mikevenasse.com · Nutrition
Fix Your Gut,
Fix Everything
Your gut microbiome influences your immunity, mood, weight, skin, sleep and lifespan. Here is exactly what to eat — and what to stop eating — to rebuild it.
What to Eat for a Healthy Gut
Fermented Foods
Yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, miso — these deliver live beneficial bacteria directly to your gut. Eat at least one fermented food every single day.
Beans & Legumes
Beans feed your good gut bacteria with resistant starch and fibre. Half a cup daily is the most evidence-backed dietary change for microbiome diversity.
Garlic & Onions
Garlic, onions, leeks and asparagus are rich in inulin — a prebiotic fibre that selectively feeds Bifidobacterium, your most beneficial gut species.
Slightly Green Bananas
Resistant starch in underripe bananas passes undigested to the colon, where it ferments into butyrate — the short-chain fatty acid that heals the gut lining.
Cruciferous Vegetables
Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower contain glucosinolates that protect the intestinal lining and reduce intestinal permeability (leaky gut).
Polyphenol-Rich Berries
Berry polyphenols act as prebiotics — selectively feeding beneficial bacteria while inhibiting harmful species. Dramatically increases microbiome diversity.
What's Destroying Your Gut
Before fixing what you eat, it helps to understand what you should stop eating. These are the biggest gut microbiome destroyers in the modern diet:
- Ultra-processed foods — emulsifiers like polysorbate-80 literally dissolve the protective mucus layer of the gut lining.
- Artificial sweeteners — aspartame and sucralose alter microbiome composition within days, reducing diversity significantly.
- Excess alcohol — disrupts the gut barrier and feeds pathogenic bacteria that cause inflammation.
- Chronic stress — cortisol directly alters gut motility and bacterial composition. Stress is as damaging to the gut as diet.
- Unnecessary antibiotics — wipe out gut bacteria indiscriminately. One course can take 6 months to fully recover from.
The 30-Plant Rule
Research from the American Gut Project found that people who eat 30 or more different plant foods per week have dramatically more diverse microbiomes than those eating 10 or fewer. Diversity is the single best marker of a healthy gut. Count spices — they count as plant foods too.
Mike's Daily Gut Protocol
- One serving of fermented food (yogurt, kefir or kimchi)
- Half a cup of beans or lentils
- At least 5 different vegetables
- A tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil — polyphenols feed good bacteria
- No ultra-processed snacks — replace with fruit, nuts or hummus
Rebuild Your Gut in 30 Days
Get Mike's free 30-day gut reset guide — the exact daily protocol for restoring microbiome diversity and healing your gut lining.
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