You can also chop it into salads, stir-fries, or pasta dishes for a boost of flavor and gut-friendly benefits. Drink it straight as a refreshing beverage, or add it to smoothies for a probiotic boost. You can also use kefir as a base for overnight oats or mix it into pancake batter for a tangy twist. While you can eat yogurt on its own just fine, yogurt is incredibly versatile if you find it boring on its own. Enjoy it as a breakfast base topped with fresh fruit and granola, blend it into smoothies, or use it as a creamy base for salad dressings and dips. You can also substitute yogurt for sour cream in recipes for a healthier twist.
Reactions to new dietary guidance
Avocado oil offers these same benefits, giving you another way to reap the food’s inflammation-busting benefits. Try using it in homemade vinaigrettes or high-heat cooking methods, such as roasting. What you eat directly influences the makeup of bacteria in your gut. A healthy gut helps keep chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer at bay, reduces inflammation, keeps your brain healthy and helps you maintain a healthy weight.
How ultra-processed foods affect your gut
Zoe’s head nutritionist and author of Every Body Should Know This, Dr Federica https://www.escoffier.edu/blog/world-food-drink/what-is-a-holistic-diet/ Amati, says increasing the volume of fermented foods in your diet is a great way to improve your overall gut health. “Fermented foods, like kimchi, sauerkraut and other fermented fruits and vegetables, contain gut-friendly probiotic microbes and can help support the gut microbiome,” she says. To truly improve your gut health overnight and support your overall health, focus on eating a diet rich in probiotic and prebiotic foods daily. “You’ll repopulate the gut bacteria with probiotics and then keep the probiotic bacteria healthy with prebiotics,” says Williams.
Polyphenols are nutrients found in a wide variety of foods and have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory impact which is important for gut health. The most common sources of polyphenols are fruits, vegetables, spices and herbs, black tea, and coffee. This microbiome is made up of about 100 trillion microbes between your large intestine and small intestine and it includes different types of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Each person’s gut microbiome is unique and impacted by many things including genetics, age, gender, diet, and environmental factors. Mushrooms contain prebiotic fiber and compounds that support gut bacteria. This pungent bulb is a natural prebiotic, feeding beneficial gut bacteria.
A focus on protein and “real” foods
You might notice that you haven’t been sick as often as usual, but it’s hard to know if that’s due to the probiotics. Your healthcare provider might suggest using these products preventively if you have a history of infections, or using them to help restore your microbiome after treatment with antibiotics. These products are all available over the counter (OTC), in grocery stores, drug stores and health and wellness stores.
Data Sources and References
Always check with a healthcare provider about specific foods to avoid and incorporate, especially if you have a digestive or other health condition. A healthcare professional can help you identify which foods to increase and decrease in your diet. Sometimes, specific conditions or factors can affect this, and a doctor can tailor these tips to what will be the healthiest for you. It contains high levels of the indigestible fiber inulin, which feeds healthy bacteria like bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. Asparagus also has high levels of B vitamins and inflammation-fighting antioxidants. Having a healthy gut impacts many other parts of your overall health including immune health, mental health, and even your risk of obesity and chronic illness.
Examples of Foods High in Fiber
The team can feed different products to rodents, monitoring overall gut health as well as running behavioural studies, for example seeing how they react to stress. Our first question is if the process of fermentation is of any benefit,’ Ramya adds. The researchers found that lactate alone or bacterial metabolites in sterilised brine significantly altered the intestinal population of microbes in a different way to the unsterilised sauerkraut brine. They fed the same products to germ-free mice colonised with human faecal bacteria to make them ‘humanised’. In these mice, the fermented food appeared to have the biggest impact in the small intestine, with effects largely independent of live microbes. If you want to treat a particular issue, you might want to take a specific probiotic supplement that your healthcare provider has recommended for that purpose.
17. Prebiotics
Try our Sauerkraut & Sausage Casserole for a warm, comforting meal any night of the week. Though these seeds may be tiny, a 1-ounce (oz) serving of chia seeds covers roughly 35% of your daily fiber nutritional needs. Green vegetables are packed with micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Those with the darkest green color are among the better options because they’re more nutrient-dense. Packed with vitamins A and K, calcium, and iron, these leafy greens are one of my favorite additions to powerful detoxifying, inflammation-fighting green juices. It also has antiviral and antimicrobial properties, reducing growth of the bacteria we don’t want living in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and helping to rid the body of excess yeast.
9. Sources of fiber
Garlic and onions are rich in inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS), potent prebiotics that nourish beneficial bacteria. They also possess natural antimicrobial properties, which help control harmful microbes while promoting healthy ones, contributing to a balanced gut environment. Diet and gut health are closely related and changing what you eat can lead to a healthier gut. The best foods for gut health including those high in fiber, probiotics, prebiotics, phytochemicals, and Omega-3s. Lentils are packed with fiber and plant-based protein, promoting digestion and gut bacteria growth. Their slow-digesting nature helps maintain stable blood sugar levels.
- The most common types of good bacteria are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, with each having its own specific strains.
- The studies look promising, but consuming fermented food won’t be a quick fix and should become a lifelong habit, Ramya advises.
- They experience acidity after meals, bloating by evening, irregular bowel movements, or a constant sense of discomfort in the gut.
- It’s also packed with B vitamins, calcium, manganese, zinc and copper.
- Gut health also shapes mood and focus, linking digestion to brain function.
- You can think of it as a protective layer that helps neutralize potential troublemakers before they get too far.
Make Your Own Sauerkraut
The healthstartsinthekitchen live cultures in kombucha help balance gut bacteria and reduce bloating. Drinking it in moderation supports gut health without overwhelming the system. I recommend eating foods that directly support these microbes — like simple, well-tolerated carbs such as white rice, sweet potatoes and ripe whole fruits. Once you can tolerate these simple carbs, add more fermentable fibers to feed beneficial gut bacteria and fermented foods to strengthen your gut lining.
Examples of Foods High in Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Other Healthy Fats
Over time, these foods may contribute to inflammation and digestive issues. Some people also avoid grains, legumes, dairy, and certain vegetables or fruits to eliminate digestive symptoms or improve gut health. However, it’s best to speak with a doctor before making any diet changes. Not as well-known as probiotics, prebiotics are non-digestible elements of certain foods that act as a food source for the beneficial bacteria in the gut. Probiotics, on the other hand, are the actual beneficial microorganisms themselves.