a LOT of podcasts which often leads to reading books. It used to be that I’d keep a book list and wait patiently for it to be ordered or come in at the library* but since time nor money mean anything anymore** podcasts now lead to the purchasing of books. Given the focus on nutrition/wellness/health in lieu of the more coping mechanism behavior of early pandemic times, this means reading quite a few books about habits and nutrition. Enter:
Fiber Fueled by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz
“Dr. B” aka “The Gut Health MD” is GI with a practice in Charleston, SC. He also was on about…1,000 podcasts### this spring/summer to preach the Fiber gospel, as it were. My utter fascination with this topic took me some weird places, including and not limited to, acquiring jars to pickle some onions***, eating kimchi^, subscribing to a CSA for produce and driving Mr. Selfie slightly insane with my grocery requests.^^ Needless, to say, I really loved learning about how gut health impacts so much of our day-to-day wellness to the point, that’s it referred to as our “Second Brain” and impacts our:
Digestion
Immune System
Metabolism
Genetic Expression
Hormones
Brain
Mood
Cognitive Function
It’s not…news that you now, what you eat matters and the book begins with the anecdotal evidence. Dr. B started eating more plants in his diet because his wife-to-be was vegetarian. But he was surprised to find the 50 lbs he had been trying to work off with six-days-a-week vigorous works and his anxiety dropped off after a simple change: swapping out his usual fast food for a plant-based smoothie.
The message of this book is incredibly simple: Eat a winder diversity of plants. That means fruits, vegetables, and fresh herbs. Even better, eat them in different ways like raw, cooked and fermented. Now I love a CauliPower crust more than anyone but no, that doesn’t count here. We’re talking about whole foods. The positive message from this book is that regardless of what your diet is, be it a Standard American Diet, Paleo, Whole 30, Vegetarian or Vegan or Gluten-Free, and whether you summer from autoimmune diseases or you're the Chris Traeger of humans, you can improve your gut and therefore, overall health but incorporating a wider diversity of plants in your diet.
I really appreciate that this book really explains the importance of our microbiome and lays the groundwork for understanding why the gut is so important and then why fiber s important for your microbiome (Spoiler: Fiber is the food of the microbes). I also appreciate it that the book isn’t claiming to be an end-all-be-all diet. The author is totally upfront about food being the number one component of health but not the total picture. The takeaway is that how healthy you are impacts your gut health and how healthy your gut is impacts how health you are. A lot of those old school diet books are like “HERE! The SECRET to a FULL HEALTHY LIFE is don’t eat Peas! (or whatever)”, but Dr. B never fails to point out that a healthy lifestyle is a holistic picture that includes:
The Food You Eat
Exercise
Sleep
Going Outside
Socializing with Other Humans and/or Pets
He also discusses elimination diets and the very 2010s idea that if there’s a food that bothers you, you should eliminate. He pushes back against this idea with some simple math. Fiber comes from plants. Microbes eat fiber. Different plants feed different microbes. So, when we get rid of say, potatoes forever, the microbes that eat potatoes die off. This makes perfect sense to me but is certainly counter to the common elimination practices I’ve seen like eliminating FODMAP foods, gluten#, and lectins. The counter practice is to “build up” gut strength so that part of your microbiome actually grows so you can slowly handle more of what’s bothering you - the “low and slow” method. As someone with severe gut health issues, this is such a hopeful message.##
One thing, it’s not really a con, per se, but I don’t need in a nutrition book is that it includes a 28-day Fiber Fueled meal plan. I totally get that this is totally based on consumer demands - people prefer that they just be told literally want to eat for each meal. If you need that structure, awesome. If you don’t, it’s always nice to have new recipes. To encourage a wider diversity of plant consumption, you count “plant points”. That seems totally gimmicky to me but again, to someone else that might be an awesome, simple way of thinking about their diet. So, not a complaint and certainly doesn’t take away from the rest of the book for me.
Other pluses for this book: It is very well cited - which as a nerd, is important to me. in fact, there are so many citations of the clinical research, it’s literally available on its own website because it would have made the book like twice as thick. I also appreciate when nutrition “specialist” actually points out the hierarchy of clinical research. For example, if the plan/idea/guru you’re following is spouting off ONLY about what happened in rats, that ain’t it, my dude. Because, and I know this is groundbreaking but, humans are not rats.^^^ Most importantly, I will admit to being sold on any theory wherein eating potatoes is not off the table, and in fact, encouraged. I love me a potato.