Gut Healthy Foods That Will Make Your Body's Microbiome Smile

The effects of an unhealthy gut can be disabling. When you have poor gut health you feel sick and low on energy. You’re stressed, bloated, and suffer from fuzzy thinking. Figuring out what’s wrong is just the beginning: then you need to fix things.

There are two steps you need to take to heal an unhealthy gut. The first is to stop eating the foods that are making you sick and start eating gut healthy foods instead. Foods to avoid for gut health include:

Dairy
Gluten
Processed and fried foods
Artificial sweeteners
Soy, peanuts and other legumes
Corn
Trans and hydrogenated fats
Yeast and foods that contain yeast
Starchy fruits and vegetables like bananas, potatoes and peas
Sugar
Anything that has been treated with chemicals or pesticides

Cutting these items out won’t be easy. They are everywhere, and in all the foods we’ve been marketed into loving and craving. The good news is that if you substitute healthy, gut-healing foods, you’ll start feeling better fast.

So what is the good stuff that gives your body the nutrition it needs without harming your gut microbiome? Here are our 7 favorite gut healthy foods. Eat them and you’ll be on the road to feeling better, thinking more clearly, and having more energy:

7 Gut Healthy Foods

1. Healthy fats – An easy rule to remember is that you should only eat fats from foods you can eat and can squeeze to get out the oil. Examples include sunflower seed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. Grass-fed butter and ghee are good choices too.
2. Nuts and seeds, as well as their butters, are rich in fiber. That’s good for gut health. They also contain healthy fats and lots of protein, vitamins and minerals. Opt for almonds, walnuts, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and chia.
3. Non-starchy vegetables like carrots, asparagus, leeks and radishes
4. Non-starchy fruits like apples, grapefruit, oranges, cherries, tomatoes, avocados and rhubarb
5. Clean and lean proteins like free-range poultry, wild-caught fish, and grass-fed meats are higher in Omega-3 fats, vitamin E, CLA and beta-carotene.
6. Fermented foods like kimchi, kefir and unpasteurized sauerkraut contain beneficial bacteria. Taking them in boosts the healthy bacteria in your microbiome.
7. Chickpeas and lentils support gut health and have an anti-inflammatory effect. If you're battling any sort of gastrointestinal flare up or issues, I still recommend you skip any legumes and seeds until it heals.

In addition to adding these healthy, gut-healing foods, there are other steps you can take. Try slowing down your digestion by eating fiber-rich foods. Some good choices include gluten-free oatmeal and ground flaxseeds.

If you have heard about probiotics and want to add them to your diet, it’s a great idea. One of the best options is one of the fruits you are probably most familiar with: the apple. All kinds of fresh produce can provide the nutrients, fibers and microbes you need, but one apple offers an amazing 100 million different microbes, plus fiber. You can’t do much better than that for less money!

What gut health questions do you have? Leave them in the comments below!