This is the story of a young Englishman following dietary guidelines and professional advice but developed IBD which within three years required that his colon be removed. He describes in graphic detail how he was required to manually manipulate his gut to ease the passage of plant material and eventually remove it in a bag. He finally improved his quality of life by eating a 100% animal-based diet. This is a cautionary tale of how one-size-fits-all dietary recommendations can be harmful.

Until recently I believed that eating plant fibre was required by everyone for gut lining health. Once again, it appears that I was wrong. I’ve also recently found out that dietary fibre may even be harmful for people suffering from gut issues like IBS and IBD. The good news is that gut lining health is enabled by a handful of beneficial metabolites, only one of them originating from dietary fibre. The key is metabolic flexibility.