What is a Good Gut Food Diet for Weight Loss?

How many times have you tried a fad weight loss diet, but failed to get the results you wanted? Or, maybe you’re just tired of starving yourself in order to lose those stubborn extra pounds? Well, it may be time to take your gut out of the sidelines and into the equation. We’re talking about incorporating a good gut food diet in your day-to-day to help support your weight loss goals!

But, before you go on to think that this is another one of those fad diets, let me clearly state that this is not a weight loss diet for you to follow. Rather, a good gut food diet is a health regime that focuses on feeding your gut bacteria, which is eventually going to help you achieve your overall health and weight loss goals.

A good gut food diet is full of gut friendly foods that feed the microorganisms in your digestive system to make sure that they provide your body with proper nutrient absorption, improved digestion, and help support your weight loss efforts.

But, before we get into what exactly are these gut foods that nourish your gut microbiome, let’s first take a look at what is not considered as a good gut food diet.

So, grab a pen to jot down what you should, and more importantly, should NOT be getting on your next grocery trip!  

What is NOT a Good Gut Food Diet?

So, what shouldn’t be your go-to’s if you’re trying to include more gut friendly foods in your diet? These are all of the types of foods that contribute to gut inflammation, weight gain, irregular bowel movements, and an impaired immune system.

Think of those sugary, highly-processed junk food that we all love to have once in a while, but know that we really should avoid regularly, if not forever.

These foods are not only terrible for your digestive system, but also can weaken your body’s natural defences against infections and illnesses. Here is a list of foods you should avoid if you want to make the change to more gut health foods in your diet:

• Highly Processed Foods: fast food, chips, cookies, cereals, pretzels.
• High Sugar Foods: candies, unhealthy desserts, sodas, carbonated drinks, sugary cereals.
• Artificial Flavors, Colors and Sweeteners: aspartame, sucralose, saccharin.
• Refined Carbohydrates: white bread, white rice, bagels, pastries, baked goods (from all-purpose flour), muffins.
• High Saturated Fats and Fried Foods: french fries, deep-fried burger patties, doughnuts, fried chicken.
• Processed Meats: bacon, sausages, hot dogs, ham, pepperoni (a meat-heavy diet, in general, is not considered to be a good gut food diet).
• Excessive Consumption of Alcohol or Caffeine: excessive intake of beer, wine, liquor, energy drinks, coffee.

These types of foods are not considered to be part of a good gut food diet, because they cause disruptions in your digestive system by promoting the imbalance of good bacteria in your gut. In addition to this, long term use of things like chlorinated water or antibiotics can also damage your gut lining. This further leads to issues like leaky gut, inflammation, and weight gain.

Therefore, it is best to avoid feeding junk or CRAP to your gut if you want to maintain a healthy gut microbiome. So, you’re probably wondering what exactly is defined by this term “CRAP” and how does it affect your gut? Let’s explore that in the next section!

What Happens When You Feed C.R.A.P to Your Gut?

Before we talk about what CRAP does to your gut, let’s define what it means in terms of digestive health.

C.R.A.P. is an acronym that was cleverly created to remind us of what not to feed ourselves if we want to maintain a healthy body (and a healthy mind!). It stands for: Concentrated sweets and sugars (sodas, sugary drinks, cereals), Refined carbohydrates (things made from all-purpose flour), Artificial color/flavor, and Preservatives.

This acronym encompasses pretty much everything we talked about in the previous section of all the foods that aren’t considered a part of the good gut food diet, so it’s a great way to remember what not to feed your gut bacteria. Why, you might ask? Well, let’s discuss the effects of feeding CRAP to your gut in a bit more detail.

When you feed CRAP to your gut bacteria, your gut undergoes a dysbiosis; in simple terms, dysbiosis is when your digestive system experiences an imbalance of gut bacteria. This is when bad bacteria can increase in numbers and take over our gut, which may make us susceptible to inflammatory diseases, colon cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and even cardiovascular diseases.

In addition to this, feeding CRAP to your gut microbes may be contributing to yeast overgrowth in the gut. And yeast overgrowth in the gut can cause gastrointestinal symptoms like: bloating, abdominal pain, gas, constipation, and diarrhea.

Several times, I have had patients complaining of excessive cravings for sugar, and more often than not, they have yeast overgrowth in their gut. I explain to them the reason why they’re craving sugar is, because yeast absolutely loves sugar. And the excessive intake of sugar leads to an increase in yeast. 

Essentially, it is a never-ending cycle if you are constantly feeding CRAP to your gut bacteria. The only way to make a difference is to change your diet to include foods that feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut. 

Doing so will make sure that the good gut bacteria can not only help fight off the bad bacteria, but will also help combat the long-term harmful effects of dysbiosis on the body. 

What is a Good Gut Food Diet?

After all of these discussions of what is composed of a CRAP diet for your gut bacteria, you might be wondering: what, then, is a good gut food diet?

A good gut food diet is a diet that feeds your gut bacteria, and also helps to increase the population of your beneficial gut bacteria. This, in turn, will help heal your gut lining, reduce inflammation, and support your weight loss goals. We discuss this gut-food diet in phase 2 of our WOW (Winning Over Weight) Program.

Several studies have indicated that plant-based diets are, by far, the best diets to feed your gut bacteria. It is suggested that you follow an *80-20 rule in your diet for good gut health. In other words, 80% of your diet should be plant-based (vegan) and 20% should be non-plant based (dairy, lean meats, seafood). And it, most certainly, should not be the other way around if you want to improve your gut and overall health!

*Disclaimer: Please note that you should consult your doctor or a registered dietitian for an individualized diet plan, especially if you have any dietary restrictions.

The goal of this 80-20 rule is to make sure that you are getting a variety of benefits from the plant-based foods that can help your gut appropriately break down the nutrients of the non-plant based foods.

Therefore, a good gut food diet consists of the types of foods that accomplish two goals: to increase the amount of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in the gut (like butyrate which heals your gut and helps burn fat), and to feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut to increase their population in the gut microbiome.

Therefore, to feed your gut bacteria, you have to focus on the 3 Ps of good gut health: Prebiotics, Probiotics, and Polyphenols.

Prebiotics: 

They are the certain types of fiber that fuel a lot of the butyrate (SCFA) producing bacteria in your digestive system. Butyrate is produced by the fermentation of dietary fiber by bacteria in the colon. So, think of these prebiotics as the food for the good bacteria in your gut, and they are composed of either soluble fiber or resistant starch. 

It’s important to note that resistant starch is the type of starch that doesn’t get digested in the small intestine; rather, it gets fermented in the large intestine and feeds your good gut bacteria (probiotics). 

These prebiotic foods include: whole grains (oatmeal, whole grain breads), vegetables (asparagus, leeks, onions), starchy vegetables (cooked and cooled potatoes), fruit (green bananas), and legumes (beans, lentils, peas), chicory root, jerusalem artichoke, jicama root, cacao, dandelion greens, and konjac root (shirataki noodles).

Probiotics:

They are the live, beneficial bacteria that reside in our gut, and they also help balance the harmful bacteria in the gut microbiome. Your gut needs probiotics to control the harmful bacteria, so they don’t make the body susceptible to infections and illnesses.

Consuming foods that contain these live, active cultures of bacteria can help increase the population of good bacteria in your gut, which equips your gut better to fight off the harmful bacteria.

Some of these probiotic foods include: yogurt, kefir, fermented foods (pickles), sauerkraut, miso, and kombucha. It’s important to note that not all fermented foods contain live active cultures of those bacteria by the time they get to the grocery store shelves. So, it is better for you to either find foods that contain live active cultures of bacteria, or you can try making your own at home!

Polyphenols:

Polyphenols are natural compounds found in plants that not only give them their color and taste, but also protect them from damage. These foods are essentially high in antioxidants, which in turn, help fight free radicals, stress, and reduce inflammation.

These plant-based foods are not only rich in health-boosting properties (anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, help in weight loss), but are also found to be able to either inhibit the growth of bad bacteria or reduce their population (by starving them of their food).

These polyphenol-rich foods include: fruits, vegetables, grains, red wine, dark chocolate, tea, herbs, spices, berries (i.e. blackberries, blueberries, raspberries), pomegranate, apples, grapes, cherries, red cabbage, onions, turmeric, whole grains, flax seeds, and sesame seeds. Therefore, consuming a variety of plant-based foods can help us reap the health benefits of polyphenols.

What is the Role of a Good Gut Food Diet in Weight Loss?

Now that we’ve discussed all of the components of a good gut food diet, let’s explore the benefits of including these gut cleansing foods in your daily life and their connection to your weight loss journey.

Poor diet can lead to indigestion, which can cause many other issues for your digestive and overall health. A good diet, however, ensures that essential nutrients from food are being digested properly, and helps increase the amount of butyrate and good gut bacteria to heal any damage to the gut.

There are several ways in which a regular, good gut food diet increases the production of butyrate and friendly bacteria in your gut, and this, in turn, helps support your weight loss efforts:

• Appetite Regulation: Studies have shown that by consuming foods that promote the growth of butyrate in the gut, you can influence the release of appetite-regulating hormones in your gut. This promotes feelings of fullness and satiety, which may help you control your calorie consumption and support your weight management goals.
• Energy Metabolism: Some studies indicate that butyrate and good gut bacteria may help promote the utilization of stored fats as an energy source. This means that a good gut diet can potentially help you in weight loss, because it can influence your energy metabolism, decrease fat storage, and promote glucose regulation. 
• Improving Insulin Resistance: A good gut food diet can have potential benefits in improving insulin sensitivity and combating insulin resistance. For instance, studies indicate that butyrate has been shown to improve insulin signaling in insulin-responsive tissues such as muscles, liver, and adipose tissue (fat tissue). And by enhancing insulin signaling, butyrate may help improve glucose uptake and utilization by cells, which can lead to improved insulin sensitivity—and further, help you lose weight.
• Fat Storage: A good gut food diet that promotes the production of butyrate may also help regulate the storage of fats by reducing the formation of new fat cells, and also limiting the expansion of existing ones. In simpler terms, butyrate may help prevent excessive fat accumulation and can help contribute to your weight management efforts.
• Improve Gut Health: Butyrate and an overall good gut food diet can support your gut health in multiple ways. These prebiotics, probiotics, and polyphenol-rich foods help maintain the health of the intestinal lining (prevent digestive issues), provide strength to the gut barrier (prevents leaky gut), and promote the production of mucus (which provides protection and nourishment to the gut cells). Therefore, these gut foods can help reduce inflammation in the gut that may be contributing to your weight gain in the first place.
• Regular Bowel Movements: Although there is no direct connection between regular bowel movements and weight loss, there is a correlation between them. Regular bowel movements indicate that you have a healthy gut, which equips your body for proper nutrient absorption and allows you to have more energy to follow your exercise regime for weight loss. As a result, a diet rich in prebiotics (specifically butyrate) can promote regular bowel movements by stimulating the contraction of the intestinal muscles. Thus, good gut food helps to regulate the movement of food through the digestive tract, prevents issues like diarrhea or constipation, and helps you stay active in your weight loss journey.
• Anti-inflammatory Effects: It’s important to note that chronic inflammation is associated with weight gain, metabolic disorders, and obesity. As we discussed earlier, polyphenol-rich foods exhibit anti-inflammatory properties and can inhibit the production of bad bacteria that contributes to inflammation in the gut. Therefore, by reducing gut inflammation, good gut bacteria can work towards contributing to your weight loss goals.

With all of this in mind, it’s important to feed your gut bacteria well, so it can support you in your weight loss and wellness goals. 

Having said that, of course it may sometimes be impossible to avoid junk food (i.e. at a party, vacation, family get togethers). Those unavoidable moments may discourage us from continuing on our gut health and weight loss journey. But, it’s important to motivate ourselves and practice these three things in our diet (no matter the day or place): balance, variety, and moderation. 

Balance your gut microbiome by including a lot more good gut food than junk food in your diet, add Variety to your meals to avoid boredom and prevent yourself from quitting your wellness goals, and savor your favorite foods in Moderation to avoid guilty binging.

In other words, there’s always room for dessert, just make sure to opt for a healthier option. And if that isn’t possible for some reason, then make sure to have a small portion that will not do irreparable (or even difficult to repair) damage to your gut.

Conclusion (and some delicious recipes!)

Above all, you should focus on foods that not only help you for your weight management, but also provide you with all-day energy for an active lifestyle to keep off those stubborn pounds.

Here are some great ways for you to incorporate a good gut food diet on a regular basis:

Breakfast: Have this yummy Avocado-Berry Smoothie that is loaded with gut healthy foods like spinach, banana, avocado, and berries. Just make sure to swap out the frozen banana with a green (unripe) banana to get those prebiotic fiber benefits.

Lunch: Make these delicious, plant-based Spicy Black Bean Tacos that will be great food for you and your gut bacteria.

Snack: Enjoy this Chocolate Peanut Butter Yogurt Bark which includes greek yogurt that is perfect for including some probiotics in your day.

Dinner: Make this simple and delicious Greek-style Chopped Salad to end your day with a gut-boosting, rainbow meal.

So go ahead, try these recipes and make your daily meals part of good gut food and a health-boosting diet!

Want to learn more about how to heal your gut, reduce inflammation, and help your weight loss efforts? 

Join the WOW (Winning Over Weight) waitlist today!