5 Gut-Healing Foods to Add to Your Diet

If you’ve read much of my health story over time, you probably know that I’ve had my fair share of experiences with my gut health and gut-healing. From doing my own self-diagnosis, I discovered I don’t tolerate gluten or dairy well in 2013. I cut those foods out for a long time and found myself feeling the best I ever had.

In 2014, during my pregnancy, I brought dairy back into my diet due to intense cravings and assuming my baby and body were telling me something. Without any major side effects, I kept dairy in my diet until my son was around 4 months and I was breaking out in hives for about 6 weeks straight. During this time, I met with a naturopathic doctor, had a blood panel done, and discovered I’m still intolerant to dairy and have a mild egg allergy as well. Things got even more interesting having to have 3 foods taken out of my diet!

If you’re interested in checking out the food sensitivity test kit that I’ve used and recommend, click here to see my demo video.

Up until the past year or so, I hadn’t been eating any gluten or dairy, but now have been able to tolerate small amounts of both back in my diet. That said, I know that I feel my best when I’m 100% gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free (despite the fact that I don’t talk about being egg-free much here on my website).

From what I understand, I have the very unscientific term of “leaky gut,” which is simply the more you eat of something, the more likely you are to become intolerant to it. Which is probably what got me where I am in the first place- gluten and dairy were my mainstays for years until my body just couldn’t take any more when I hit my mid-twenties.

Over this entire journey, I’ve found that there are plenty of things that I’ve done wrong, but one of the things that I think has allowed me to tolerate some small amounts of gluten and dairy back in my diet are bringing gut-healing foods and supplements into my diet. Who knows if I’ll ever be able to eat gluten or dairy (or eggs) like I did when I was younger, but knowing that I’m healing my gut in even small ways through these gut-healing foods is super encouraging.

There’s no guarantee that if you start eating these foods that you’ll be able to bring gluten and dairy back into your diet, but hey, it’s worth a shot. And either way, I’m sure you’d probably benefit from a healthy gut all around.

These are are the 5 gut-healing foods to add to your diet if you have food intolerances:

1. Bone broth

Bone broth is simply the broth you make from high quality bones. It’s also super simple to make at home. You buy (or acquire some other way) high quality bones and some like apple cider vinegar and some vegetables and you cook it over low heat for a number of hours. Over time with the low heat, the gelatin releases from the bones and that’s what’s really great for your gut. This gelatin helps to heal the intestinal lining of your gut. Of course, you can always buy bone broth or bone broth starters, but you can certainly make it at home too.

2. Coconut oil, milk and kefir

Coconut is a healthy fat that is gentle and nourishing for your gut lining. There are a number of ways you can get coconut into your diet, through coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut milk kefir. You can buy most of these at your local grocery store, but kefir you may need to make at home on your own. Just be sure to find the highest quality coconut products – and organic if possible.

3. Healthy fats – like avocado, olive oil, and nuts

Healthy fats are really good for your gut health and healing, because they are so nourishing. Avocados, fish, nuts and seeds, olives and olive oils are all really great for healing your intestinal lining because they are so rich in Omega-3’s.

4.Kombucha

Kombucha is a fermented tea that you can buy at the store or learn to make at home. What makes kombucha so important for gut health is the presence of probiotics, or good bacteria. When you introduce good bacteria in your gut, you can balance out any ‘bad’ bacteria and make sure that everything is being absorbed in your gut properly when you’re digesting. I love to make my own kombucha at home, and all you really need is a few tools, some tea, sugar, and time. If you want to learn more about my kombucha brewing process, you can read about that here.

5. Fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles

Fermented vegetables are excellent sources of probiotics, so they’re introducing good bacteria into your gut with every bite. You can find fermented vegetables in the form of sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles. Of course, you can make your own or buy them at the grocery store. There’s a whole art to making your own fermented foods, so if this is of interest to you, I recommend you embrace it. It can be really fun to make your own health foods at home.

When you start treating your gut right, giving it the foods that it needs to heal itself over time, you just might be able to start bringing these foods back into your diet over time. All I know is that it’s worth a shot to throw everything at it and do your best to feel good and improve your body as best you can every day.