Gut Driven

Ellen Postolowski's Gut Driven: Jump-Start Digestive Health to Nourish Body, Mind, and Spirit is a fascinating read. Filled with information, Postolowski explains all the things which can contribute to wreaking havoc on our digestive systems. Don’t worry, there’s also detailed information to help fix it all.

I know a bit about gut health because several members of my family suffer and have been helped by special diets. Hoping for some creative recipes, I think I can tailor several of the ones included in Gut Driven.

I would 100% recommend this book to folks looking to find out more about how diet affects their body’s health. There’s a ton of helpful info here.

I appreciate the focus on whole-food and nutrient dense meals. This book has me looking at my digestive system and inflammatory foods in whole new light. The Reset 90/10 appears manageable and I can wait to try it.

Gut Driven is a very interesting book. There is so much that most people don't know about the gut and microbiome in regards to health and how to heal your body and it is an area largely ignored by most doctors. Our body is what we eat and all body functions are affected by the gut.
I found the 90/10 plan to be extremely challenging the three week restriction phase is extremely restrictive, and I couldn’t commit to that 100% and I’d say my 10% was more like 40% but I still noticed improvements and although you don't have to be perfect all the time I’m far from on the program but as I slowly make changes and focus on more plant based foods, whole grains, and unprocessed foods in my diet I am seeing heath benefits and changes in my body that are helping me to continue down this path. Packed full of information and very strict but beneficial. If you want to improve gut health this book is filled with excellent information to help you achieve your goals.

I have two daughters who could have written this book… Searching for a better diet has been going on with them for a long long time … when they got started on a plan like you suggest in your book it worked. so I know your book is right on. Reading this book has wonderful helpful ideas and definitely nails the regimen needed for a healthier life.

Quite a few books have come out recently on the importance of our gut microbiome (most notably, Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz) and changing your diet to fix directional issues. Most are about lifestyle changes while this book focuses on a temporary fix: an elimination system over three weeks to determine what is causing your issues. The author does a good job of setting it all up for you: explaining the issues, how the plan will work, how to stick to the plan, and how to address confounders such as stress and support systems.

The book is broken down into four sections: the foundation of gut health, the 90/10 reset program, going into maintenance mode after the three weeks, and then the recipes. As well, there are additions in the back including charts for your reset program, lists of good and bad foods, suggestions for the program, symptoms and food tracker, notes, and of course resources.

The basis of the program is to be 90% compliant and have 10% wiggle room. Over the three week period, you have a heavy elimination of animal products (milks, eggs, meat) and plants that are problematic (such as tomatoes or skins of apples). The three weeks focus on these four topics : remove, replace, reinoculate, and repair. Week one is about detox, week two is the honeym0on stage, and week three is the transformation stage. After that, the author lays out how to evaluate how the weeks went, what was discovered, and whether you would want to stay in the program an extra week or go straight to the maintenance recipes/stage.

There are pages and pages of recipes for each stage. It is important to note that this isn't a diet and it isn't about losing weight. Instead, the focus is on identifying which food items are causing problems. Yes, it is mostly plant-based in the beginning stages as a result.

The author is friendly and keeps it light throughout. The plan is fairly easy to follow though if you have a family, you'll have to figure out how to avoid the temptations from the foods in the pantry that they want to eat. But this is only three weeks so it isn't a terribly long investment of time to learn more about your own body.

In all, nicely written and laid out. Friendly and informative - the author takes pains to cover all aspects of digestion health. This is definitely not about weight loss or healthier eating (though since the 3 weeks are mostly plant based, it is rather healthy by nature). Other topics affecting the gut such as stress, companionship, chemicals, etc. are also discussed briefly. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

What does “healthy” mean to you? Consider that you are only as healthy as the food you can digest.

What you put into your body is essential—but unless your digestive system can effectively process the fuel you give it, even the most nutritious foods can go to waste or cause digestive issues. Our resilient gut microbiome is fundamental to the harmony and balance of cognitive and physical functions. It’s time to get back to the basics of healthy eating and jump-start optimal well-being with an integrative health coach and nutritional food chef Ellen Postolowski, working from the inside out. With a focus on improving gut health—a vital component of whole-body wellness—Gut Driven helps you heal your body, achieve balance, and reset your relationship with what you eat.

Postolowski’s easy-to-follow and supportive Reset 90/10 plan is a comprehensive three-week plant-based program focused on eliminating inflammatory foods often associated with illness, chronic diseases, and autoimmune issues, and examining coping mechanisms that aren’t serving you or healing body, mind, and spirit. Then, you’ll move on to the Maintenance phase, where the author’s proven approach to reintroducing eliminated foods one at a time helps you identify and focus on potential sensitivities and intolerances, all with the goal of becoming mindful of what “healthy” means to you by embracing that self-care goes beyond food, water, and exercise. With over one hundred simple and delicious Maintenance and Reset recipes to support your Reset 90/10 experience—emphasizing whole-food, nutrient-dense meals—Gut Driven shows you how to use food as medicine to help you become your healthiest, happiest self.



I got this to help me to learn more about my gut and how to go about changing my gut health. It was very fascinating and filled with tons of information. I will probably be reading this every so often to keep fresh in my mind.

Having IBS I did know some of the things in the book but this certainly expanded my knowledge. I will find this very useful and will continue to follow many of the suggestions and ideas in this book.

Gut Driven
Author: Ellen Postolowski
⭐️⭐️⭐️

This would be a great book for anyone beginning to learn about gut health and basic wellness plans. However, if you are fairly knowledgeable about the gut microbiome and nutrition this book doesn't provide anything new and the meal plan is a pretty basic elimination diet. Some of the recipes did sound like they would be tasty so I will be trying them out. There were quite a few typos and odd formatting in the digital copy which got a bit distracting but I'm assuming that will be corrected in the final book. Overall, I found this to be something that would be helpful to those starting on the path to better gut health.

Thanks to NetGalley, Frankie Mahwah Publishing, and Ellen Postolowski for an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts in this review are my own.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very informative book. I learned a lot from reading it.