What Doctors Wish You Knew About Healing Your Gut

Work with a dietician or trusted practitioner to eliminate known inflammatory foods. (Think gluten, dairy, soy, and eggs, as well as foods that contain sugar, caffeine, and alcohol.) As you slowly reintroduce them, one by one, see how your body responds. The goal is to determine which foods may trigger you specifically so you can limit them to improve and smooth digestion.

Replace Missing Digestive Factors

It’s not just about what you eat; it’s also about how your comprehensive digestive system breaks down and absorbs the nutrients from what you eat. Our bodies naturally produce digestive enzymes—typically in the salivary glands, pancreas, and small intestines—to help break down food efficiently to allow for maximum nutrient absorption. If your body is struggling to produce enough digestive enzymes, it can cause uncomfortable side effects around mealtime, such as cramping, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and more. “Digestive support, like digestive bitters or enzymes, is generally supportive and well tolerated by most people,” says Gerber, who notes that those with active gallstones or kidney stones should avoid bitters. Electrolytes with foundational minerals like sodium, potassium, and magnesium can be beneficial as a baseline too. “We need minerals to help make digestive juices like stomach acid and digestive enzymes,” Gerber adds. “Digestive bitters and enzymes naturally help upregulate your own digestive-juice secretions. It gives a natural nudge to your stomach acid, digestive enzymes, and bile to help you digest your food better.”

How you eat your food is also crucial. “Start with chewing well,” says Gerber, who suggests 10 to 12 chews per bite, ideally until the food is liquefied, before you swallow. “And slow down, take deep breaths, and sit down for all meals.”

Reinoculate With Beneficial Bacteria

You’ve probably heard about good bacteria versus bad bacteria. Bad bacteria can cause illness, inflammation, and digestive issues when they overgrow, invade, and crowd out the beneficial bacteria. Stress, diets high in ultra-processed foods and refined sugars, and certain medications, such as antibiotics, are associated with harmful gut microbes. “There are as many bacteria as there are cells in our body and 100 times as much bacterial DNA regulating everything about our health,” Dr. Hyman says. When you’re in gut-repair mode, it’s crucial to bring back the good bacteria. “Your good gut bugs love diversity when it comes to allowing them to flourish and survive,” Gerber says.

Probiotic-rich foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, unsweetened yogurt or kefir, miso, and more introduce live good bacteria directly into your gut. Prebiotic fiber—the soluble fibers found in Jerusalem artichokes, garlic, onions, leeks, dandelion greens, jicama, chicory root, asparagus, and more—is essential too. It serves as fuel for probiotics, providing energy to nourish and grow beneficial bacteria.

Polyphenols act as prebiotics and can help inhibit harmful bacteria too. “Eat an abundance of polyphenol-rich vegetables daily,” Dr. Hyman says. Some great examples are spinach, broccoli, carrots, artichokes, red onions, and asparagus.

If your diet is lacking these essential nutrients, a high-quality comprehensive probiotic supplement can help restore microbiome balance, as can a multivitamin and prebiotic fiber to support intestinal health and gut barrier function. However, while probiotics can be wonderful tools for supporting gut health for many people, there is some nuance, and your symptoms, history, and tolerance should be taken into consideration. “Not all probiotics are created equally,” Fazio says. “Different strains and profiles can deliver different targeted results, so it’s best to find the specific one that will work for you with a trusted practitioner.”

Repair the Gut Lining

Your gut flora will thrive when it’s consistently fueled with a wide variety of plant fibers from vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. However, there’s only a thin cell layer between your intestines and body—and that determines what should be absorbed into your body. Think of it as a coffee filter: The filter prevents the grounds from getting into your coffee, leaving you with only the clear, rich liquid. But if there’s a hole in your filter, the grounds can leak into your coffee. The same is true for your intestines; if you have increased intestinal permeability (a.k.a. leaky gut), what could leak into your body is fungus, not-so-good bacteria, or undigested food.