And then I get the occasional impatient patient who says, “Just tell me what to do to heal my gut.” They aren’t interested in the mechanics behind it; they just want the problem fixed. In functional medicine, we take a systematic approach to issues like gut health, which can be summarized as follows: Remove the offenders and add in the good stuff. It starts with what you eat. From that perspective, here’s how I instruct the “just tell me how” patients to heal their gut. Be forewarned: Many of these foods sometimes hide in the ingredients used in prepackaged products. One patient was using a stevia powder with lactose (milk sugar) as a bulking agent. Another used a well-known mustard that contained gluten. Always read ingredients and stick with whole, unprocessed foods whenever possible. The eating plan I give patients to heal their gut is simple but powerful. It can help you feel better, lose weight, and provide steady sustained energy. In a nutshell, here’s the plan: Besides eating these and other fermented foods, many patients take a professional-quality probiotic supplement that contains billions (not millions) of colony-forming units (CFUs, which measure a probiotic’s potency). While they get less attention, prebiotics—these are the food that probiotics feed on—are equally important for gut health because they feed your friendly flora.* These prebiotic foods aren’t easily digested or absorbed. Instead, they bypass your small intestine and beeline into your colon, where, among their many benefits, they feed the good gut bacteria to create healthy, energy-producing short-chain fatty acids12. Prebiotics fall under several categories, including fructans (also called fructooligosaccharides, or FOS13) and resistant starch. Each feed different types of gut flora. Excellent choices include: Overall, I focus on clean ingredients with easy-to-digest foods that are low in fructose and sugar and devoid of any substances, including sugar alcohols and pesticides, that are hard on the gut. These foods are organic, non-GMO, full of healthy fats, and ideally locally grown and sustainably farmed.
