Feeling like your gut has been giving you trouble lately?
Over 60 million Americans struggle with gastrointestinal (GI) diseases and many more people have issues having regular bowel movements.
And because gut health affects so many other aspects of your well-being - including immunity, nutrient absorption, anxiety, and mood - it is something you really need to start paying attention to.
Though every person's situation is going to be different, here are 11 proven methods to improve your gut health, whether you have noticeable gut issues or not!
Note: Each tip gets progressively more aggressive. If you have serious bowel issues, the best tips will be towards the bottom.
- Chew thoroughly and eat slowly
- Drink plenty of water (but maybe not at meals)
- Eat enough fiber and prebiotic foods
- Eat probiotic foods
- Get moving
- Get enough magnesium
- Limit ultra-processed foods
- Try a low FODMAP diet
- Try Whole30
- Check for food sensitivities
- Have a stool sample tested
1. Chew thoroughly and eat slowly
This seems obvious, but it is very easy to forget.
The digestive process starts at the mouth. Focusing on chewing thoroughly will help break down the food for easier absorption, taking strain off of your stomach and small intestine.
Eating too fast can also shock your system and cause irritation in your stomach. Focusing on your food, rather than a TV or a phone, will help you be intentional about how fast you're eating and how much you're eating.
2. Drink plenty of water (but maybe not at meals)
Water is crucial to keep your stool soft and moving through your system.
Males should look to get 1 gallon (3.7 liters) of water each day while females should get about 0.7 gallons (2.7 liters) each day.
Now, some people have said that drinking water at meals will dilute your stomach acid and make it harder to digest food. However, there is no hard evidence of this and you should take opportunities to drink water when you remember.
The one caveat would be if you have hypochlorhydria. People with hypochlorhydria do not produce enough stomach acid which can lead to indigestion, constipation, bloating, and even heart burn (you read that right).
So, people with hypochlorhydria should try to drink less at the start of a meal and more afterwards.
3. Eat enough fiber and prebiotic foods
The majority of Americans have a severe lack of fiber in their diets, and fiber is crucial for digestion and keeping you regular.
Fiber is a type of carbohydrate found in plants that your body cannot digest. Fiber is deemed soluble or insoluble depending on whether it can dissolve in water, and each type has its own benefits.
Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water and provides bulk to your stool to help it move through your system. It helps prevent stool from becoming too soft or too firm.
Soluble fiber, on the other hand, does dissolve in water and is often (though not always) a prebiotic. You know about probiotics, but you may not know much about prebiotics. Prebiotics are certain types of soluble fibers that the good bacteria in your gut (probiotics) feed off of. With this fuel, probiotics can produce postbiotics which are digestive enzymes which help with the digestive process.
Put simply, prebiotics are the food of probiotics, and prebiotics + probiotics = postbiotics.
Foods rich in prebiotics include:
- Onions
- Garlic
- Apples
- Oats
- Cashews
- Lintels
4. Eat probiotic foods
Probiotics are certain strains of bacteria that are known to be healthy for your gut and digestion. Bacteria are the foundation of good gut health, and many GI issues stem from its imbalance.
Bacteria perform a number of functions, including:
- Producing digestive enzymes (postbiotics) to break down food that otherwise couldn't be digested
- Synthesizing certain vitamins, including vitamin K and D
- Protecting the gut lining from bad bacteria
- Producing short chain fatty acids which fuel the cells of the colon and have anti-inflammatory properties
- Syntheses of neurotransmitters that balance mood and emotion
Because of the crucial role bacteria play, even small imbalances can knock off many other aspects of your health.
To help ensure a healthy gut flora, eat more of the following probiotic rich foods:
- Yogurt and cheese (look for words like "live cultures")
- Fermented foods like pickles, kimchi, and sauerkraut
- Kombucha teas
Eating a variety of probiotic rich foods with sufficient prebiotics as well should be enough to maintain a good gut flora. However, if you feel you need more support, you can get a prebiotic supplement such as Seed (unpaid link).
5. Get moving
Though your intestines have muscles which can help move stool along the path, these muscles are usually insufficient to keep you regular by themselves.
Movement and exercise are crucial to keeping you regular.
Running, walking, and core workouts, in particular, are very good at helping move stool through your system and keeping you regular.
You can even try massaging your own stomach (as long as it isn't painful) to help move things along, especially if you are sick and in bed.
6. Get enough magnesium
Magnesium is another one of those things that American diets really lack on.
Magnesium pulls water into your digestive tract, making your stool larger and softer, promoting your bowls to contract and move things along. Because of this, many laxatives are magnesium based.
This is especially helpful if you find yourself often dealing with constipation and stool that is too firm.
Magnesium rich foods include:
- Nuts and seeds
- Avocados
- Dark chocolate
- Legumes
- Bananas
- Leafy greens
7. Limit ultra-processed foods
Ultra-processed foods are those that contain many ingredients that do not come from nature. The food is heated, extruded, and manipulated with chemicals in ways that strip it of much of its nutritional value.
Fast food, junk food, and many other items on shelves these days are ultra-processed.
But what is the issue with ultra-processed foods?
As it relates to the gut, ultra-processed foods often lack beneficial fiber and probiotics, cause spikes in blood sugar (due to their easy absorption), and don't send as strong of signals to the brain letting us know when we are full.
8. Try a low FODMAP diet
If nothing else on this list has worked and you want to get serious, consider a low FODMAP diet.
FODMAP stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. Yeah, it's a mouth full!
These are certain types of sugars that some people have a hard time digesting. It can cause irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).
A low FODMAP diet is a fairly intense process that entails cutting out high FODMAP foods and slowly reintroducing them to see what might be causing you GI issues. From then on, you simply avoid the foods that cause you the most issues.
Read articles online and talk to your GI doctor to discuss how to perform this diet properly.
9. Try Whole30
Whole30 is another type of elimination diet not too dissimilar to a low FODMAP diet.
Whole30 is a 30 day challenge that focuses on eating whole, low-processed foods and cutting out foods that have been shown to aggravate the digestive system and hormones in many people. The challenge is ended by slowly reintroducing foods and seeing how you feel with each one.
Foods that are often illuminated in Whole30 include:
- Diary
- Grains
- Added sugar
- Alcohol
It is a relatively intense process that requires real time and dedication. Talk to your GI doctor about how to properly implement it.
10. Check for food sensitivities
If the FODMAP and/or Whole30 elimination diets were too complicated or inconclusive, consider getting food sensitivity testing done.
First, it's important to note that a food sensitivity/intolerance is different than a food allergy. A food allergy is an immune system response that believes certain foods to be pathogenic and needs to be attacked. This is very serious and can cause anaphylactic shock and even death. Food sensitivities/intolerances, on the other hand, are foods that the body has a hard time digesting or absorbing, leading to bloating, constipation, and other GI issues.
Many allergists and GI doctors can run a food sensitivity test, but do your research to understand what the test is actually looking for and what it actually means. Some food sensitivity tests only look for IgG markers, and these have been shown to be ineffective at identifying true food sensitivities.
One test that I have heard good things about from several doctors is the ALCAT test from Cell Science Systems. It looks for a variety of biomarkers to identify food sensitivities.
Even if you're not experiences noticeable GI issues, this would be a good test to get done to improve your overall health.
11. Have a stool sample tested
There are a variety of stool sample tests that look for different things, including:
- Anal fissures (a small cut in your anus, where poop comes out).
- Colitis (swelling or irritation in your colon, part of your intestine).
- Colon polyps (small clumps of cells in the colon).
- Colorectal (colon) cancer.
- Diverticulosis (bulging pockets in the intestine).
- Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPC) (not able to break down food in the intestines).
- Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding.
- Hemorrhoids (swollen veins in your anus).
- Infections (bacterial, viral, or parasitic).
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (irritation in your digestive tract).
- Steatorrhea (excess fat in your poop).
- Stomach ulcers (sores in your stomach).
Your GI doctor will be able to help you choose the right test depending on your symptoms. However, I strongly encourage you to ask questions and understand what biomarkers the test is looking for and what technology is used to run the test.
If you feel your gut microbiome might be off, I highly recommend this GI MAP test by Diagnostic Solutions. It will tell you if you have bacterial infections or overgrowth in you gut, as well as parasites and certain viruses that might be causing GI issues.
Bonus tip
If all else fails, your GI doctor is likely going to recommend some sort of manual inspection, i.e., a colonoscopy or endoscopy. Some issues are hard to detect or resolve with the tips provided above, so this may be the last option to find relief.
Conclusion
Your gut is connected to so many other aspects of your health, that any investment you can make into improving is well worth it.
The tips near the top of the list may be able to resolve the gut issues you have, but the further you can work your way down the list, the greater health improvements you are likely to see.