Get Fiber Fueled and Gut Healthy

May 27, 2020 Off By Deby Jizi

When I received the notice in my email that a book I had pre-ordered, Dr. Will Bulsiewicz’s Fiber Fueled, had been downloaded to my Kindle, I started reading it before I even got out of bed. It took me a day or two to find enough time to finish it because I had to fit it between work duties, but it was a literal page turner.

That might sound like high praise, but, to me, it is the book I have been looking for. Four years ago I embarked on a Whole Foods Plant-Based lifestyle, and so many good things came out of my decision to eat healthy, not the least of which was losing almost 40 pounds.

However, I still have some nagging issues that don’t want to budge, like a still sluggish thyroid gland and some eczema on the back of my neck. Both of these chronic conditions have been with me for decades; I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis at the age of 26, over 30 years ago, and I’ve had the eczema since my youngest child was 10 months old, almost 20 years.

Dr. B, as he is often called, is a practicing gastroenterologist and self-proclaimed nerd, and he shares solid research on how the gut microbiome controls almost all of our health. In fact, he quotes Hippocrates as declaring, “All disease begins in the gut.” Which is amazing since Hippocrates died around 340 BCE, and this sounds like news to me!

Now we know that the gut microbiome is vital to health. The research is rock solid. The possible answer to those pesky chronic issues I still carry with me is that my gut needs a reboot. What we eat feeds our gut microbiota, and Dr. B. gives us a roadmap of how to get there.

Our gut thrives on the diversity of the plants we eat. It makes sense that by eating a wide range of fiber-rich fruits and vegetables we will feed the diverse number of microbes in our gut. Don’t worry, I am not going to go over all of the science involved, other than to tell you that the answer is really simple, eat the rainbow.

Dr. B is not the first one to tell us to do this, but he might be the first one to shout it from the rooftops and tell us that our gut depends on it, and, therefore, our health depends on it. It’s true that for years I’ve been hearing, “Eat the rainbow,” but now I know why. Each plant offers something different that our gut needs.

It goes along with how much humans like variety. We get bored eating the same old thing. We are not cows, happy to munch away at grass all day. Also, our seasons provide us with the variety we crave. Nature itself is diverse, and by embracing that diversity in our diets, we can reclaim our health.

A few takeaways I got from Fiber Fueled are:

Eat real food-meaning stop eating processed foods, along with the additives many of them contain.
Eat a wide variety of fiber rich organically grown fruits and vegetables as close to their natural state as possible.
If you are going to eat meat, follow the 90/10 ratio of all six Blue Zones.
Ditch the dairy; none of the Blue Zones embrace dairy, and dairy does a number on your gut. It has been directly related to diseases such as prostate cancer and Parkinson’s and many other chronic conditions.

This book is packed with information, and this review cannot do it justice. You will just have to read it yourself. The science is complicated but highly interesting, and the solution is simple and clear. It can be summed up in one of my favorite quotes from the book: