In recent years, research has found the gut microbiome exerts an enormous influence on body and mind, including metabolism, appetite, digestion, the immune system, mood and behaviour. Gut microbiome is the term for the trillions of bacteria that live within the digestive tract, their genes and the environment that houses them.
YuktahaarThe Belly and Brain Diet by nutritionist Munmum Ganeriwal attempts to acquaint readers with the gut microbiome, demystify its role and impact and prescribe the appropriate and strategic (yukt) foods (aahaar) that will preserve health for a lifetime.
The book dives headlong into the subject. What follows is about 250 pages of its effects on physical and mental well-being and the workings of the microbes in the digestive system. Ganeriwal calls it the “inner ecosystem”. The composition of everyone’s gut microbiome is as unique as a fingerprint. There is much emphasis not only on how it can affect weight, disease and biological processes but on how it has a profound influence on one’s state of mind.
Initially, I found myself ploughing through the book but the science gets easier to follow with some effort. As it turns out, you’re not just what you eat, but also what your resident microbes feed on. The Belly and Brain Diet (TBBD) promises to reset and repopulate the gut in 10 weeks by training you to eat favourable foods that boost the growth of lean, metabolism-promoting bacteria.
According to the book, biologists have found that the majority of the gut’s denizens belong to two main phyla: Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Firmicutes are present in larger amounts in obese people. Thanks to these microbes’ digestion process, they create more calories which get stored as fat if they are unused, even if the person eats the same amount as someone who has more Bacteroidetes. Moreover, when someone eats highly processed foods consistently, the microbes ask for more of the same thing to retain their character (composition).Demanding junk food is the microbiome’s act of self-preservation! Before you can say it’s an unfair world and throw up your hands, the book goes on to say that the trick is to eat the foods that have the ‘lean bacteria’ smacking their lips and the ‘chubby ones’ starving.
There are many fascinating facts for the average reader. Did you know, for instance, that for every human cell, there are about 1.3 microbes in one’s body? This means that our bodies contain more bacteria than our own cells. Over a 1,000 species of them. Also, in a nod to the zeitgeist, the author cautions that not all fermented foods and curds and yoghurt are probiotic.
According to the book, a person’s genes play only a small role in determining our weight and health risks. It’s diet and lifestyle that mould it. TBBD is a three-phase strategy to reboot and minimise the bad bacteria, then repair and re-seed the gut with the beneficial ones and ease the path to a long-term, flexible and sustainable eating plan. This means there are foods that are forbidden and to be eaten only in limited quantities in the first two phases. There is also emphasis on eating seasonal vegetables, grains and fruit. The book contains much more information – on exercise, meditation, the flaws in low-carb diets, and how actor Taapsee Pannu, one of the author’s celebrity clients,has benefited from TBBD and even prepared for her athlete’s role in Rashmi Rocket following a specially customised diet.
This is an information-dense book. I had some difficulty keeping track of things and found myself going back and forth several times to ensure I had synthesised it to the best of my capability. An index at the end of the book would have been a great help. It gets a bit technical on and off and my eyes glazed over here and there. Get to the diet, get to the diet, a voice kept whispering, but I ignored it as much as I could and tried to read all the chapters. The book cites learnings from the scriptures that relate to the subject and incorporates much from Ayurveda.
A lot of the information is presented in the form of tables and lists. Meal plans for each season and region, as well as recipes, are included in good numbers. However, there seems to be little mention of quantities one is allowed to eat. The rationale seems to be that mindful eating will signal ‘enough’ and obviate the need for measuring cups. Cravings, which are pretty specific, are not addressed by many diets, including TBBD. The average dieter would hardly be calmed by a piece of jaggery when they’re craving chocolate cake, for example. The contention from the other side is that adhering to the diet will annihilate cravings – but from my long experience of trying, only tangible results can keep the cravings at bay – and that comes from not wanting to mess up when the going is good.
(Sravanthi Challapalli is an independent writer and editor based in Chennai.)