If you google gut healing foods or are working with a practitioner, there is big chance my list is not going to match up. There might be some overlap, but I know how drastically different the ideal “gut healing foods” can be. This list is what comes to my mind when thinking of gut healing foods that helped me when I self-healed with Medical Medium’s information. Although I don’t fully follow a MM lifestyle so to speak after being disciplined for 2 years while I healed, I will always credit his information to helping me self-heal. If I waited for science to agree with all of it, I might still be sick. Keep scrolling – lots more tidbits below including helpful supplements I took and what I avoided.
Foods For Healing The Gut
- Daily Celery Juice On An Empty Stomach (My #1) + Green Juices
- Aloe Water
- Papaya
- Ginger + Turmeric
- Herbs – Parsley, Mint, Oregano, Thyme, etc.
- Leafy Greens – ex. Spinach
- Apples
- Bananas
- Berries – raspberries
- Mango
- Pineapple
- Avocado
- Coconut – pure 100% coconut water or coconut meat
- Medjool Dates
- Potatoes + Squashes (all kinds)
- Raw Garlic + Onions
A little bit of my back story.
I worked with two different functional medicine doctors for a year each when I was in the thick of things with my gut and this is far from their list of gut healing foods. I gave 100% when doing their gut healing protocols and completely followed their regimens and diets. This is despite my prior beliefs going out the window as they were focused on more traditional high protein diets (I ate chicken and eggs daily during this time), lots of supplementation, and very little fruit as a basis of their protocols. Although I believe they gave their all, they were clearly learning from the same written book so to speak. One doctor was much better than the other, but the basis of their teachings was the same. They had to have been helping others, but it didn’t work for me.
After two years of working with them and still feeling like crap (the majority of my life I felt amazing so I knew what it was like to feel good), I stumbled upon celery juice. After drinking daily celery juice for a bit and not changing anything else and seeing how much better I was feeling, I dove into Medical Medium’s Liver Rescue book. I was determined to self-heal with his information. Just incase you don’t know, Medical Medium is the person behind the celery juice movement, which is what led me to his books. Anyways, I learned how helping the gut starts with helping the liver.
It’s More Than What We Eat And Don’t Eat
It’s more than what we eat/don’t eat as well. If you find yourself eating all of the right foods (that you believe to be right – not necessarily my list), and avoiding the inflammatory ones and you are not healing, ask yourself:
- What is my stress level? Too much stress is a gut killer. It is really hard to heal when super stressed. Ashwaganda is my favorite apoptogenic herb.
- Am I hydrating enough? Lemon water, coconut water, juices, melons… Plenty of hydration helps flush out daily toxins. – I will forever be grateful to juicing. Green juices do wonders for the gut. Code RIANE55 saves $ off the Nama J2 Juicer if you need a good juicer.
- Am I eliminating enough? This is often overlooked, but we need that toxic sludge to be released often! Proper hydration helps with this and you look at going to the bathroom in a new way.
- What is my environment? Is it really toxic?
- Am I moving enough? Exercise comes in many different forms.
- Am I getting enough Sunlight, Fresh Air, Nature? This is medicine!!
- Am I living in fear of everything? This does so much harm. The gut/brain connection is real.
- Do I have the mindset that I will heal? You know the saying if you believe it, you’ll achieve it.
Important Tidbits That Also Helped Me Heal My Gut:
- I ate very simply while healing my gut for the most part. Lemon water, celery juice, smoothie for breakfast (mostly MM Heavy Metal Detox Smoothie)– sometimes I had melon and a smoothie. Melons digest super quickly so I always eat melons on an empty stomach. Lunches varied – sometimes another big smoothie, a big portion of fruit, a salad, or even leftovers from dinner the night before. As for dinners – I ate a lot of potato dinners. Steamed yellow potatoes, peas, fresh tomatoes, and a handful of greens was a typical meal. I still enjoy this meal to this day since I enjoy it so much. Simple meals are more gentle on our digestion and this is really helpful when healing our gut. The whole experience taught me to look at food in another way and realize just how simple a meal can be. To this day even though I eat lots of delicious meals with many ingredients now, I still enjoy eating simply for many meals. I generally eat light to heavy. Fruit digests faster than anything else so I usually have more fruit early in the day. I eat more raw during the day and more cooked at night on the norm. Besides fruit, I make sure to get in plenty of leafy greens and fresh herbs.
- Foods I Avoided To Help Me Heal Faster: Eggs, Dairy, Gluten, Soy, Corn, Inflammatory Oils (I minimized good oils too), Artificial Flavors/Sweeteners, Most Processed Food, Vinegar, Nutritional Yeast – I also lowered my good fats too during this time to help my liver cleanse more easily.
- A high quality probiotic is super helpful, but use it as a helpful aid, not a Mr. fix-it. I like to rotate brands every 6 months or so. Some that I have use: Beekeeper Naturals and Organic Olivia (using now – alternate between her Flora-V one as well).
- Two that really helped me with Candida overgrowth/SIBO in addition to probiotics – oil of oregano (on rotation) and Pau D’ Arco – oh and monolaurin (coconut!)
- I’m sure you noticed the fruit, fruit, and more fruit on my list. Fruit helps our body kill all types of pathogens and is the most cleansing of foods. This in turn helps our gut. I believe fruit is the most healing food of all.
- You may find these articles informative: Candida, Gut Health, SIBO, Gut Health, Fruit Fear
As always, do what feels right for you. Be your own health advocate. Let this information lead you to do your own deep dive. I do believe there is more than one way to heal. Whichever direction you go, I hope you find healing!
Thank you so much for joining me here! Xx Riane @herhealthystyle
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I am only featuring items I love. As an amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you so much for your support! See my full disclosure.