4 foods that heal your gut and reduce inflammation (in as little as 24 hours!) | Dr Will Bulsiewisz

**Jonathan** (0:00)
Welcome to ZOE Science and Nutrition, where world leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.
Heart disease, dementia, depression, diabetes. What do all these conditions have in common? The answer is inflammation. And according to today's guest, we're living through an inflammation epidemic. Some drivers of inflammation, like stress, are hard to change. But in many cases, small and simple changes can cause a huge, measurable reduction in the inflammatory markers in our blood and supercharge our immune system. Today, I'm joined by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, a board-certified gastroenterologist and New York Times bestselling author who's worked closely with ZOE scientists for the last five years. His new book, Plant Powered Plus, released last week, explores the central role that inflammation plays in health. In this episode, he shares the discoveries that surprised him most and how to manage your inflammation levels by harnessing what he calls the Four Nutrition Work Horses. By the end of the episode, you'll have a clear understanding of what inflammation is, how it can cause damage, and what you can do today to wrestle yourself from its clutches. Will, thank you so much for joining me today.

**Will Bulsiewicz** (1:31)
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.

**Jonathan** (1:32)
Well, it's very exciting because you've just released a new book and I am sitting here in a studio in London and the heating has broken. It's absolutely freezing and I'm wearing my coat. So you are in South Carolina and I think you told me you might have been at the beach this weekend.

**Will Bulsiewicz** (1:50)
It's wild this time of year how different the weather patterns could be depending on where you live. So I'm not quite in Florida. It's not that nice. But yes, over the weekend, we did have some beautiful weather.

**Jonathan** (2:01)
All right. So I'm pretty jealous about that. And I'm not going to even think about it for the rest of the show. Instead, let's jump into our quick fire round of questions from our listeners.

**Will Bulsiewicz** (2:10)
Let's go.

**Jonathan** (2:11)
Will, is inflammation always bad?

**Will Bulsiewicz** (2:15)
No.

**Jonathan** (2:16)
Can a regular sleep routine reduce inflammation?

**Will Bulsiewicz** (2:20)
Yes.

**Jonathan** (2:21)
Is your immune system most active during the day?

**Will Bulsiewicz** (2:25)
No.

**Jonathan** (2:27)
Can stress impact your gut microbiome?

**Will Bulsiewicz** (2:30)
Definitely.

**Jonathan** (2:31)
Finally, what new scientific discovery about the immune system has most surprised you as you are writing this book?

**Will Bulsiewicz** (2:39)
After three years of research, Jonathan, I am completely convinced that you cannot separate the gut microbiome from the immune system, that they rise and they fall together. We see this in fecal transplant research that's emerging. You see this in cancer treatment where if you support the gut microbiome, it actually improves the response to cancer therapy. So it is a wild time and it is exciting because we have opportunities to heal by healing the gut.

**Jonathan** (3:09)
Well, I think that's super exciting. It's a brilliant start to the podcast. I was thinking about how inflammation has become like a buzzword for people talking about wellness and on social media. I think that has brought with it a lot of confusion about what inflammation really is, a sense that maybe the whole thing is a bit hocus pocus and why it matters. So maybe we should start with like, you know, why did you decide to write a book about inflammation and the immune system?

**Will Bulsiewicz** (3:45)
Well, just to contextualize, my first book, Fibre Fueled, came out in 2020 It was a surprise success. I was a full-time medical doctor. I did not expect to transition into a career as an author or working with ZOE. And that's at the stage for me where I have been blessed with a beautiful opportunity to write books that can impact the health of people that I've never met from across the globe. So as I sat there and considered what do I want my next book to be, it actually was quite clear to me, Jonathan, that inflammation, to me, is the health-related story of our time. I understand that we talk quite a bit about metabolism, obesity, or other health-related conditions. I would actually make the argument that those fall under the umbrella of inflammation. And as I was researching this topic over the course of three years, I asked a very basic question. How many health conditions can I identify where I could stand before you on the ZOE podcast, I could stand before Tim Spector and Sarah Barry, and have them scientifically critique me? How many health conditions could I find where I have evidence to back me up and say, this health condition is associated with inflammation? And the answer was, I found more than 130