The Microbiome Diet: The Scientifically Proven Way to Restore Your Gut Health

Book Preface

IF I EVER MET ANYONE WHO SEEMED TO DEFY ALL CONVENTIONAL RULES for weight loss, it was Robert.

Robert just could not manage to lose weight.

He was a middle-aged man who was my patient about eight years ago. I was treating him for multiple health problems—heart disease, high blood pressure, high levels of insulin, and a blood sugar reading that I was very concerned about. But I knew that all of these issues would greatly improve—and perhaps even disappear—if we could just get Robert down to a healthy weight.

Before he had become my patient Robert had been on every diet in the book. Atkins, the Zone, low-carb, low-fat—you name it, Robert had tried it. But to his great frustration, none of these diets ever worked for him. He would starve himself for weeks, trying to stick to the rules he had been given, only to find that he could barely lose five pounds. Then, the moment he broke the diet even a little bit—a single forbidden baked potato when he took a client to a steakhouse, splitting a piece of chocolate cake with his wife on their anniversary—he would gain back even the little weight he had lost. By the time he came to see me, Robert had simply given up.

So for most of the time I had been treating him Robert was nearly fifty pounds above his ideal weight. He drank, he smoked, he ate all the wrong things, and I simply could not get him to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

“What’s the use, Doc?” he would always ask me. “No matter what I do, the weight doesn’t come off. So why bother trying?”

Now he was in the hospital with pneumonia. When I thought about the potential effect that might have on his weight, my heart sank. Robert had had previous hospital stays for different ailments, and he had always emerged five to seven pounds heavier. The combination of starchy hospital food and lack of movement exacerbated his tendency to gain weight, and I always dreaded the aftereffects of his prolonged periods of bed rest.

This time, however, I was treating Robert with a course of antibiotics. To counter the effects of the antibiotics I was also treating him with probiotics. Antibiotics kill the bacteria that make us sick, but they also kill the healthy bacteria that live throughout our bodies, especially in our intestinal tract. Probiotics counter the destruction that antibiotics cause—and sometimes, as we shall see, they have even more powerful effects.

I had also prescribed prebiotics for Robert. Prebiotics are foods and supplements that nourish healthy bacteria. Whereas probiotics help to replace the healthy bacteria that have been destroyed, prebiotics help to support the healthy bacteria that still remain.

So this time, instead of gaining weight, Robert lost seven pounds in two weeks—without making any effort at all. Why?

Trying to solve this mystery led me on a journey I never expected: the discovery of a new approach to diet and health that transformed my own understanding of weight loss and one that I hope will transform yours too. I believe that this book will challenge everything you know about the causes of obesity—and about the kind of diet that can successfully overcome it.

Thanks to Robert, I was able to develop a diet that benefited dozens of my patients, helping them lose weight quickly and to keep it off forever.

Patients who followed this new approach were able to lose pounds, inches, and body fat, especially around the stomach, waist, and abdomen.

They found that after years of struggling to lose those stubborn pounds they could never get rid of, all of a sudden the weight was coming off by itself.

They discovered that within a few days they began to lose their cravings for sugar, bread, baked goods, and other “forbidden foods,” such as macaroni and cheese, pizza, and ice cream, and within a few weeks those cravings were gone completely. For the first time they could remember they no longer felt like a prisoner of their own appetites, forever longing for foods they knew were not good for their health.

Best of all, once my patients had spent a few weeks on this diet they were able to drop to only 90 percent compliance. After a few more weeks on this diet they were able to maintain only 70 percent compliance—all while remaining at their healthy weight! My new approach to weight loss had enabled my patients to reset and reboot their sluggish metabolism so they could periodically indulge in an occasional rich food or sweet dessert without fear of developing the old cravings—or gaining back the old weight. And unlike the vast majority of dieters, who tend to regain all the old weight and more, the people on this diet continued to maintain a healthy weight for years.

What is the secret to this extraordinarily successful weight loss plan? What mystery had my patient Robert unlocked for me on his “accidental diet”? The answer lies in the microbiome, the mysterious but oh-so-important world that each of us holds within.