5 gut-loving foods

Ensuring a healthy balance of friendly bacteria in your gut can benefit your digestion and immune system and the best way to achieve this is to eat a diet rich in fibre. The more variety of fibre you eat, the better so try to incorporate plenty of plant-based foods into your diet each week.

Try these 5 gut-friendly foods:

• Fruit and vegetables – go for a rainbow of different colours to keep things interesting as well as to provide a wider range of vitamins and minerals. Some fruit and vegetables like banana, onion, leek, garlic and artichoke contain a special type of fibre that our friendly bacteria love so try to eat those when you can
• Nuts and seeds – these are a great source of fibre, whether you choose peanuts, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds or flax seeds. Try having a handful a day to boost your fibre intake but try to go for unsalted nuts as they are more heart healthy
• Pulses – lentils and beans, like chickpeas, butter beans or kidney beans are a fantastic source of fibre and are great when added to soups, curries or even a Bolognese or cottage pie
• Wholegrain foods – swap some of your white carbohydrate foods for wholegrain versions so brown bread, wraps and pitta, or wholegrain rice and pasta – go 50 50 if you find the taste a bit of a challenge to begin with. Try wholegrains like oats for breakfast, either as porridge or overnight oats for a fibre boost
• Dairy foods like yoghurt and kefir contain friendly bacteria so they can also be a gut-friendly addition to your diet