How This Functional Medicine Expert Lays The Foundation For A Healthy Gut: Morning, Noon & Night

As one of the OG mindbodygreen contributing experts, I am no stranger to the immense importance of supporting our gut health. In fact, since starting one of the first telehealth functional medicine clinics over a decade ago, I have consulted thousands of patients on their well-being journeys, and I have found the one thing almost everyone has in common: trouble supporting gut health.

As the foundation of your overall health, a thriving gut microbiome is crucial. It's something I value for my patients and my own health—as such, I've made a conscious effort to nurture my gut on a daily basis.

As the author of Intuitive Fasting, I am a big advocate for periods of flexible, cyclical fasting. Digestion alone uses 10% of your body's total energy and requires a lot of work to produce saliva and stomach acid, regulate hunger signals, and break down macronutrients. If I am constantly eating, my gut doesn't get much of a break.

By giving your gut the time off it desperately needs, fasting helps to ease inflammatory processes in your gut1 while also lowering key markers of inflammatory health1 throughout your body. Fasting has also been shown to regulate your gut microbiome's natural circadian rhythm of bacteria: Different colonies of bacteria increase and decrease throughout the day depending on whether you are awake, sleeping, or eating—but constant eating can throw off your gut microbes' normal pattern.

When it comes time to break my fast, the type of meal that I eat in the afternoon is just as important as the meal I don't eat in the morning. Regardless of whether my meal is more plant-based or I choose to have some fish or meat that day, I make sure it is filled with healthy fats.

In addition to healthy fats, incorporating fiber from vegetables and fruits is very beneficial for a healthy gut microbiome. You've heard it said "We are what we eat"—but truthfully, we are in some ways more what our gut microbiota eat. The trillions of bacteria in the different colonies of the gut microbial metropolis eat what we eat and they love fiber from whole foods. Consuming and fermenting the fiber from our meals, bacteria produce something called short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, which is very beneficial for not only gastrointestinal health but also our immune system, metabolism, and brain health. 

So what does a meal with healthy fats and fiber look like? Wild-caught fish and avocados are my personal go-to's, but a variety of grass-fed beef, coconut, olives, Swiss chard, sweet potatoes, chia, flax, and hemp seeds are all great options as well.

Stress is a part of life. And after a busy day at work, my mind is racing. Even though these thoughts aren't always inherently stressful or anxious, they can nonetheless become a point of stress if I don't address them.

If out of control, stress can lead to consistently high levels of the primary stress hormone cortisol and lead to decreased oxygen delivery to your gut. Because of the special connection between your gut and brain—also known as the gut-brain axis—stress can directly affect the health of your gut.

To combat this, I always turn off my phone an hour or two before bed and set it in another area of my house and close out my evening with mindfulness. Not only does this reduce stress, but it sets me up for an uninterrupted night of sleep, which is also important considering a lack of sleep further perpetuates the cortisol cycle that affects your gut.

Meditation is my personal favorite form of mindfulness, but you can switch it up with prayer, journaling, or going on a walk.