There is some useful information in this book, but the author's way of presenting it makes me want to scream. He is constantly gushing and his enthusiasm comes off as insincere. "I absolutely adore this category [flaxseed and chia seed]...!" Flip over two pages and he's now raving about "cruciferous vegetables and their super chemical sulforaphane", the plants he "love[s] the most".

And the cheerleading. "I'm building a fiber bandwagon. Who's coming with me? Invite your friends, Grab your family. Let's be loud and proud so they can hear us." (Loud and proud. One sentence later we're supposed to Eat The Rainbow. Mixed message?) The cheerleading goes on and on and ON. I just can't.

And the acronyms. FODMAPS and FGOALS and SCFA abound; also SAD which has a new meaning (most of the often-used acronyms, but not SCFA, are in the index). And the cutesy wordies. "Shrooms" and "veggies" . So very twee.

It's really hard to sift through this word salad to find any meaning, but I did get a few take-aways. In Chapter 4, the above mentioned EAT THE RAINBOW, he talks about Dr Rob Knight, whom he actually describes as a "god of gut health" (sort of like one of those chubby Buddhas, one assumes). Dr Knight's startling and useful finding, as presented at 2017's Digestive Disease Week in Chicago, was that "the single greatest predictor of a healthy gut microbiome is the diversity of plants" in the diet. And he quantifies it. 30 different types of plant is a number to aim for. Another take-away from that chapter is that in a study (as the review from 2022 points out, the study is completely anonymous! but oh hey, if we want the citations we can type in the web address at the end of the chapter, how generous) ANYWAY, in "a study" consuming whole grains let to a strong anti-inflammatory effect. A third identifiable piece of useful advice is that leafy greens are nutrient dense, extremely high in fibre and low in calories, so that even if you are unprepared to do a complete diet change immediately, adding more of these to your meals is basically found healthiness (and if you use a variety of them, you're working towards those 30 plants).

My request to the library had been "a high fibre cookbook please", and sure enough by page 200 he's done with the unalloyed puffery and is ready to tell us about The Fiber Fueled Four Weeks that will make us "a plant-based rock star". Uh, thanks. The recipes don't read as being very good at all (I originally said "look", but there are no photos), and I gather he isn't expecting you to like them: he suggests picking out your five favourite dinner dishes out of the 28 and go from there, after you complete the month of gut boot camp. What I was hoping for was a cookbook with appetizing recipes, attractive pictures, and suggestions on how to increase the fibre content of what I already eat. ( )

The author explains the science more clearly than many other books on this subject but there's no new information here and if there were you wouldn't know since nothing is cited (apparently he'll kindly share his citations and tells you so at the end of every chapter but anybody with two brain cells to rub together knows that's not acceptable publishing behaviour and it makes me suspicious. Also the recipes sound terrible.) ( )