Best foods for a healthy gut

There’s a lot of talk around about healthy gut bacteria and why we need it for good health, less inflammation and disease, and a healthy brain. But how do we eat our way to a healthy gut?

And why are the bugs in our gut so important?

Lets focus on our gut flora, the good and bad gut bacteria, because they play a really important role in many functions of our body. They’re also known as microbes, or microbiota. We’re actually given most of our gut flora by our mother during birth, but our gut flora is constantly changing, mostly due to what we eat.

When it’s working well it will ferment our food and produce small chain fatty acids which gives us energy.  Think of your gut flora as the gatekeeper. When it’s working well it stops anything bad getting past it. When it sees something bad, it signals to our immune system to take action.  If we don’t have enough good gut flora you can see how everything starts to fall apart. The immune system works overtime as it doesn’t know which bacteria are good or bad. This results in a lot of stress on the body as well as increased inflammation. And sadly our gut flora don’t always work well. They can get disrupted or destroyed, through too much stress, antibiotic use, a bad bug, or a virus, and when this happens the bad bacteria have a chance to setup shop. Which means that our immune system isn’t functioning properly.

Signs your gut flora is imbalanced

The first obvious signs are:

– Bloating and Gas
– Bad pooping
– Headaches and a foggy head
– Acne and skin problems
– Eczema
– Frequent illness, like colds
– Frequent yeast infections
– problems losing weight

This can also lead to a leaky gut which is more of a long term issue if you don’t get on top of it

So how do we feed our good gut bacteria? 

We need a really healthy population of good gut flora for a good immune system and proper functioning of our body.  As mentioned, the best time for this is just after birth when our gut flora is being established. but it’s never too late ! The best way to grow healthy gut flora is to eat lots of fermented foods which act as prebiotics, feeling our good gut flora and making it multiply (probiotics on the other hand are us putting healthy bugs into our body). We have a great article on prebiotics and probiotics here.

Eating a nice clean, healthy diet is ideal to feed the good bacteria and starve the bad. But we also need to eat a good variety of foods as there are so many different types of bacteria which need to thrive. The bad bacteria can live off our body, the membranes in our gut. So they’re thrilled if we stop eating good food as the good bacteria die off and the bad bacteria can multiply without restraint and continue to grow.

Some detailed food tips:

• Eat foods high in prebiotics, probiotics and fibre – there is a definitive list available in this article
• Why do we want to eat more fibre? Some types of fibre definitely act like a prebiotic, which helps feed your healthy gut bacteria so that they can keep your unhealthy gut bacteria in check (so they don’t destroy your gut lining). Other types keep your gut bacteria healthy in other ways.
• Boost the good bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract to suppress the growth of bad bacteria. Either just through a good diet (see above!), or a good diet and some probiotics added in there.
• On the topic of Probiotics: Research is strong with regards to Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactobacillus acidophilus as good probiotic bacteria which live in the gastrointestinal tract and have been found to suppress bad bacteria. I’ve personally had a lot of success with the Metagenic range, specifically the Ultra flora restore and the Ultra Flora Intensive Care
• Ensure you have plenty of anti inflammatory foods in your diet such as those listed in the section above (healthy fats such as fish, turmeric, ginger etc).
• Reduce your salt intake. Research has indicated that diets excessively high in salt can upset the integrity of the gastric mucosa, which can cause inflammation in itself, as well as making it ripe for growth of H.Pylori (6).
• Eat more Iron: Studies have also shown that individuals with low serum levels of the iron binding protein, ferritin, can develop more severe diseases in response to an H.Pylori infection (7). More information on good Iron food sources can be found here
• Eat more zinc : Studies reveal that individuals with high zinc diets or on zinc supplementation are prone to less incidence of gastritis than those without zinc supplementation (8). However, other studies have shown limited results. Given the importance of zinc in the diet, in particular for it’s effect on boosting immunity, it’s always worthwhile to ensure you are eating plenty of zinc rich foods, rather than relying on zinc supplements. Read this article on zinc sources for more information.
• Eat more antioxidants: Research has show that a diet high in antioxidants (vitamins E and C) can also help to reduce the risk of further gastrointestinal disease in the presence of H.Pylori bacteria (11). Read this article for more information on antioxidant foods and their sources, as well as some great recipes high in antioxidant nutrients.
• Drink Green Tea? Apparently so. Studies have shown that drinking green tea can provide anti inflammatory and antioxidant actions on the inflamed stomach lining, preventing further inflammation based disease of the gastrointestinal tract for those individuals at high risk (13). Given there are few side effects of green tea, and along with a diet full of antioxidants, this is absolutely worth a shot if you have recurring H.Pylori or ongoing gastritis and are at risk of further complications.

Subscribe to our email and you’ll receive our free healthy Gut 1 Day Meal plan with 5 recipes

Breakfast: Lemon Blueberry Chia Pudding
Snack: Beet Ginger Juice
Lunch: Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl
Snack: Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Dinner: Thai Meatballs with Zucchini Noodles

What else can help?

Reducing stress and getting more sleep can also affect our gut flora – so remember, eat well, get some zen time and rest up!

For more information read these articles on the importance of fibre or foods high in fibre 

Or if you have an inflamed stomach you can read how to heal it first