The Gut Health Diet Plan: Recipes to Restore Digestive Health and Boost Wellbeing

Very few books are as explicit about your Microbiome problems with delicious recipes as this one and I have bought a lot. Beautifully put together and easy to understand and the recipes easy to follow and delicious.I highly recommend it.Jutta

I’ve been through countless - dozens - of books to try & help myself: clean eating, fodmap, intolerant, crohns, colitis, MS diet, sugar, gluten, fat free, free from, paleo. None of those books were me, I was at a loss.And then I read The Gut Makeover by Jeannette Hyde & the lightbulb came on: there I was, this was me. Ms Hyde referenced Christine Bailey so I got this book.This is me - the bloating, pain, discomfort, awful toiletting experiences, and after the YEARS of suffering, here’s a SHORT plan to claim my life back. 2-5 weeks - what’s that for reclaiming your health & life? Absolutely nothing.I was 90% the way to her dietary plan anyway, I had loads of the foods & supplements, had adapted my diet (99% of what I’d previously eaten was off the menu, re-educating yourself takes time & you have to lose the poor-me attitude, face up to the situation & commit to taking responsibility for your health) so the only big adjustment I had left to make was dropping ALL grains, then there are little tweaks that make perfect sense & a couple I’m not sure about but I’m willing to trust her & try (coconut oil & butter) because everything else I agree with. First day, flat tum for the first time in months. End of week one, never hungry but I’d lost 6lbs.Ms Bailey is a nutritionist & has helped many people, she knows what she’s talking about and can pinpoint issues from a broad case load.I don’t feel like I’m alone anymore operating in the dark; I now have a way forward, I can eat and plan with confidence. For example, I had a morning smoothie then spent most of the morning on the loo. I’d received the book the day before, when I started reading it, it said I may be able to tolerate one piece of fruit - I’d had 3 in my smoothie. So, next day, my smoothie just had a bit of pineapple (with various other ingredients). No problems.What Ms B says not only makes sense personally but I understand it. I know how to move forward now, pennies are dropping all the time as I tweak away. I’m delighted.If I’m not on the toilet all morning, I can go out - I may be able to get a job if I can get on top of my digestive issues. I can now plan to drive long distances again without planning toilet stops or taking emergency supplies for ad hoc stops etc. Just the reduction in stress from that one issue is enough justification for buying this book! I’m only up to page 30!!!Will update as I go - the title says it all but doesn’t come up when you search the commonly accepted terms eg IBS so now you’ve found it, buy it - if it’s not you, sell it on.Update: pages 32-3, quite intimidating, cover supplements & whilst I already take quite a few of them, I think you need to cherry pick what you want to take. I don’t think I’ve seen basic advice re STOP EATING SO MUCH to rest your digestive system (other than the info on fasting which I’m not talking about, what I’ve personally found essential is not over eating, reduced portions at every meal; also mint, tomato, citrus doesn’t agree with many people who suffer - as I do - from reflux so take care with those). I rarely meet a skinny person in IBS clinics! There’s also no mention of issues like excessive bowel mucus production - I recommend extra protein in your diet if you suffer from that little lovey! Apparently mucus production uses up a lot of protein. I don’t suppose you can cover absolutely everything. Also, the latest developments in retail food aren’t included eg Nush almond milk cream cheese would be a nice addition to that fab sounding cheesecake.The recipes for fermented raw foods eg kombucha, kefir, yogurt & sauerkraut I find exciting. You don’t always want to make EVERY SINGLE THING you eat but, if you do, lots to work with here (Waitrose, at least, do have raw varieties of these, so expensive though).There are good looking recipes for basics such as bread, as well as very different & enticing recipes eg Asian coconut broth with prawn dumplings, broccoli pizza, braised chicken with olives & preserved lemon, quiche, carrot cake, sunflower seed & mushroom falafels. Can’t wait to get stuck in - never seen a recipe book like this one. A highly useful book, I’m very glad to have it. I don’t subscribe to coconut oil though - I’ve got gallstones & am mindful of what George Jelinek has to say about fats for the MS diet: if it changes state in the fridge, don’t use it. I think research in the past year has questioned the use of coconut oil too. So, question everything & do what suits you - there is no one-size-fits-all in terms of digestive issues and you should learn what suits you and know your body best.

This book is very informative and provides both excellent information and practical examples for maintaining a healthy digestive system

This book is easy to read and understand. The recipes are easy to follow. I bought this one because I'd given mine away.

I have suffered with inflamatory bowel disease for 30 years and have constantly researched and tried lots of different dietary approaches' to try to help my illness. I stumbled across this book by accident whilst looking for another one. I,m so pleased I found this little gem!! This book covers several different approaches' and gives a brief explanation of each one. I follow the low fodmap approach which works well for me ( remission for 5 years now!!) the recipes in this book are gorgeous, I dont need to cook different food for my husband as he really enjoys everything I,ve tried so far. Each recipe is calorie counted and so easy to follow. I,ll definitely be looking for more cook books by Christine Bailey, absolutely brilliant.