A few favourites 🧠 the issues you loved most

I‘m away this week, so here are the six Second Brain issues readers keep coming back to. A good week to catch the ones you missed.

As you read this I’m somewhere on a fellside in the Lake District, hopefully with dry socks, definitely with a flask of tea.

I’m taking my twice-a-year step back from the research papers, so instead of a new deep-dive this week I’ve pulled together six of the issues you’ve responded to most since I started Second Brain.

Some are the most read, some are the ones that got the most replies and questions, and a couple are the ones I most enjoyed writing. If you’re newer here, this is a lovely way in. If you’ve been with me a while, consider it a chance to reread the ones worth a second look.

Start here if you’re new:

If you only read one, make it this. It's the clearest map I've written of what your gut microbiome actually is, and what genuinely moves it. A proper foundation for everything else gut-microbiome related here.

The practical one:

If hitting your fibre target feels like a slog, this is the post that shows you the easy wins, the small swaps that quietly add up. And because it's more doable with something actually worth eating, here's a recipe from my new book Fibre Power to go alongside it.

The surprising ones:

I didn't expect this to land the way it did, but it turns out creatine is one of the topics you're most curious about. If you've been here a while, you'll know I'm very sceptical of most supplements, but the muscle-supporting evidence for creatine, alongside resistance exercise, is hard to deny.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you may find this one useful too. It's my honest read on when probiotics are worth it and when they're not.

The geeky one I loved:

Fun microbiome facts that you can weave into any conversation, the kind that make you go ooh really?

That’s your reading list! I’ll be back next week with a fresh deep-dive.

Leave a comment or hit reply and tell me which one you go for, or which past issue you’d most like me to revisit. I read every one, and I’ll get to them when I’m home with the mud washed off my boots and, likely a nostaglic bowl of the Lake District’s sticky toffee pud in front of me.

Chat soon,

Emily xx