Stacy Sims on Gut Health: Roar Book Review

Expert Insights

After listening to health podcasts for years, I finally noticed that many of them - if not most - featured men talking about biohacking, sports and fasting, without making any distinction between men's and women's health, as if men and women were all the same.

And then Stacy Sims popped up in my feed, saying that low-carb might not be the best option for women and that intermittent fasting makes us more stressed.

So refreshing, especially if you've tried that men's approach to health without getting the results you expected and only ended up feeling like you were the problem.

What does Stacy Sims say about the gut health in her book Roar: Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong Body for Life?

It's not all in your head. It's in your gut!

Finally, someone recognizing that the trillions of microbes in our gut and the many different metabolites they produce influence our food choices and how we feel.

What you as a woman may think - and have been told for decades - is all in your head is actually all in your gut or, more specifically, what's not in your gut.

The human intestines contain more than 100 trillion microbes (10 times more than any other cells in the body). These enormous microscopic armies manipulate our eating behaviors and moods for their own survival - often at the expense of our overall health.

Cravings and Emotional Health

Giving in to cravings, especially before and during your period, is still often seen as a lack of willpower or simply being "too emotional".

You can change that by eating different foods that feed different groups of gut bacteria - the ones that support emotional wellbeing and stability.

When it's 10:30 at night and you're struggling with inexplicable anxiety and battling to resist the call of a chunk of dark chocolate, it is not a lack of self-control or a freak-out. It's your gut flora sending some seriously strong messages to your brain. Yes, your gut talks to your brain.

For example, as levels of important gut flora, such as the Lactobacilli strain (part of the Firmicutes variety), decline, various symptoms of psychological distress such as anxiety, poor sleep, and high heart rate increase.

Gut Health and Weight Loss

If you're interested in learning more about probiotics and metabolic health, I've gone into more detail about them in these articles:

This Gut Microbe May Help You Maintain Weight Loss

Clostridium butyricum Health Benefits: What the Research Says

And here's another interesing quote from Roar: Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong Body for Life:

In one particularly revealing study, a group of overweight women and men kept their calories constant but changed their diet to include probiotic-rich yogurt. After just 6 weeks, they lost an average of 4 percent body fat. They didn't eat less or exercise more. They simply improved their digestive health, which in turn boosted their metabolism and led to fat loss and a healthier body composition.

The Bottom Line

If you're looking for practical health advice for women that covers everything from gut health and diet to fitness and hormones, Stacy Sims' book is a must-read.

She says: Women are not small men. We simply need to eat, train and even fast in ways that work with our bodies - not just follow the same approach as men - to support our health and reach our goals without putting unnecessary stress on our hormones.