I'm a sucker for just about any health-related documentary and this one was no different. The talking heads are knowledgeable and the host, Giulia Enders, is positively delightful. The heavy use of animations was (mostly) cute and effective. I've been kinda obsessed with gut health for a while, so it was nice to know I'm on the right track. We eat lots of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts and usually have stuff like yogurt, kimchi, natto, kefir, and a few other fantastic fermented foods in our fridge.

The title is probably too cutesy as there's nothing really to "hack" about gut health. The knowledge is out there: plentiful water and sleep; less sugar in your diet and no sugary sodas; eat less fast food; and reduce intake of highly-processed foods and anything that comes from a box with a list of unpronounceable ingredients. We'd all do better if we heed Michael Pollan and not "eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize" and to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I know that proscription sounds easy, but at least have some sauerkraut!

There's some good information in here, but it's buried with a lot of unnecessary content and storytelling. The real life cases are useful but they waste a lot of time on presentation. The runtime is over an hour, but it feels like they could've had a better program if they cut it down to 40 or 50 minutes.

The parts with the little felt characters were easily the best. It's hard not to appreciate the amount of work that went into creating those, and those moments were definitely the most informative as they explain in layman's terms what's happening inside your gut, and how it all works. Just watching those scenes can give you a basic understanding of what's going on in there.

There's just so much pointless stuff in between the useful parts. I really felt for that lady that was having a hard time losing weight as a single mother of 3 and also had to care for her mom, but what was up with the motorcycle scenes? And that guy just laying on the floor staring up and smiling at an inflatable uvula? So pointless. Fair to say that some strange choices were made when making this.

Well this really was a surprise.

An informed, well produced, balanced and fun looking at the complexities of the gut, thr micro biome.

I had pre conceived ideas, I went in expecting the usual Netflix documentary banging on about 'the message,' I was genuinely expecting to be told about the terrors of eating meat, this genuinely surprised me.

It genuinely, dared to talk about the damage caused by eating processed foods and sugars, even taking antibiotics. Stuff we've known for a long time, that's often ignored.

It resonated for me on a personal level, as someone who was obese, had IBS, used to pop tablets daily, and turned it around.

I really liked the mix of people, each of them played a part.

More like this please Netflix.

8/10.