Right now, your body is home to trillions of tiny helpers that work day and night inside your gut to help digest food, lift your mood with regular serotonin boosts, and bolster your immune system by fighting off harmful pathogens. Together, they come together to make a bustling ecosystem: your microbiome.
When we talk about gut health, we’re usually discussing the best ways to keep these bacteria well-nourished, fueled to do their job to the best of their ability. Having a gut-friendly diet is all about choosing the right foods that’ll support digestion, minimise inflammation, and increase the diversity in the microbiome.
Eating this way is much easier than you might think, so, without any further ado, here is a guide on the best things to eat and to avoid if you want to have a healthy gut.
What Makes a Diet ‘Gut-Friendly’ in the First Place?
For the uninitiated, your gut will benefit the most from foods that are packed with fibre, beneficial bacteria, and anti-inflammatory compounds. There aren’t many foods that’ll tick all of these boxes, so don’t put yourself under pressure to put together the perfect gut-healthy meal – just aim to increase your intake of these foods overall.
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Foods That Give Your Gut Health a Boost
Fibre-Rich Fruit and Vegetables
Fibre is arguably the most important food group when it comes to gut health, as it feeds bacteria that your body relies on to support digestion, and helps to keep things moving down there at a steady pace. The odds are that you aren’t eating enough fibre right now – hardly any of us are.
Vegetables like broccoli, peas, spinach, and peppers are a few notable examples that are easy to integrate into your diet, and can quickly become daily staples. Fruits like bananas, raspberries, apples, and strawberries are popular choices that you can eat throughout the day as snacks or add to meals, like breakfast.
Fermented Foods
If you’re on the lookout for a way to include more ‘good’ bacteria in your diet, then fermented foods are probably a good option for you. Kefir yoghurts, miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, and sourdough bread are all popular options and don’t need to be eaten in large quantities to make a difference.
The only risk with some fermented foods is that some are more processed than others, so try to stick to sources that are natural and low in sugar and preservatives.
Healthy Fats
Fats are an essential part of any balanced diet. They might not feed gut bacteria, but they do reduce inflammation, increase bacterial diversity, and strengthen the lining of your intestine. Healthy fats are easy to come by; examples include: avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fish like salmon. These are all easy to incorporate into your diet, via snacks and meals.
Foods That Irritate Your Gut
Ultra-Processed Foods
Fast food, ready meals, and highly processed snacks, like chocolate and doughnuts, are often full of additives, artificial sweeteners, and emulsifiers that irritate the lining of your digestive system and overpopulate your gut with harmful bacteria.
This isn’t to say that you should never indulge in the occasional processed snack – I couldn’t imagine living my life without chocolate!
High Sugar Levels
High levels of sugar unbalance the microbiome by encouraging the growth of ‘bad’ bacteria and causing inflammation. Watch out for the obvious offenders, like chocolate (again), sweets/candy, and fizzy drinks, as well as stealthier sources, like fruit juices and iced coffees. You can add healthier alternatives, like fruit and homemade smoothies, to your diet to give your sweet tooth its fix.
Refined Grains
It might be a bit of a surprise, as we don’t normally think of white breads and pastas unhealthy foods, but when it comes to your gut, they can actually do more harm than good. It’s not that they cause inflammation or any explicit damage, but they digest very quickly and offer little in the way of support for helpful gut bacteria, resulting in a net negative outcome.
You can find better alternatives in the form of wholegrain options, which improve digestion while tasting delicious.
Closing Thoughts
Improving your gut health isn’t as difficult as it might seem at first glance. You don’t need to deprive yourself of entire food groups at a time, or fork out more money on trendy products that’ll be forgotten within a few months. All you need to do is focus more on foods that’ll help fuel your gut bacteria, improve its diversity, and reduce the risk of inflammation. It’s likely that you won’t need to make any huge sweeping changes to your diet.
It can be as simple as having some kefir yoghurts in the fridge for after dinner, a chopped up banana and strawberries with your breakfast, or limiting the amount of ultra-processed fast food you’re eating altogether. If you can gradually stack up a few small changes over time, then they’re far more likely to stick and become a part of your healthier, happier life.
