ZOE Science & Nutrition
4 foods that heal your gut and reduce inflammation (in as little as 24 hours!) | Dr Will Bulsiewisz
22 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to ZOE Science and Nutrition, where world-leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health. heart disease, dementia, depression, diabetes.
Chapter 2: Is inflammation always bad?
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.
Chapter 3: What health conditions are linked to inflammation?
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 Bolshevich, 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 workhorses. 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.
Chapter 4: How can I identify chronic inflammation symptoms?
Will, thank you so much for joining me today. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.
Chapter 5: Why might doctors overlook the root cause of illnesses?
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.
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 for it. It's not that nice. But yes, over the weekend, we did have some beautiful weather.
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 quickfire round of questions from our listeners.
Chapter 6: What is 'leaky gut' and why is it significant?
Let's go. Will, is inflammation always bad? No. Can a regular sleep routine reduce inflammation? Yes. Is your immune system most active during the day? No. Can stress impact your gut microbiome?
Chapter 7: How does time-restricted eating affect inflammation?
Definitely. And finally, what new scientific discovery about the immune system has most surprised you as you were writing this book?
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. We 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.
Well, I think that's super exciting. It's a brilliant start to the podcast. And I was thinking about how inflammation has become sort of like a buzzword for people talking about wellness and on social media. And I think that has brought with it like 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.
Chapter 8: What role do fiber and nutrients play in gut health?
Yeah. So maybe we should start with, why did you decide to write a book about inflammation and the immune system?
Well, just to contextualize, my first book, Fiber 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 set 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.
130 more than 130 and these are yes autoimmune diseases yes allergic diseases these are things that we classically think of as being inflammatory but these are also metabolic diseases hormonal health conditions mood disorders cognitive health issues so much of what we are struggling with in the modern world is tied to inflammation That was shocking to me. So I followed up with a second question.
How many of these more than 130 health conditions can I step forward with a study? And many of these studies are in the last five years. A study that shows that these health conditions are also tied to a damaged gut microbiome. and all of them were, every single one. Now, the science has to be done. The research has to be done.
There are rare conditions that people are dealing with as they listen to this podcast that may in fact be inflammatory, may in fact be driven by dysbiosis or associated with dysbiosis, which is damage to the gut microbiome. In rare health conditions, it's harder to get the research done because you have to accumulate enough people with that specific disease.
But with regard to the common health conditions, These health conditions are associated with inflammation and dysbiosis. And the evidence would suggest that three out of five deaths in the modern world, three out of five, 60% are associated with inflammatory health conditions. These are the health-related issues of our time.
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