Reddit reviews The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health

Along the same lines, I like The Good Gut.

>in your personal opinion do you think meat would be a problem with this?

I don't think so. I note that the Sonnenburgs follow what I will characterize as a very plant-heavy "Paleo" diet with some meat and fish. The Sonnenburgs are part of a group of scientists who have been studying the Hadza people in Tanzania. Researchers have been studying the Hadza as proxies for our evolutionary ancestors. For more about this research, visit this Web site. The Hadza eat meat in the form of game animals they hunt. The huge difference is the amount of fiber the Hadza consume each day. The Sonnenburgs state that the Hadza typically consume 100 - 150 g of fiber per day. The average American typically consumes about 14 g of fiber per day. That's a huge difference.

In the interview I link to, the Sonnenburgs recommend consuming at least 30 - 40 g of fiber per day. They recommend getting this by eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole-grains and legumes. What you want is to develop a very diverse gut microbiome by consuming a wide variety of fiber. Also, try to eliminate as much highly-processed food and sugary drinks as you can.

>What kind of plan do you think would work for me?

The Sonnenburgs give some diet recommendations in their book, The Good Gut. In my own life, I follow a vegan diet which is a "hybrid" between those recommended by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Dr. John McDougall. I have calculated that I typically consume 60 - 70 g of fiber per day. I probably drink at least 48 oz of water per day to help process all that fiber.