Give Your Gut Health a Glow-up With These 8 Expert-Approved Tips
Gut health is all the rage right now. Influencers share hacks to stave off bloating while celebrities endorse their favorite probiotics. But what do the experts have to say about how to improve gut health?
The truth is, the path to a healthy gut might actually be more straightforward than you think. “You do not need a colonic every couple of weeks, you do not need a $100 supplement to ‘clean your liver,’ and not everyone needs to be taking a probiotic,” says gastroenterologist Monia Werlang. While researchers are still discovering everything that gut health entails, what we know so far indicates that the most effective way to get the results you’re after revolves around following a good gut health diet and making a few simple (though not always easy) lifestyle tweaks.
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Why gut health is so important
People sometimes think of “gut health” as a euphemism for pooping regularly. But it actually affects a lot more than our digestion, says gut health dietitian Kelsey Russell-Murray. “When we talk ‘gut health,’ we really mean the health and function of our gut microbiota, which is this colony of trillions of bacteria, yeasts, and parasites in our large intestine,” she says. “And these bacteria have a vital and widespread role in a lot of our overall functions.” That includes immunity, metabolism, hormone regulation, blood sugar stabilization, skin health, and even mental health.
Werlang adds that if our gut bacteria is out of whack, we may not be able to fully digest the foods we eat. “If your gut is not healthy, you’re not able to enjoy meals or not able to absorb the nutrients that you’re eating,” she says.
How to improve gut health naturally
Better gut health isn’t necessarily found in a pill. How we live our lives — and, especially, what we eat — can make a major difference.
Best foods for gut health
One of the keys to improving gut health is to eat a wide variety of fiber. “The only thing that gut bacteria feed off is dietary fiber,” Russell-Murray explains. “Humans don’t even have the DNA to break down fiber. It passes undigested throughout our entire gastrointestinal tract until it reaches the large intestine, where the gut bacteria break it down.”
But it’s not enough just to make like Popeye and eat spinach every day. You want to include several kinds of fiber in your diet, since different bacteria feed on different types. “Having a really wide and diverse variety of plant foods is going to support your most robust, abundant and diverse gut microbiota,” Russell-Murray says.
Certain fruits and veggies like bananas, leeks, and artichokes are known for having particularly large amounts of prebiotic fiber. But rather than zeroing in on them, Russell-Murray says the best gut health diet strategy is to try to get in a wide array of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, and herbs and spices. “There was a large study done as part of the American Gut Project that showed that having at least 30 different plant foods throughout the course of a week was associated with having a much more diverse gut microbiota,” she says.
Alongside these prebiotics, the best food for gut health also includes fermented dishes like yogurt and kombucha. These have live probiotics, and regular consumption has been shown to increase the good bacteria in our gut.
Worst foods for gut health
As much as the best gut health foods can help improve the diversity of our microbiome, there are also ingredients that can have a negative influence. Russell-Murray says sugar has been villainized as a gut health enemy, but that’s been overexaggerated. “It’s a bit of a myth,” she says. What’s actually worse for our gut are food additives like artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, preservatives, and coloring and thickening agents. “They’ve all been shown to potentially decrease diversity in the gut microbiota,” she says.
Dr. Werlang adds that processed meats like sausage, bacon, hot dogs, and cured meats can increase the risk of colon cancer and colon polyps. There’s also some evidence that red meat might not be great for our colon (though nothing shows that poultry or fish could be harmful).
The bottom line of a good gut health diet? “Focus on whole foods when we can, and limit more heavily-processed foods,” says Russell-Murray. That said, Dr. Werlang suggests making changes gradually since, if you’re not used to eating so much fiber, you may not yet have enough bacteria to properly digest it. “If you make a very drastic change in your diet, you may feel worse temporarily while you’re kind of ‘hiring new workers,’ or new bacteria to help digest the new things that you’re eating,” she says.
Lifestyle factors
What we eat isn’t the only thing that impacts our gut. If you’re looking into how to fix gut health, keep these factors in mind, too:
Medications: Some drugs can also have negative effects on our gut, even if they’re over-the-counter. “If you take a lot of anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen, naproxen, Aleve, Advil, aspirin, or for a long period of time, that can cause ulcers in the stomach, that can cause colitis, [or] ulcers in the small bowel,” says Dr. Werlang. She also suggests steering clear of antibiotics unless they’re absolutely necessary and prescribed by a doctor, since they can kill off good bacteria and cause an imbalance in your microbiome.
Alcohol: Booze does us no favors. “Not only is it toxic to your liver, but it can cause pancreatitis if you drink a substantial amount for a long time. It can also cause some issues in the lining of the stomach, increase your risk for gastroesophageal reflux disease, and cause diarrhea from inflammation,” says Dr. Werlang.
Smoking: As Dr. Werlang bluntly puts it, “smoking doesn’t help anything in health.”
Exercise: Getting regular physical activity is a top recommendation for how to improve gut health. “If you’re having issues with your gut, whether that is bloating or constipation, the majority of things in GI will be helped with exercise,” says Dr. Werlang. Anything that gets you moving can do the trick.
Hydration: Unless you’re that rare person who actually drinks enough water, your gut would likely benefit from adding an extra glass or two to your day.
Stress: Although stress is not the primary cause of gut health issues, according to Dr. Werlang, it will typically worsen any symptoms you already have.
Should you take gut health supplements?
Although not everyone needs to take a probiotic, they can be helpful for improving gut health in some people — if they’re used correctly. “When probiotics first started getting recommended, you just grabbed one off the shelf and tried to choose one that had a lot of bacteria in it and maybe a lot of different types of bacteria,” says Russell-Murray. “Hardly anyone got any results like that.”
Experts have since realized that there’s no single best probiotic for gut health. Instead, probiotics should be prescriptive, like medication. One strain might help with irritable bowel syndrome, while another might be useful if you’re struggling with diarrhea. The best probiotics for gut health are based on the particular issue you’re dealing with.
One helpful resource to figure out which probiotic will be the best gut health supplement for you is usprobioticguide.com. “It will highlight the strain of bacteria that you’re looking for, the health condition that it was indicated for, the strength of the evidence in clinical trials and research studies, and specific recommendations around dosing,” says Russell-Murray.
When to see a doctor about your gut health concerns
While diet and lifestyle changes can be a smart first step in how to improve gut health, you might also need expert input. In particular, Dr. Werlang says bloating, diarrhea, excessive gas, and abdominal pain may not mean anything serious, but can all be signs that something is off. And symptoms like chronic reflux, a change in bowel habits, bloody stool, or difficulty swallowing should all definitely be investigated by a GI doctor.
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