The 9 best books to help improve your gut health

The scientific proof is now overwhelming: our gut health is crucial to our well-being. Not only does a healthy microbiome help with digestion and energy levels, it also helps stave off neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Not to mention its importance to our mental well-being; our gut health plays a huge role in our moods, behaviours, and decision-making.

Whether you’ve heard lots about this new area of body science, or you’re totally new to it, there’s a book to teach you about the many benefits of practising good gut health, and where to begin with microbiomes, fermentation, and more. Find a handful of them below.

The Mind-Gut Connection by Emeran Mayer (2018)

The subtitle of this book – How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health – pretty much says it all; our gut health is not specific to one region, but has a huge impact on multiple aspects of physical health, and even our behaviours. Combining “cutting-edge neuroscience with the latest discoveries on the human microbiome”, The Mind Gut Connection is a practical guide to eating well, keeping good health, and even staving off the onset of neurological diseases.

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-rated Organ by Giulia Enders

As funny as it deeply informative – the Guardian called its author “utterly, charmingly obsessed with the gut, gut bacteria and poo” – Giulia Enders’ 2017 book Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-rated Organ is an entertaining but straightforward confrontation of a part of our health that, because of ignorance and a sizeable dose of embarrassment, has taken far too long to understand. If you’re looking to understand microbiomes with a macro slice of humour, Gut is the gut health book for you.