The Best Diet Book of the Year

No recommended food lists, no menus, and no presumptuous guidelines. This was not really written as a diet book, but it should be required reading as a baseline for every dieter. If you use a diet to support wellness – you will benefit from this insightful book.

I found this small book as I was browsing in the sea of newly published books about microbiome and wellness diets. “Microbiome” became a buzz-word in the scientific world in the past several years. It rapidly trickled to wellness and diet blogs, and inspired a large bundle of books that claim to guide all of us to perfect health based on this newly popular science.

Go ahead and amuse yourself by visiting Amazon.com and searching for the books about microbiome. Click through all the related book titles. Overwhelming, isn’t it?  Which books will contain the most helpful information and advice?

After flipping through the pages of many of these books I came to several personal conclusions.

First, as someone with firsthand experience on the transforming power of a microbiome based diet, it was good to see the growing awareness to the healing power of food.

Second, I wish the pioneers of microbiome diets were still living today, to witness the fruits of their early efforts. Decades before all the current “diet wizards” wrote their books, predecessor like Dr. Sidney Valentine Haas and Elaine Gottschall were already saving lives teaching sick people how to heal themselves by healing their gut.

Third, while the new books are each slightly different, they are “all the same”. Each writer claims to suggest the best foods we should eat, menus we should use and habits we should adopt. Do as they say – and be healthy and happy.

IF ONLY IT WAS THAT SIMPLE…

Lastly, there is no single diet that is better than all the others. Everyone with  a deep understanding of the human microbiome and respect for its complexities will arrive at one conclusion: a diet must be individually tailored to each person. There can be some common diet guidelines matched to different conditions, but there is no “one size fits all” solution when it comes to the foods that are best for us.

All these reasons bring me to this one small book that I like so much more than the rest. Written by a young medical student from Germany and illustrated by her sister, it helps us gain great respect for the incredible realm inside us. Darm mit Charme (“Charming Bowels”) – became a bestseller as soon as it was published in Germany in March 2014. It was translated to English and published  in the USA in 2015.

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ By Giulia Enders , is my current favorite book.

I liked the author as soon as I read the preface of her book. Young, open minded and insightful, she realized early on that her dermatological problems were just a manifestation of her intestinal problems. This led her on a quest to better understand the amazing machine that we call the GUT.

There are no elitist statements, no “know it all” pieces of advice, and no groundbreaking discoveries here. Just simple descriptions and explanations, humble perspectives and helpful illustrations. As we better understand how it all works, dieters will find it easier to revisit the “best diet” concept.

Note to my friends and families that use SCD as a therapeutic diet. This may be wishful thinking on my part, but as I read the book and watch the videos online, I can’t stop feeling that Geulia Enders is continuing on the path that Dr. Hass and Elaine Gottschall blazed. She is on her way to make great progress in teaching the world new chapters on gut wellness and general health.

You can watch Geulia Enders on you tube, Giulia Enders: Gut Reaction, Giulia Enders Intestinal School | Skavlan , Giulia Enders | Part 2 | Skavlan. Rumbling Tummy?