Our Favourite Recipes That Are Good for Your Gut

Our Favourite Recipes That Are Good for Your Gut

Unsurprisingly, one of the secrets to a healthy gut is following a healthy diet. Making slight changes to incorporate better food into your meal plan might be all that it takes to help improve the health of your gut. Below, we look at some of the foods that could enhance your gut health, as well as a couple of recipes to try out in the kitchen. 

Why is a healthy gut important? 

Your gut microbiome is made up of more than 1,000 species of bacteria, each playing an important part in your overall health and wellbeing. The foods that you eat directly influence the health of your gut microbiome, which can affect your mood, mental health, and immune system. Essentially, a healthy gut leads to a healthy body and mind, which is something we can all get on board with. 

Which foods are good for the gut? 

A diverse microbiome is a healthy microbiome, and a diverse microbiome needs a diverse diet to feed it with as many different nutrients as possible. In particular, your gut microbiome thrives on fibre, which is found in vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans and all plant-based foods. This means, eating as many different types of plant-based foods as possible, rather than the same old broccoli and carrots every day. When populated with a diverse and healthy microbiome your digestive tract works as it should and you’re less likely to suffer from conditions such as IBS. To keep your microbiome in shape, try adding some of these foods:  

Fermented foods

Fermented foods contain live bacteria that help to create a healthy gut microbiome. Fermented foods include plain natural yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut or any other fermented vegetables Many of these you can buy in supermarkets, but to get your own personalised microbial meal, you can ferment your own foods at home.

Foods containing prebiotics 

Prebiotics are like fertiliser for your gut microbiome. They are usually types of fibre that specifically help the growth of healthy bacteria in your gut and therefore fuel and feed your microbiome. Prebiotics are abundant in fruit and vegetables like onions, asparagus, bananas, legumes, barley, and dried fruits. 

Fermented foods and prebiotics are of fundamental importance to the health of your gut microbiome, but they’re not the only food groups that can help you. Others include: 

Healthy gut recipes for you to try at home 

Improving your gut health is all about incorporating the food groups above into your diet wherever possible whilst trying to eat as diverse a diet as possible. Aim for 30 different plant-based foods per week for optimal gut health. Below are a few of our suggestions for gut recipes to try at different times of the day: 

Breakfast: The morning is an excellent time to bolster your intake of fibre, prebiotics and fermented foods. Plain yoghurt and chopped banana will provide you with live healthy microbes as well as prebiotics. Porridge with berries, nuts and seeds will give you a fibre boost to kick start your day.

Lunch: Smashed avo on toast is popular for lots of reasons, and it’s an excellent option if you’re looking for something easy on the gut. Use whole grain brown bread and add a serving of sauerkraut to boost its gut-health benefits. 

Dinner: The ideal gut-friendly dinner contains as many different plant-based foods as possible. If you are a meat-lover, try to replace half of your meat in lasagne, Bolognese or shepherd's pie with lentils. For the ultimate gut-boosting dinner, fill an oven tray with as many different chopped vegetables as possible, add in two cans of chickpeas and some olive oil, then bake. 

Improve your gut health today 

At Sons, we recognise that the health of your gut can positively impact all aspects of your health and wellbeing. As well as including more of the above foods in your weekly meal plan, our clinically proven live bacteria supplements provide your gut with that little extra boost it needs. It’s important not to take the health of your gut for granted, so make sure you do what you can to keep it in good shape.