Nurture your Gut: The best foods to nourish your digestive system

It’s well known that your gut health plays a pivotal role in your overall health and well-being.  Affecting everything from digestion to immunity, energy levels and even your mood, ensuring you take care of your gut is vital, yet so often overlooked. Your gut refers to your gastrointestinal system which is made up of your stomach, intestines and colon. It is responsible for digesting and absorbing nutrients from the food you eat and then excreting it as waste. Our gut has its own microbiome which is made up of hundreds of different bacteria that helps to break down food and turn it into good bacteria and nutrients that help fuel your body. 

Our digestive system is way more than just a mechanism for breaking down food, it is its own ecosystem entirely that needs the right nutrients to function to its full potential. If you’re interested in nurturing your gut and improving your health, keep reading as we delve into the best foods you can incorporate into your daily diet to nourish your digestive system and keep your gut in peak health.

What foods are best for gut health?

The best foods for gut health include a mix of fibre-rich, fermented, and whole foods that help to promote a healthy balance of bacteria in your digestive system. A gut-healthy diet should be rich in a variety of fruits, vegetables, proteins, fermented foods and cultured dairy products. All of these foods help to support digestion, promote beneficial bacteria growth and provide a good amount of probiotics that help to keep your gut operating to its full potential. Below we have listed a few of the most gut-healthy foods that can help to nourish your digestive system.

Kefir 

Fermented foods like Kefir are packed full of live cultures and good bacteria with a multitude of health benefits for maintaining good gut health. Kefir is a powerful probiotic that can aid in balancing your gut flora and improving overall health and well-being and comes in a variety of different flavours and forms, from water kefir drinks to kefir yoghurts, so that you can incorporate this gut-healthy food into your everyday diet and still keep variety in it.

Garlic 

Garlic is not only a delicious ingredient that is widely used in many savoury dishes around the world, but it also has great antibacterial and antifungal properties. Garlic acts as a way to help improve gut function and balance yeast in the gut to keep “bad” bacteria in your gut under control. 

Olive Oil 

It’s known that our gut microbes like a diet of fatty acids and polyphenols as it helps to maintain healthy metabolisation and promotes the growth of good bacteria. Pure olive oil in particular is a natural, fatty acid full of polyphenols, making it great for helping reduce gut inflammation. However, it is important to choose unprocessed olive oil, the best being a monovarietal extra-virgin olive oil, as this kind retains more of the natural antioxidants and is lower in acidity.

Ginger 

Fresh ginger is said to help stimulate the digestive system, to keep food steadily moving through the gastrointestinal tract, as well as reducing inflammation and increasing intestinal flora. Whether you take it as a health shot mixed with other anti-inflammatory ingredients like turmeric and lemon or add it to soups and stir-fries, ginger can be used in many ways to help support the health of your gut and immune system.

Bone Broth

Rising in popularity in Western wellness cultures over the last couple of years, bone broth is thought to be highly beneficial for the gut. Packed full of amino acids like glutamine and collagen, bone broth can help strengthen the gut lining, reduce inflammation and improve digestion. Whether you drink it alone as a warming beverage or add it to soups and sauces, this is a great way to help boost digestive health.

Kimchi 

This is another food that is incredibly good for your gut due to the fermentation process it undergoes. Kimchi is a Korean food staple that has many probiotic benefits and a high volume of vitamins and fibre due to the fermenting process. Kimchi is typically made using cabbage that is then salted, marinated in fish sauce, ginger, garlic and chilli powder and left to ferment for at least 24 hours. 

Kombucha 

Kombucha is another powerful probiotic that is known for its incredible gut health benefits. Due to the presence of a probiotic culture called a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast), Kombucha creates a diverse microbiome in your gut, which can aid in digestion and maintaining overall good gut health. This probiotic beverage is known for its unique fizzy and sharp taste and comes in a variety of flavours so you can enjoy a refreshing beverage that also supports your health.

Here at Planet Organic, we stock many of these gut-healthy foods on our website and in stores so you can get your hands on the best foods and drinks to nourish your digestive system.

Fix8 Ginger Turmeric Kombucha  and  Biotiful Kefir Natural 

Made to help you feel your best from the inside out, this Fix8 Ginger Turmeric Kombucha is a spicy, delicious, slow-brewed beverage that gives you the ultimate kick to your digestive system. With added live cultures for targeted release into the gut, the combination of anti-inflammatory ginger and turmeric with the probiotic benefits of kombucha cultures and green tea, this drink is a tasty and convenient way to promote gut health. Ideal for those on the go looking for an energy boost or detoxing drink throughout the day, adding kombucha into your daily diet can be greatly beneficial.

This Biotiful Kefir Natural is made from organic pasteurised cow’s milk fermented with live kefir cultures to create a high-protein, gut-healthy drink packed with essential vitamins and good bacteria. Naturally low in lactose with no added sugar or artificial flavours, this kefir drink is a tasty way to help improve digestion and support your immune system.

Biona Kimchi  and Planet Paleo Organic Bone Broth Collagen Protein

For those looking for a simple and delicious way to enhance your digestive function, this Biona Kimchi is perfect. Whether you add it to a salad, on the side of your lunch or snack on it throughout the day, this combination of naturally fermented organic vegetables brings a spicy, deep tangy flavour to any meal that instantly helps promote healthy digestion.

Bone broth is not only a great natural source of nutrients and protein, but it can also help to effectively improve digestion and reduce gut inflammation. This Planet Paleo Organic Bone Broth Collagen Protein is made from 100% organic bovine broth powder and can be easily mixed into hot water to sip like tea or used as a nutritious base for your favourite recipes. Supporting not only your gut but also the health of your skin, muscles and overall well-being, bone broth is a multifaceted food that has many benefits.

What supplements are best for gut health?

Although it is best to support your gut using whole-food sources, for those who may need an added boost in nutrition, whether that’s due to restrictive diets, allergies or intolerances to certain gut-healthy foods, supplements can help provide you with the nutrients you need in a convenient way. There are a myriad of gut supplements such as probiotics, collagen and Omega 3 that can help support the healthy functioning of your digestive system in addition to incorporating the above-mentioned foods into your diet. 

Symprove Live Probiotic Course and KIKI Pure Marine Collagen Vegicaps 

Probiotics are one of the most powerful tools for supporting gut health as they contain a multitude of live bacteria and yeasts that help restore gut microbiome balance. A simple and convenient way to get a good amount of probiotics into your diet is through a supplement such as this Symprove Live Probiotic drink. Containing four strains of live bacteria, this probiotic drink delivers around 200 million live bacteria in each dose, which is absorbed quickly due to its water-based formula. Unlike freeze-dried supplements, this drink allows the live bacteria to get to work straight away, reaching your gut quickly to help maintain a balanced microbiome.

Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins in the human body and is a key component in supporting the health of your skin, bones, muscles and connective tissues, as well as your gut health. Collagen contains a variety of amino acids including proline, glycine and hydroxyproline which all work together to facilitate digestion, reduce gut inflammation and balance the gut microbiome. 

Although collagen is naturally found in the body, as we age, our levels of collagen will start to decline and therefore supplementing collagen production can be greatly beneficial in maintaining overall health. These KIKI Pure Marine Collagen supplements contain 100% purified hydrolysed collagen that is extracted from sustainably sourced wild fish to provide potent peptides that are easy to digest and gentle on the gut to help support healthy digestion and overall wellness.

Browse through our full collection of gut health products to find the right solutions to taking care of your digestive system in a way that works for you.

What foods are bad for your gut?

Knowing what foods to avoid for your gut is just as important as knowing what gut-healthy foods to include in your diet to help support your gastrointestinal well-being. Consuming certain foods can harm your gut microbiome and may lead to an increased risk of digestive problems such as inflammation and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The types of food that are bad for the health of your gut are those that promote the growth of unwanted bacteria and yeast, some of these foods include the following:

Processed foods 

Processed foods are those made up of more than one ingredient that you would not typically find in a kitchen, they include artificial ingredients, additives, preservatives and emulsifiers which work to give foods a longer shelf life and create things we would not be able to get by combining ingredients at home. Although these processed foods can be tasty, these artificial ingredients, when consumed frequently, can greatly affect the gut microbiome as they are typically high in saturated fats, added sugars and additives which can unbalance the intestinal flora.

Refined sugar 

Refined sugar is said to damage the protective layer of your gut and harm any good gut bacteria which can increase the permeability of your gut and in turn may lead to leaky gut syndrome. Refined sugar can also disrupt your gut microbiome by altering the balance of bacteria and increasing inflammation which may cause further health issues. 

Alcohol

Alcohol is known to affect the stomach lining by causing inflammation, altering the amount of stomach acid produced and reducing its ability to repair effectively. Therefore this can lead to disrupting the balance of the gut microbiome, which may cause issues such as leaky gut syndrome and micronutrient deficiencies that have the potential to impact immune function and cause damage to the liver.

It's important to note that although these foods have the potential to cause gut health issues, we suggest speaking with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet. A balanced diet is the most important thing, so consuming these foods in small amounts won’t necessarily be detrimental, but they should be limited and consumed only in moderation.

Take care of your gut health with Planet Organic

A healthy gut is essential for overall health and wellness, so if you’re looking to help improve digestion or simply just want to lead a healthier life, be mindful of the foods you choose to eat. If you’re curious to learn more about the benefits of certain gut-healthy foods, we also have blogs on the benefits of water kefir and kombucha that go into further detail about the many amazing benefits of these unique gut-healthy beverages.