These are the 6 most harmful foods for your intestines

The most harmful foods undermine your gut health. The health of the billions of bacteria and viruses in your gut, your microbiome, depends on the type of food you eat.

The microbiome not only helps your digestion run smoothly, but it also underlies your overall health. It influences your immune system and even your mental well-being.

Your intestines contain both good and bad bacteria. It's important for you to ensure there are more good bacteria than bad. This blog post explains which foods are harmful to your intestines and how you can support the good bacteria.

You've probably noticed that food affects your gut. After eating certain foods, you may experience constipation or diarrhea, abdominal pain, or bloating. This means your microbiome has become imbalanced.

But that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Since the microbiome was discovered, much research has been conducted on which foods can help gut flora thrive and which are actually harmful.

Research shows that taking care of a strong and healthy digestive system and a good microbiome balance can have a huge impact on your health.

To do that, it takes more than just eating healthy vegetables and watching your fiber intake. It's not just about what you eat each day, but also about what you don't put on your plate.

Certain foods have a negative impact on your gut. To keep your gut bacteria happy, it's best to avoid the following foods.

The influence of dairy on gut health can be positive or negative. The benefits of fermented dairy products, such as yogurt and kefir, are now well established. However, research shows that unfermented dairy, such as cow's milk, can have adverse effects in some people.

Milk can change the composition of the gut flora, allowing more bad bacteria to colonize the intestines, while the good bacteria are then forced to leave the field [1] .

If you know you're sensitive to dairy or lactose intolerant, don't make things harder on your gut than necessary. If you don't experience any immediate symptoms from dairy, you can continue eating it. However, fermented dairy is better for your gut flora.

Artificial sweeteners can also negatively impact the gut. Research shows that sweeteners like sucralose and saccharin can alter the number and types of bacteria in the gut.

Such changes can lead to an imbalance in the microbiome, allowing bad bacteria to gain the upper hand. This can be detrimental to your gut health [2] .

Processed foods are among the most harmful foods for the gut. Think of fast food, white bread and pasta, processed meats (sausages, hamburgers), ready-made meals, and the like.

These can harm the microbiome because they provide nothing that can serve as food for the healthy bacteria and create poor conditions for their survival [3] .

Processed foods contain harmful additives like sugar, dyes, and preservatives, and contain very little fiber. And fiber is actually a source of nutrition for beneficial bacteria.

When you consume a lot of sugar, harmful bacteria have plenty of room to grow, disrupting the balance in your intestines.

Eating fried food isn't doing your gut any favors either. Unhealthy fats, such as corn oil and soybean oil, are often used for frying.

The problem with these oils is that they are continually recycled at high temperatures. This causes chemical reactions to occur within the oil. When you ingest these fats, they inhibit the growth of beneficial bacteria [4] .

Fried food also causes an imbalance in the intestinal flora and this can cause problems in the long term.

This syrup is added to all kinds of processed foods. Fructose in its natural form (in a piece of fruit) is not a problem. However, an unnaturally high intake of fructose from processed foods is.

Animal studies have shown that fructose increases intestinal permeability, allowing toxins from the digestive system to enter the bloodstream [5] .

Alcohol is also a substance that can change the composition of the intestinal flora. This can lead to an imbalance. Drinking alcohol can lead to increased intestinal permeability, which can cause health problems [6] .

To improve your gut health, it's important to pay close attention to your intake. Therefore, it's best to avoid the harmful foods mentioned above as much as possible. The tips below can actually support your gut flora:

To support your gut bacteria, you can take prebiotics and probiotics. Probiotics are colonies of beneficial gut bacteria. This way, you can increase the number of these bacteria in your gut. You can take them as a supplement or ingest them through foods containing probiotics, such as yogurt, tempeh, and sauerkraut.

Prebiotics provide the nutrients these beneficial bacteria need. Foods rich in fiber are considered prebiotics. Think of fiber-rich vegetables like leeks, asparagus, legumes, and artichokes.

Fiber-rich foods provide exactly what the beneficial bacteria in your gut need. Fruits and vegetables are particularly recommended, such as avocado, broccoli, shiitake, red cabbage, parsnips, and green leafy vegetables (endive).

Minimally processed food is the best food for your gut. The less processed it is, the fewer valuable nutrients are lost and the less is added.

So before you buy something, check the label and pay attention to what has been added to the product. Fresh fruits and vegetables and unprocessed meat are the most nutritious and better for your health than their processed counterparts.

If you want to support your health with nutrition, try to avoid sugar as much as possible. The bad bacteria in your intestines love it.

If you consume little or no sugar, you're depriving them of an important source of nutrition. This gives the good bacteria more room to grow, giving your health a boost.

Supplements are also a good way to support your gut health. For example, you could try our Health Boost Green Juice.

With this powder you can make a healthy drink that provides you with a large portion of your daily fiber, vitamins and minerals in one go.

It contains over 35 healthy ingredients, including ginseng, wheatgrass, and spirulina. And unlike many green smoothies, this is a delicious juice.

Because your gut is the foundation of good physical and mental health, it's important to take good care of it. Now that you know which foods are harmful to your gut, you can make the right choices.

Try to avoid harmful products and feed the beneficial gut bacteria with prebiotics, supplements, fiber, and healthy, unprocessed foods. If your gut bacteria are healthy, chances are good that you are too.