How to improve your gut health, according to an expert: The best foods to eat in 2023

Gut health FAQs

We spoke to Dr Zoe Williams about some of the most common questions surrounding gut health – so, if you feel a bit out of the loop, take a read of the below.

What is the most important thing to know about gut health?

The most important thing to know is that your gut health isn’t just about your guts. In fact, it impacts many other aspects of your health – everything from your skin to how your hormones function.

What are the most common issues relating to gut health?

Gut-related issues include indigestion, bloating, abdominal pain, excess flatulence, constipation and diarrhoea. So, if you have a healthy gut, you wouldn’t expect to have those symptoms too often. While we will all experience a bit of bloating and loose stool every now and again, you should mostly be free from them.

What is a microbiome?

The gut microbiome is the community of microbes – which are largely bacteria but also include some yeast, fungi and viruses and even parasites – that mostly live in our large intestine. While they’re not an organ of the body, they kind of function like one. There’s as many cells in your gut microbiome as there are cells in your body. There’s literally trillions of cells, and if you look after them, and they’re healthy and thriving, Then they look after you and they produce lots of chemicals. These chemicals then support the health of many organs and systems of the body and the gut even communicates directly with the brain, via the gut-brain axis and through chemical messages (created by the gut microbiome).

The microbiome also helps provide us with a lot of nutrients. Because we can’t actually digets most of the fibre we eat, it passes all the way through our gut to the large bowel and our gut microbes digest it, breaking it down into molecules and compounds, so we can retain the essential nutrients. It’s essentially a complex network of different microbes, and, if we look after them, they look after us.

Are there any myths surrounding gut health?

The gut is short for gastrointestinal tract – it’s the tube that starts at your mouth and ends at your anus. So, it includes the mouth, the oesophagus, stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine, the rectum and the anus. It is different to the digestive system, which also includes things like the liver, the gallbladder and the pancreas.

Another ‘myth’ is that people often think that if you fart, it’s bad. But, actually, farting is something we have to do because these gut microbes produce gases (which have to leave the body) when they’re digesting any food that we can’t digest. Then again, while farting is normal, if it becomes excessive, you might need to look into the cause of this.

If people are looking to improve their gut health, one of the most important things you can do is increase the amount of fibre you consume a day. But everything should be consumed in moderation, as the higher your fibre intake, the more potential there is for bloating, gas and constipation.

Is diet the cause of poor gut health?

It’s not just about diet; genetics play an important role when it comes to any symptoms or ailments we have. But we know our mental health can impact our gut too, and we know IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) is a condition that involves the gut and is very closely linked to stress.

Gut and digestive issues, can you have one without the other?

They’re very closely linked but it’s highly likely that if you have issues with your digestive system, it’s going to impact your gut health. But you could also have really good digestion and still have issues with your gut.

Aside from diet, what can we do to improve our gut health?

A lot of the time it’s about relieving the body of stress, so doing things like yoga as a form of exercise, meditation, breathing exercises or mindfulness techniques is when your digestive system is going to work better. Any exercise in your daily or weekly routine can support good health and, in turn, good gut health.

Drinking water is also key. We need water in order for the fibre we consume to be able to move through the system in the way it’s supposed to. We also need sleep to maintain good gut health – between seven and nine hours of good-quality sleep each night.

The verdict: Gut health foods

While prebiotic and probiotic supplements are a great (and easy) way of ingesting the right ingredients to optimise your gut health, Dr Zoe insists the way forward is making “sensible swaps” to your existing diet and incorporating certain foods that will improve your gut microbiome.

So, ultimately, it comes down to preference in taste, and your budget. We found that incorporating foods such as kimchi and sauerkraut into our rice dishes cooked at home (or added on the side of a meal) was not as hard as we initially thought, particularly when it became a habit. While studies show that turmeric needs to be ingested in a large quanitity, alongside garlic and black pepper, to provide a benefit, we also enjoy adding the spice to our food as we cook, so, considering this won’t break the bank, it’s an easy switch for us to make.

Dr Zoe stressed: “It really is a personal choice. People invest their money in taking probiotics supplements but there are probiotics you can consume in your diet regularly.”

Considering switching to a vegan diet? Check out our round-up of the best vegan cookbooks for easy plant-based recipes