When your gut is off, everything feels off. Yet it can be hard to know what to change in your diet and lifestyle to see real, lasting results.
To help you make progress in healing frustrating gut symptoms and chronic digestive issues, I wanted to include a list of food groups that are vital for supporting the health and healing of the gut, immune system, and stomach lining.
Understanding gut health
To understand how to help your gut health, it’s important to understand the importance of your microbiome and gut lining.
Your microbiome is a vast collection of trillions of microbes comprised of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and even viruses and parasites that primarily exist in the colon.
While microbes naturally exist within the GI tract, you need them balanced to feel healthy and full of vitality. Your microbiome is most healthy when it’s highly diverse, meaning there’s a wide variety of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and viruses within the microbiome.
Your microbiome composition is unique to you and is shaped over time by your diet, environment, and lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, many of these factors can damage your stomach lining.
In the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, you have a protective barrier that prevents foreign substances (antigens) from getting through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. However, if this wall is damaged, foreign substances or antigens, such as undigested food proteins, bacteria/microbes, or toxins, can enter the bloodstream. This is what’s known as leaky gut, and it can cause a wide array of issues throughout the body.
Your digestive system is essentially one big, long tube that is connected from the mouth to the end of the digestive tract. Whether you have leaky gut or not, if you’re trying to figure out why you have chronic digestive symptoms, you have to consider what most commonly travels down your digestive tube: what you’re eating and drinking.
Top gut-healing foods
What foods are beneficial for the gut and the entire digestive process? To answer this question, we must understand what the microbiome needs to be balanced and healthy.
The main food groups we want to focus on to correct your microbiome are prebiotic, probiotic, high-fiber, and polyphenol-rich foods, along with bone broth.
Prebiotics
Prebiotic foods are foods that are commonly rich in fiber. Prebiotics provide fuel for the beneficial bacteria in the gut to help promote diversity and balance within the microbiome.
- Asparagus: Contains inulin, a prebiotic fiber that feeds good bacteria
- Peas: A source of fiber and prebiotics that help feed good gut bacteria
- Onions, leeks, and Garlic: High in prebiotics that support beneficial microbes
- Bananas: Provide resistant starch, promoting healthy gut bacteria
- Other fruits and veggies
- Dandelion greens
- Jerusalem artichokes
- Apples
- Avocado
- Cabbage
- Chicory root
- Konjac root
- Burdock root
- Jicama root
- Cocoa
- Flaxseeds
- Seaweed
- Nuts
- Other fruits and veggies
Fermented foods
Many fermented foods can serve as a probiotic in the gut. Here are the fermented foods that serve as a probiotic:
- Yogurt: Rich in probiotics that support beneficial gut bacteria
- Kefir: A fermented milk drink packed with diverse probiotics
- Kimchi: A Korean dish made from fermented vegetables, enhancing gut flora
- Sauerkraut: Fermented cabbage providing essential probiotics
- Kombucha: A probiotic-rich fermented tea that supports digestion
Polyphenol-rich foods
Polyphenols are a group of plant-based compounds that serve as a prebiotic in the gut. Polyphenols stimulate gut bacteria and can be fermented by gut bacteria, which can increase the beneficial bacteria in the microbiome.
- Berries: Blueberries and strawberries have antioxidant properties
- Green Tea: Contains catechins that are beneficial for gut health
- Dark Chocolate: Rich in flavonoids supporting beneficial gut bacteria
- Olive Oil: Contains polyphenols and healthy fats that help reduce gut inflammation
- Black tea
- Plums
- Cherries
- Black currants
- Apples
- Black olives
- Black tea
- Coffee
- Hazelnuts
- Pecans
- Turmeric
- Cloves
- Cinnamon
- Ginger
- Cumin
Bone broth
When talking about gut health, the term “leaky gut” often gets brought up. Out of all foods, bone broth is the most well-known type of sustenance that helps promote the healing of the gut lining. It contains several nutrients the gut lining needs for optimal health, such as collagen and amino acids like glutamine, glycine, and proline.
High-fiber foods
High-fiber foods can be incredibly beneficial. Fiber is a great way to carry toxins out of the body and usually helps people have regular bowel movements. Fiber also helps regulate blood sugar levels.
Some of our favorite high-fiber foods include:
- Legumes: Beans, lentils, and chickpeas offer soluble and insoluble fiber
- Leafy Greens: Spinach and kale provide fiber and nutrients
- Fruits, such as:
- Apples
- Berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries)
- Pears
- Bananas
- Avocados
- Vegetables, such as:
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Artichokes
- Sweet potatoes
- Nuts and Seeds, such as:
- Almonds
- Chia seeds
- Flax seeds
- Pumpkin seeds
- Other:
- Psyllium husk
- Ground flaxseed
Important notes: Grains, such as oats and wheat, are considered high-fiber foods and may support digestion and microbiome diversity in some people. However, we commonly remove grains from the diet when addressing gut health issues because they can be extremely inflammatory for certain patients.
Also, some patients have difficulty tolerating fiber or foods like onions and garlic, depending on the state of their gut. As always, talk with your healthcare practitioner to figure out what foods are best for you.
Lifestyle factors supporting gut health: The quickest ways to heal your gut
If you’re ready to start practicing diet and lifestyle changes to improve your gut health, here are some of the fundamentals of living a healthy lifestyle.
Practices that can help heal your gut:
- Eliminating processed foods and sugars
- Incorporating prebiotic, fermented, high-fiber, polyphenol-rich foods
- Staying hydrated
- Eating whole, single-ingredient, organic fruits and vegetables and cleaning non-organic produce well with baking soda and salt or vinegar
- Engaging in regular physical activity
- Getting regular, restful sleep
- Getting daily sunshine
- Implementing stress-management techniques
- Avoiding unnecessary antibiotics and medications
The 7-day gut reset
One experiment you can try is to eat whole, organic fruits and vegetables and grass-fed, free-range meats while incorporating prebiotic, fermented, high-fiber, and polyphenol-rich foods and bone broth every day for a week.
While we recommend doing this on an ongoing basis, you can see if you notice any improvements and changes in your gut health. You can also try implementing our other lifestyle suggestions.
Schedule your free 15-minute consultation
By integrating these gut-healing foods and practices, individuals can take proactive steps toward enhancing their digestive health and overall quality of life.
Are you ready to learn more about your gut health and how to improve your digestive health? Read more on our blog about gut health, or schedule your free 15-minute consultation with Dr. Paul to explore a personalized approach for a helpful and effective path to recovery.
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