This is a two part blog post that explores some foundational steps that can help you take care of your gut health.
As with any nutrition topic, diet culture and the broader “wellness” industry can make finding the right information a confusing experience. When celebrities and influencers start dishing out advice – often with wild promises of success or relief – it can be hard to know what to take on board and what to reject.
This includes people struggling with digestive discomfort or gut health issues, who, like others looking for answers to the challenges they face, may be tempted to follow online figures whose popularity far outweighs their expertise. Yet self-diagnosis and random celebrity advice can potentially lead to greater digestive troubles or leaving you with a smaller range of foods in your diet.
The hard part is that evidence-based advice can sound rather boring and unimportant when compared to the latest life hack doled out by today’s Instagram celebrities. But when it comes to health – and particularly gut health – the basics count. So, before you jump on the latest social media trend, why not start by considering some foundational facts?
Eat enough food
Eating enough food is more important than you may suspect. It is also a pillar of regular bowel movements and a healthy gut microbiome. Your body processes food well when it is feeling safe, relaxed and has enough energy for digestion. If you’re restricting your food intake and not providing your body with sufficient energy (especially carbohydrates), your digestive system slows down.
Without adequate nourishment (energy), your digestive system doesn’t have enough energy for the process of digestion. Furthermore, it may shift from safety to survival mode. In survival mode, the body is being provided with inadequate energy, and as a result, must prioritise how it uses the energy to which it has access. In this state, it may downgrade importance of digestion as it seeks to channel all available energy to other functions.
Not eating enough (particularly if in an energy deficit state) can impact your digestive system in several ways. These can include alterations in gastric emptying, disrupted or reduced secretion of digestive enzymes, a weakening of gut muscles (leading to alterations in motility), slowing of colonic transit time, reduced diversity and alterations to the gut microbiome. People may experiences symptoms such as bloating, early or premature satiety, and constipation as a result.
Am I eating enough?
With diet culture’s constant distortion of what we should eat and how much to eat, it can be hard to know if you’re consuming enough. This is where seeking wisdom and guidance from a health professional can bring clarity and the support you need, ensuring your body receives adequate nutrition and energy.
Here are some signs that you might not be eating enough:
- constant thoughts about food
- limiting calorie intake
- avoiding certain food groups
- delaying meals until you are starving
- eating three meals per day, yet still feeling hungry
- slow digestion, constipation or bloating
- constant fatigue
Eat regularly
Our digestive systems love routine: a predictable rhythm of food and breaks (rest) to function optimally. Breaks allow our gut’s migrating motor complex to do some essential “housekeeping,” clearing away indigestible food products and bacteria through the gastrointestinal track. Constant snacking throughout the day can disrupt this process, leading to uncomfortable symptoms such as bloating.
Instead, having three main meals and 2-3 snacks a day forms a helpful routine you can follow to support your digestive system. This means not going for long periods of time without food. But it also means abstaining from constant snacking to the point where your digestive system doesn’t get the break it needs. Our digestive systems need some rest between meals so that they can attend to a process of cleaning, clearing and preparing for the next round of food.
The best way to illustrate this is to reflect on what can happen when you go on holiday. Have you ever been away and experienced uncomfortable gut issues? This is often because we have simply changed our routine – slightly different foods, less movement while travelling, or less fibre. Our guts sense such changes, which can significantly disrupt our bowel movements. Which can lead to gut symptoms like bloating and painful constipation.
The nerves of the gut like a predictable routine and can “remember” the details of our usual schedule: what we eat, when, how often, and our usual movement patterns or fluid intake. The gut’s nerves (the enteric nervous system) are in constant communication with the muscles in the gut. One way we can support this communication is by eating enough and regularly. That is why dieting or restrict-binge patterns can impair your digestive system’s routine and function.
An even distribution of fibre across the day matters
Fibre-maxxing may be trending right now. But is it helpful? Fiber-maxxing your breakfast and then eating low fibre meals for the rest of the day means you will most likely still struggle with inconsistent bowel motions or constipation. Again, our digestive systems don’t like to be overloaded at any one meal. They prefer a more measured, balanced intake. Evenly distributing your consumption of fibre across the day supports comfortable digestion. Each meal needs fibre to support its movement through the digestive system.
Once more, our sensitive guts won’t cope with too much fibre. Although the social media trend of fibre-maxxing may suggest 50-100g fibre, this is excessive and will disturb the digestive system’s balance and rhythm. Aiming for 25-30g of fibre per day is, by contrast, more achievable and helpful.
But perhaps the most fundamental issue with fibre-maxxing trend is that it’s unnecessary. In fact, tracking and micromanaging your fibre intake is likely to be counterproductive. That kind of hyperfocus is more likely to create anxiety and increase stress levels – all of which will likely remove you from a relaxed, safe and regulated state our bodies need to achieve optimal digestion.
Drink enough liquid
An adequate intake of water is important, best distributed evenly throughout the day. Why is water important? The answer is soluble fibre. It’s the type of fibre that helps keep your stools soft as it absorbs water and draws water into the gut. In water, soluble fibre forms a gel-like consistency. It can therefore mitigate the likelihood of constipation by softening your stools. And given soluble fibre requires water, you really need to match your fibre intake with sufficient water.
In practice, this means that you shouldn’t concentrate your intake of water intake to larger amounts at certain times of the day. Rather, try spreading out your water consumption across the day; as you digest food, you’re also providing your body with the required water. It also means you shouldn’t have large volumes of water with your meals, as this can dilute gastric secretions or inadvertently limit your food intake.
Squatty stool and a regular toilet routine
Although the topic of stools may be uncomfortable, our toileting routine matters. Using a squatty stool can support anatomy by straightening the rectum, allowing the pelvic floor muscles to relax – thereby making the passing of stools easier. Having a regular time to go to the toilet each morning can also help your bowels form a consistent routine. In addition, it is also important not to delay going to the toilet when you have the urge – or spend excessive amounts of time on the toilet while looking at your phone! As much as it might be a moment of peace, this practice over time can put strain on your pelvic floor muscle.
But what next?
Please remember that these are general guidelines. I would recommend speaking with a dietitian to help you understand your gut health and to develop an individualised plan.
This blog post has been split into two parts, so please see the next blog post for more foundational steps to gut health.
References
- Enders, G. (2015). Gut: The inside story of our body’s most underrated organ. Greystone Books.
- Livovsky, D. M., Pribic, T., & Azpiroz, F. (2020). Food, eating, and the gastrointestinal tract. Nutrients, 12(4), 986. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu1204098
- McMillan, J. (2026). The Fibre Factor: A Science-backed Guide to a Healthier Gut, Stronger Heart and Sharper Brain. Penguin Books Australia. ISBN 9781761356728
- Opperman, C., Majzoobi, M., Farahnaky, A., Shah, R., Van, T. T. H., Ratanpaul, V., Blanch, E. W., Brennan, C., & Eri, R. (2025). Beyond soluble and insoluble: A comprehensive framework for classifying dietary fibre’s health effects. Food Research International, 206, 115843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2025.115843.
- Smith, J. E., Arkin, E., Rosen, B., et al. (2025). Comprehensive nutrition therapy for co-occurring gastrointestinal & eating disorders: The EDGI Training Project. Gatekeeper Press.
