5 books to bring you up to speed on gut health

Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain – For Life, by David Perlmutter and Kristin Loberg, published in April, Dh60.

The quality, quantity, and composition of the bacteria in your gut have enormous influence on your brain, as outlined by Perlmutter, one of the leading natural medicine neurologists in the US and author of the bestselling Grain Brain.

The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood and Your Long Term Health, by Justin and Erica Sonnenburg, published in April, Dh21.

This book offers a new plan for health that focuses on how to nourish your body’s microbes, including recipes and a menu plan. A look at safe alternatives to antibiotics is key.

The Gut Balance Revolution: Boost Your Metabolism, Restore Your Inner Ecology, and Lose the Weight for Good, by Gerard E Mullin, published in June, Dh75.

Mullin is associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. In this book, he presents the latest information on probiotics, elucidates the usefulness of prebiotics, busts the myths on dietary supplements and discusses benefits of gut-healing foods to move to a lean metabolism.

The Microbiome Diet: The Scientifically Proven Way to Restore Your Gut Health and Achieve Permanent Weight Loss, by Raphael Kellman, published in June, Dh67.

With the belief that the microbiome is the key to overall mental and physical health, Kellman takes a scientific look at how to improve digestion and lose weight by balancing your gut bacteria. The book offers a programme to heal your gut and reset your metabolism, along with meal plans and 50 recipes.

The Microbiome Solution: A Radical New Way to Heal Your Body from the Inside Out, by Robynne Chutkan, published in August, Dh58.

Dr Chutkan, gastroenterologist, explains how the standard Western diet and our super-sanitised lifestyles are starving our microbes, depleting the “good bugs” that are crucial for keeping us healthy, and encouraging the overgrowth of exactly the wrong types of bacteria.