The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health

by Emeran Mayer

became obvious to me that a diet that is high in plant-based complex carbohydrates (from a large variety of different plants), plant-derived fat, grains, naturally fermented foods, and fish, and low in red meat, animal-derived fat, refined sugars, and processed food is the blueprint for most healthy diets around the world. Even better, if you add the benefits of polyphenols (molecules with health-promoting effects that are largely processed by the gut microbiota) contained in olive oil and red wine, certain plant products with anti-inflammatory effects such as turmeric, curcumin, and ginger, and a large number of fermented foods teeming with microorganisms, you have a simple road map for a diet that is good for your microbes (increases the diversity, abundance, and populations of health-promoting microbes), good for your gut (reduces intestinal permeability, e.g., improves a leaky gut), and good for your brain (prevents low-grade immune activation in your brain).