I know fermentation naturally happens in the gut but when you eat different types of food does that mean your gut bacteria is changing all the time?
Just wondering because ive treated my gut very poorly for years.
Can i just start eating kimchi, sourcrout, greek yoghurt right away?
Other key foods i should eat?
Should i start small?
Any other tips at all are very appriciated thank you
I just started my 2 year old on a low dose kestose (a prebiotic) in an attempt to increase his bifidobacteria and reduce constipation. He is having WICKED rotten egg smelling gas. Is this normal when starting new prebiotics or it is a sign that we are feeding the sulfur causing bacteria?
I’m prone to slipping into Candida overgrowth.
Years ago I did a 3 month diet programme with a naturopath to resolve a lot of issues related to Candida - mainly severe eczema.
I have had severe eczema since I had my baby 10 months ago (topical steroids have caused a lot of additional issues). My skin became impossible to manage and now I’m on 200mg daily of ciclosporin.
I don’t feel like it’s really working now, and feel like my immune system is so suppressed, the Candida has had chance to flourish even further.
I want to do the same diet again to get this under control but is it even possible to heal whilst taking this?
I intend to stop the ciclosporin once it’s calmed down a lot, I don’t want to stay on it long term but I cannot come off it right now. I’ve only been taking it for 6-8 weeks and my skin was a wreck beforehand
I’m trying to figure out whether what I’m experiencing is more related to GLP-1 side effects, IBS, stress/binge eating patterns, ADHD/reward issues, or some combination of all of them.
I’ve been on tirzepatide for a while and recently lowered from 10mg to 5mg because I was struggling with GI symptoms/fullness/burning sensations. The issue is that 5mg still seems to slow my stomach down physically, but doesn’t consistently reduce the food noise or mental pull toward eating as much as I want.
I also have IBS and take mebeverine, so it’s hard to tell what’s causing what.
The main thing bothering me is this ongoing sensation of:
- food sitting in my stomach / delayed emptying
- mild burning/fullness pressure in the upper-middle stomach area
- feeling physically full but still mentally wanting food
- eating sometimes making me want to eat more rather than less
This isn’t just after binge episodes either , I’ve noticed the stuck inside me feeling even during more structured eating periods.
I recently went through a very stressful dissertation period and had several days of binge/overeating episodes (mostly things like bread, peanut butter, cereal, nuts etc. rather than takeaways). I’m now back to more structured eating:
- tracking intake
- eating every 4 hours
- fewer binge-trigger foods in the house
- trying to avoid chaotic grazing
but my stomach still doesn’t feel normal.
I’m also coming off Elvanse/Vyvanse and just started atomoxetine/Strattera a few days ago, so I know my nervous system/appetite regulation is probably in flux too.
What I’m struggling with is the balance between:
- wanting reduced food noise/binge urges
- wanting normal digestion/fullness again
- not wanting to feel painfully overfull
- but also not wanting to remove every enjoyable food from my diet or eat tiny meals constantly
I’m not looking for extreme dieting advice or “just stop eating sugar” . I’m more wondering if other people with ADHD/binge eating/IBS/GLP-1 use have experienced:
- fullness that feels uncomfortable but doesn’t stop mental urges to eat
- burning/full sensations without severe reflux/vomiting
- food feeling physically slow to move
- or difficulty finding the balance between appetite suppression and feeling physically normal.
I’m considering whether I may need to stop the GLP-1 at some point just to work out what symptoms are medication-related vs baseline, but honestly I’m scared the binge eating/food noise will get much worse without it.
Has anyone stuck up with probiotic? Out of all the supplements i tried probiotics were the only one that helped me but caused side effects, so im looking to find maybe individual strains instead but im not sure if it will make a difference
I have methane dominant SIBO (nothing crazy, 13ppm at max) and have been prescribed Rifaximin + Metronidazole for 2 weeks.
I have not started yet because I am absolutely terrified of taking Metronidazole, and it wrecking my microbiome even more.
Context: I’m pretty sure I got SIBO from 2 repeated infections (Shigella and E. Coli) and followed heavy antibiotic use. My stool tests show a dysbiosis (Klebsiella and Enterobacter overgrowth) and high ph..
I want to get rid of IMO/SIBO for good but I don’t want to wreck my gut and suffer long term damage.
Any advice???
PS: Neomycin is not available, so not an option.
I underwent a pretty harsh antibiotic treatment with Pylera to eradicate Helicobacter pylori. Since then, I’ve been struggling with insomnia and also experiencing pain under my ribs on both the left and right sides.
Falling asleep is not really the problem — I usually fall asleep quite well. But I keep waking up around 4 or 5 a.m. and then can’t get back to sleep.
Do you have any recommendations on how to rebuild and support the gut microbiome — both for improving sleep and for overall well-being?
I've had a bad case of sinus infections starting Feb this year, had a cycle of amoxicillin with clavulanate then another round with clindamicin. Now my microbiome is fucked up, I'm going to the bathroom 3-6 times a day and it's liquid, 100% liquid. It's been this way for 2 months now, I'm taking probiotics and trying to keep my diet healthy, but to no (or little) avail. C. diff is already ruled out. By reading this sub I bought some supplements and would love some insight and guidance
Probiotic with 11 different strains, those being bifidum, breve, Longum, lacti, enterococcus faecium, lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus casei, plantarum, rhamnosus, salivaris, termophillus
Saccharomyces boulardii
Pomegranate extract so the polyphenols feed the bacteria
Oregano oil due to the antifungal properties
Glutamine to keep the gut less permeable
Prebiotic fibers to help feed the probiotics
is it ok? is it too much? I'm kinda depressed about it all, I have what we Brazilians call "shy butthole" (lol), it makes me extremely self conscious that people hear me poop, so I'm kinda desperate.
A lot of gut health conversations online focus heavily on:
But I’m curious about the non-supplement things people noticed made the biggest difference long term.
Could be:
Sometimes it feels like the nervous system side of digestion gets overlooked completely.
What habit or lifestyle change improved your gut health the most?
In case of over fermentation-type disbiosis, is this combo good to remove toxins and then repopulate the GI tract with probiotics?Thank you
Highlights:
- A new controlled feeding study found that replacing processed snacks with a daily serving of almonds may improve gut health, metabolism, and appetite regulation.
- Researchers observed an increase in Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, a beneficial gut bacterium that produces butyrate, a compound that supports the colon lining and may help reduce inflammation.
- Several less favorable gut bacteria decreased during the almond-snacking phase.
- Almond consumption increased GLP-1 and peptide YY, two hormones associated with fullness and appetite control. GLP-1 is also the hormone targeted by drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
- The study suggests almonds may help improve metabolic homeostasis and reduce inflammatory markers.
- Almonds provide fiber, healthy fats, protein, magnesium, vitamin E, and polyphenols, all of which may contribute to gut and cardiometabolic health.
- Researchers emphasized that replacing unhealthy snacks with almonds is likely more beneficial than simply adding almonds on top of an already calorie-heavy diet.
- The study was relatively small, so while the findings are promising, larger studies are still needed. Funding came from the Almond Board of California, though researchers stated the funder did not influence the analysis.
Let’s say there’s a pond, or a broken fountain really, with a relatively controlled environment: It isn’t regularly fed new water, except for rainfall. No animals live in it, though birds may use it. Debris from nearby trees falls in.
If a person were to spit in it, what portions of their mouth microbiome, if any, would be likely to survive and thrive there? If a person spit in the fountain every day, would the stagnant fountain microbiome adjust significantly over time? Would the water be more or less hostile to the person’s microbiome?
This is my first post on this sub, lmk if it should be made somewhere else. Thanks!
Vegetables are the foundation of microbiome diversity, and most of us aren't eating enough variety.
Two things came up in the comments on the fruit post that need addressing before we dig into vegetables. See: Fruit is one of the most underrated tools for gut microbiome diversity.
If fruit had probiotic capsules as the industry workaround, vegetables have greens powders. You know the brands and have seen the advertising. Same playbook. They position them as "vegetable replacements" for people who don't eat enough actual vegetables. The reality is that $50 to $80 a month for processed powder buys you significantly less than $20 a month buys you in actual vegetables. Real vegetables bring fiber, water content, live enzymes, intact polyphenols, and the food matrix that protects nutrients through digestion. Powders are dehydrated, processed, and often heat damaged versions of those same compounds. Your gut doesn't want a supplement. It wants food.
Second, the FODMAP and SIBO question. The vegetable list includes several high FODMAP items (garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli). For someone with active SIBO, fructose malabsorption, or significant gut dysbiosis, this list isn't the right starting point. I strongly encourage you to address the underlying imbalance first, then reintroduce these foods slowly. The list applies to people who are otherwise healthy and who are trying to build microbiome diversity, not to people in active GI flare.
Let's be honest with ourselves. While we may eat a decent amount of vegetables, there isn't much variety. Potatoes (as fries), tomatoes (as sauce and ketchup), onions, lettuce, and corn account for the majority of vegetable consumption in N.A. The fruit post talked about diversity. Vegetables are where the diversity problem is even more pronounced. The good news is that vegetables also offer the widest possible range of microbiome inputs of any food category. Vegetables do everything fruit does plus several things fruit doesn’t.
Why this matters. Microbiome diversity is the strongest predictor of microbiome health, and dietary diversity is the strongest predictor of microbiome diversity. The American Gut Project (McDonald 2018) found people eating 30+ different plant species per week had measurably more diverse microbiomes than those eating fewer than 10. More diverse microbiomes are consistently associated with better metabolic markers, lower systemic inflammation, stronger gut barrier function, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, anxiety, and colorectal cancer. Low microbiome diversity shows up in nearly every chronic disease that's increased over the last 50 years. Let that sink in for a moment.
Different bacteria specialize in different fibers and polyphenols. Eating the same five vegetables every day, feeds the same handful of bacterial species. Rotating through 15-20 different plant sources across a week feeds a much wider range. The diversity you eat becomes the diversity you build, and that diversity is what protects you.
This is vegetables only. Next up in the series: legumes (the magical fruit), then fermented foods, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, and the rest. The integrated diversity across all categories is what builds the microbiome the research keeps pointing to.
I did some simple research and here is my vegetable list, ranked most beneficial down for microbiome support, with fermentation speed indicated.
The ranking is based on four criteria: prebiotic fiber content (inulin, FOS, GOS, pectin, arabinoxylan, resistant starch), polyphenol density and diversity (anthocyanins, sulforaphane, quercetin, kaempferol, and others), specific bacterial population support (which beneficial species each vegetable feeds), and documented research base for microbiome effects. Vegetables high in inulin and other fast-fermenting fibers cluster at the top because they have the strongest direct prebiotic effect. Cruciferous vegetables follow because of their unique sulforaphane and glucosinolate contributions. Polyphenol-rich and leafy greens round out the list based on overall microbiome impact rather than any single mechanism.
The fermentation speed indicates where in the colon each vegetable fiber gets broken down. Fast in the ascending colon (early). Medium in the transverse colon (middle). Slow in the descending colon (end). The point is to combine vegetables across all three speeds within meals so different bacterial populations get fed simultaneously, and to rotate the specific items across days and weeks to build broader diversity over time. Both matter.
A note on the top of the list. The first nine vegetables are fast fermenters because they're rich in inulin. They're also the most likely to cause gas if you've been on a low-fiber diet. If that's you, start lower on the list with the cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens, then add the fast fermenters gradually over a few weeks or months. Seriously - start slow. It takes your gut time to adapt to new foods. While we can have a good giggle about fart jokes, but gas and bloating can be uncomfortable, on both sides, if you get my meaning.
A note on dandelion greens and endive. These are unfamiliar to most American eaters but they're some of the most concentrated sources of inulin in the vegetable world. Available at farmers markets and Mediterranean grocers. The bitterness moderates significantly when sautéed with garlic and olive oil.
Practical suggestions: Combine vegetables across the fermentation speed range within meals so different bacterial populations get fed simultaneously. Rotate the specific vegetables across days for broader diversity. Cook some, eat some raw, both have value. Frozen is fine. Prioritize organic for leafy greens and bell peppers.
Link to the Fruit Post. https://www.reddit.com/r/Microbiome/comments/1te005q/comment/om5tt4n/
Sources:
McDonald 2018 mSystems - PMID 29795809, DOI 10.1128/mSystems.00031-18, volume 3 issue 3, e00031-18.
Calatayud 2021 Frontiers in Nutrition - DOI 10.3389/fnut.2021.700571.
Gill 2021 Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology - 18(2):101-116, DOI 10.1038/s41575-020-00375-4, PMID 33208922.
2 years ago I was on back to back antibiotics for a strep infection and then Klebsiella UTI’s. I did get back to a decent place with my gut finally but unfortunately now on antibiotics again for 7 days for an E. coli uti. I didn’t get issues with UTI’s until my first 10 day course of antibiotics so I know I really need to look after my gut microbiome. I just would love to know the top foods to rotate weekly while trying to heal my gut and reduce the risk of another uti and anymore antibiotics. Feeling stuck again 🥲
Gluten was my problem all along.
I'm so disappointed in myself for not catching this at a younger age.
Good luck to you all in your journey. ❤️
I had a real bad case of food poisoning. Constant diarrhea, couldn’t trust gas and had to go to the hospital to get checked in for fluids because it was never ending.
Eventually I somewhat recovered, but suddenly around September - October last year my stomach stuff started acting up.
I was taking some supplements and whey protein.
Now, I’ve stopped everything and only take some probiotics.
I still get mucusy stools and gas, some days I have to take Imodium just to go to work.
I’ve booked an appointment with a specialist for June - my older brother has Crohns, so I just want to cross that off the list.
No stomach pain, just this constant mucusy diarrhea.
There was a stage where psyllium husk was really helping and filling my stool, but now it just causes more loose stools. Don’t even get me started on oats.
Any suggestions?