Hello,
I’ve just finished the book and I was going through the recipes thinking that they sounded a bit fancy. By that I mean that I would need to get quite a bit of new/unusual ingredients to start. And get organized. But a Mediterranean diet does not have to be like that (I am still spanish at the end of the day!). I am not talking about the restricted one (no grains, no dairy, etc…) but the normal diet that anybody can follow with a majority of fibre rich and bacteria friendly ingredients. My issue is that I’ve eaten low carb (high meat) for so long that all I fancy is still meat, I lack ideas.
My first one would be open sandwich with piled scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and grilled asparagus (I would have that breakfast, lunch or dinner!).
Suggestions?

Both the general Mediterranean diet and the Clever Guts diet are *properly balanced and very varied* wholefood diets. Westerners often eat rather restrictive diets (count number of different foods in each group), too much processed stuff and not enough wholefoods (look much the same going into the pan as when they came off the plant or animal).

I would suggest you use your detailed food and symptom diary (p.187-188) to target one food group or food type at a time. For example Dr Mosley (p.191) advocates *at least* seven brightly coloured portions of fruit and veg a day, mainly vegetables. And a wide variety: twenty to thirty different ones a week! So base your microbiome-friendly recipes around produce: two to four servings at each meal or you will be playing catch-up for the rest of the day.

In the UK an official serving of fresh or frozen fruit and veg is 80g, dried (no added sugar) is 30g. Beans or lentils count once per day. Frozen, canned or dried fruit and veg can be cheaper per portion than fresh, often with little prep time and little waste! You might consider ordering some Spanish/ Mediterranean cookbooks so you are using flavours or ingredients that are familiar to you.

HTH!