Gut Cleanse Diet: A Clean Gut Equals a Healthy Life!

Your gut health is vital to your overall well-being as it is important for proper digestion and helps to absorb nutrients, electrolytes, and water from food. It also helps to eliminate toxins and metabolic wastes from the body. In addition, a healthy gut is important to boost immunity, improve cognitive functions, regulate mood, and get restful sleep, among various other benefits.

On the flip side, poor gut health can lead to various problems, such as digestive issues, weight gain, disturbed sleep, fatigue, skin problems, autoimmune conditions, and food intolerances. Such problems are a result of toxins that build up in your gut and deteriorate your gut microbiota and its health over time.  And if you don’t clean your gut from time to time, it may cause the toxins to get re-absorbed into your system, damage your gut lining, cause inflammation, and disturb the balance of your gut microbiome.

A gut cleanse refers to an alternative method for removing toxins and waste from your colon. It is a natural way to detoxify your colon through diet and lifestyle changes. Gut cleanses are highly beneficial as they can aid digestion, regulate bowel movements, improve skin health, and help in weight loss. They are also known to aid digestion, improve concentration, reduce fatigue, treat inflammation-related diseases, and reduce the risk of colon cancer. Experts believe that following a short-term special diet can alter your gut microbiome and improve your gut health significantly. They have been used by dieticians for decades due to their therapeutic benefits for good gut health.

This article provides insight into a gut cleanse, how to do it, and its potential health benefits.

How a poor diet affects various health aspects?

• Gut Microbial Diversity
  The human gut microbiome is home to trillions of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses — all of which make your gut microbiome. It is influenced by many factors, such as genetics, environment, and the use of antibiotics and other medications. However, it is also largely affected by our diets.
  
  The dietary fiber from fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes fuels the beneficial microbes in our gut, which digest these fibers to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs help nourish the gut barrier, improve immune function, and help reduce inflammation in the body. Consuming more fiber-rich foods and a plant-based diet leads to an increase in the number and diversity of these friendly intestinal bacteria.
  
  On the other hand, a diet high in saturated fats and refined carbohydrates starves the friendly gut microbes. In fact, some gut bacteria may even start feeding on the mucus lining of the gut in the absence of adequate fiber, which is responsible for protecting your body from infection and inflammation.

• Immune system
  It is estimated that about 70% of your immune cells are present in the gut and the beneficial live bacteria in your gut play a major role in regulating immune homeostasis. Several studies have shown that there is a link between a healthy immune system and a diverse gut microbiome. Thus, a significant alteration in your gut microbiome can cause dysregulation of your immune system and lead to compromised immunity and autoimmune conditions.

• Overall well-being
  An imbalance in the gut microbiome, also known as dysbiosis, has been linked to health risks, such as obesity, celiac disease, colon cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Poor gut health is also related to liver disease, diabetes, and various neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
  
  Moreover, your gut produces important neurotransmitters, including serotonin, which is important to regulate your mood. Poor gut health is linked to low serotonin levels, which can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression.

A 3-day Gut Cleanse Protocol

A 3-day gut cleanse is a short-term diet intended to improve gut health by increasing the number and diversity of beneficial microbes in your large intestine. A gut cleanse restores the balance of your gut microbiome in the following ways:

• Eliminating foods that cause inflammation and fuel harmful gut bacteria
• Adding ample prebiotic foods to your diet that stimulate the growth of friendly gut bacteria, check out the list of Prebiotic Foods.
• Including fermented foods to help restore your gut microbiome
• Encouraging healthy lifestyle practices, such as performing regular exercise, getting enough sleep, and staying hydrated.

Preparation

Since a gut cleanse requires sudden and significant shifts in your diet and lifestyle, it is always a good idea to plan ahead to avoid any slip-ups. Here are some tips to help you stay prepared.

• Remove the foods from your cupboards and fridge that you will want to avoid.
• Plan your meals for all 3 days of the gut cleanse.
• You can make dishes ahead of time and freeze them.
• Make sure you will have time to eat homemade meals, exercise and get enough rest.

Day 1

What to eat?

Eat anti-inflammatory foods

The first day of a gut reset involves removing inflammatory foods and drinks from your diet. These include:

• Added sugars, such as corn syrup, table sugar, and ingredients ending with ‘’-ose’’ (such as sucrose)
  
  
• Foods containing saturated fats, such as processed meats
  
  
• Refined carbohydrates, such as pizza, pasta, cakes, and pastries

Consider replacing the above foods with whole foods and healthy fats. These foods help ease inflammation in the body and help prevent inflammation-related diseases. These include:

• Bright-coloured vegetables, such as carrots, peppers, and brinjal
• Complex carbohydrates, such as quinoa, oats, brown rice, and sweet potatoes
• Cruciferous vegetables, such as kale, spinach, cabbage, and arugula
• Low-sugar fruits, such as berries, grapefruit, kiwi, and papaya
• Oily fish, such as sardine, salmon, and mackerel
• Lean protein
• Nuts and seeds
• Avocados, olives, and olive oil

What to do?

• Stay hydrated
  Adequate water intake is essential for most bodily functions. The easiest way to tell if you are drinking enough water is by the color of your urine, which should be pale yellow. Ideally, you should avoid caffeine or alcohol during a gut reset and replace them with water and herbal teas, such as chamomile, fennel, and peppermint.
  
  According to Ayurveda, drinking lukewarm or room-temperature water on an empty stomach can work wonders for your digestion as it improves the passage of food through your gut and helps in its detoxification.

• Allow yourself to wake up naturally
  Studies show that sleep affects your gut microbiome and can cause digestive problems. This is because when you don’t get enough sleep, your body is not able to regulate the production of cortisol in the body, which is responsible for managing your stress responses. Even acute sleep loss is linked to modifications in your gut microbiome and a decline in cognitive functions.
  
  Using an alarm clock jolts you out of your sleep, making you feel tired and sluggish throughout the day. This is because your body follows the circadian rhythm — a natural internal phenomenon that regulates your sleep-wake cycle, which is based on light and darkness.
  
  However, various studies have shown that the gut microbiome is also regulated via circadian rhythms. That is, the activity of your gut microbiome is at its peak during the day and crashes at night. Thus, following your body’s natural circadian cycle is vital for a healthy gut microbiome. You can establish a regular sleeping schedule by building a wind-down routine before you head to bed.

Day 2

What to eat?

Eat more high-fiber foods

Including high-fiber foods in your diet feeds the beneficial microbes in your gut. Sources of high-fiber foods include:

• Salads and raw vegetables
• Beans and lentils
• Dandelion greens
• Chicory root
• Nuts
• Flaxseeds
• Green smoothies

A sudden increase in your fiber intake may result in temporary gas or bloating. If this happens, you can follow the diet plan from the first day instead.

What to do?

Perform moderate exercise

Exercise not only helps you maintain a healthy weight but also improves your gut microbiome and stress levels. In addition, moderate exercise helps reduce intestinal permeability and inflammation in the gut. You may try one or more of the following or find out from here the exercises for a healthy gut.

• Yoga
• Brisk walking
• Tai chi
• Pilates
• Crunches
• Sit-ups
• Cycling
• Swimming

Ditch your anti-bacterial toothpaste, mouthwash, and dental floss.

The chemicals in antibacterial products can harm the friendly microbes in your mouth. Studies have shown that a reduction of beneficial bacteria in your mouth reduces your ability to absorb certain nutrients like nitrite, which is an important nutrient for regulating your blood pressure.

Day 3

What to eat?

Try fermented foods

Fermented foods naturally contain friendly bacteria, also known as probiotics, learn which foods are rich in probiotics from here. They help to replenish your gut microbiome with good bacteria and restore your gut health.

You can get these from:

• Yogurt
• Kimchi
• Pickles
• Natto
• Miso
• Cottage cheese
• Kefir
• Sauerkraut
• Tempeh

Just like high-fiber foods, fermented foods may cause gas or bloating in some people. This usually resolves in a few days. If the symptoms persist, you may reduce the number of fermented foods you eat or avoid them altogether.

What to do?

Try relaxation techniques

Stress can be either psychological, physical, or oxidative. And although stress is an inevitable part of life, chronic stress can negatively affect your gut health in a number of ways, including:

• Slower digestion
• Insulin resistance
• Dysbiosis
• Increased gut permeability
• Increased intestinal sensitivity

A 3-day gut cleanse can be the perfect opportunity to inculcate a relaxation regimen into your routine that can help you deal with everyday stress. These include:

• Practicing mindfulness and meditation
• Getting a massage or trying self-massage techniques
• Taking a warm water bath
• Journaling
• Practicing a hobby.

Expose yourself to your environment

Activities like gardening, walking barefoot on the grass and playing with your pets expose you to the natural microbes in your surroundings and enrich the diversity of your gut microbiome. It also helps to strengthen your immunity and reduces your risk of developing allergies.

Sample Meal Plan

Breakfast

Breakfast options include:

• Oatmeal with chopped apples and cinnamon powder
• Coconut yogurt with berries and flaked almonds
• Smoothie with spinach leaves, a handful of blueberries, an apple, and 1 tbsp. of ground flaxseeds, and coconut water

Lunch

Lunch ideas include:

• Chickpea flour tortilla stuffed with sliced tofu, salad, and sauerkraut
• Salad made with cucumber, tomatoes, arugula, peppers, and green olives, topped with hummus
• Vegetable soup

Dinner

Dinner options include:

• Zucchini noodles with lentil bolognese sauce
• Lean chicken breast with vegetables stir-fried using coconut oil, garlic, ginger, and tamari
• Salmon with steamed green vegetables, such as cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and bok choy

Benefits

Since a healthy gut is vital for your overall well-being, improving your gut health with gut-friendly foods can significantly improve other health aspects. Here are some of the benefits of a gut cleanse.

• Improves Digestion: A gut reset helps restore the balance of your gut microbiome, which is important for the proper absorption and assimilation of nutrients. In addition, probiotics are also required for the synthesis of certain vitamins and minerals in the body.

• Relieves Constipation: A gut reset diet includes fiber-rich foods as well as fermented foods, both of which can help relieve constipation and promote healthy bowel movements.

• Treats Diarrhea: Good gut bacteria fight disease-causing pathogens in the gut and help treat diarrhea.

• Alleviates Gas and Bloating: When you suffer from dysbiosis, your gut lacks enough friendly microbes that help break down certain foods, such as foods containing lactose, gluten, and fiber. As a result, these foods remain undigested and ferment in your gut, leading to gas and bloating. A gut cleanse helps alleviate gas and bloating by treating dysbiosis.

• Reduces Brain Fog: The gut cleanse diet helps reduce inflammation in the gut, which allows you to think clearly and helps you get rid of brain fog.

• Improves Mood: Good gut bacteria can improve your mood as they are responsible for producing up to 90% serotonin in the body.

• Reduces Aches and Pain: Chronic inflammation invariably leads to pain, as the build-up of tissues and fluids press against your nerve endings. Performing a gut cleanse helps to reduce inflammation and relieves body pain. In addition, it also helps to reduce joint pain due to autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

• Helps you maintain a Healthy Weight: Your gut microbiome influences hormone production and has a significant effect on fat storage and satiety. Therefore, a gut cleanse can help you with weight management.

• Improves Skin Health: An imbalance in your gut microbiome damages your skin’s protective barrier that helps to retain your skin’s moisture. It also leads to skin problems, such as acne, dark spots, rosacea, and eczema. A gut cleanse can help you get clear and healthy skin.

• Banishes Food Cravings: Studies have shown that your gut microbiome can influence your food cravings through the gut-brain axis. Treating dysbiosis can help curb your appetite and food cravings.

• Treats Food Intolerance: A gut cleanse helps to mediate your body’s reaction to different foods. A healthy and diverse gut microbiome can help reduce the risk of developing food intolerance.

How do your Lifestyle Choices affect this process?

Here are some lifestyle habits that can increase the efficiency of a gut cleanse and improve gut health in general.

• Eating a Diverse Diet: Your gut microbiome consists of different types of bacterial strains, each of which performs a particular function to keep you healthy and has unique nutritional needs. In general, the more diverse your microbiome is, the healthier it is. Eating a diverse diet can help you achieve a diverse gut microbiome. Thus, you should aim to include a variety of foods of different colors in your diet.

• Consuming Whole Foods: Whole foods tend to be lower in simple sugars and contain high amounts of fiber, which help fuel the beneficial microbes in the gut.
  
  They also contain a wide range of nutrients and phytonutrients that are important for the body’s optimal functioning and natural detoxification. In addition, whole foods help control blood cholesterol levels, promote satiety, and are lower in calories.

• Consuming Foods High in Polyphenols: Polyphenols are natural compounds found in plant-based foods. Most polyphenols are not digested by humans and are broken down by gut bacteria. They are recognized as prebiotics as they stimulate the growth of beneficial microbes and inhibit the growth of pathogens in the gut. They also have excellent antioxidant properties that help prevent oxidative damage due to free radicals.
  
  Moreover, polyphenols are known to help reduce inflammation, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure. Examples of polyphenols include blueberries, grapes, apples, broccoli, onions, almonds, green tea, dark chocolate, and red wine.

• Avoid Artificial Sweeteners: Many studies have shown that artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin can alter your gut microbiome and reduce the number of good bacteria in your gut. Artificial sweeteners have also been linked to brain tumors, weight gain, and carcinogenicity.

• Avoid Smoking: Tobacco smoking increases your risk of Crohn’s and gallbladder disease. It is also known to worsen pancreatitis and increase the severity of liver diseases, especially liver cancer and fibrosis. In addition, smoking is linked to cancer of the lungs, neck, pancreas, stomach, and colon.

• Avoid Drinking in Excess: Alcohol and its metabolites cause inflammation in your gastrointestinal tract and cause damage to your digestive system as well as other organs in the body. In addition, alcohol is a diuretic, meaning that it causes your body to lose water through urine and dehydrates you. According to experts, you should avoid drinking more than two drinks per day. It is also advisable to keep a few alcohol-free days in a week.

• Antibiotic Use: Although antibiotics are essential to treat certain infections, they are often overprescribed. This can be detrimental to your gut health as antibiotics wipe off both good and bad bacteria from your gut. Moreover, taking antibiotics too frequently or unnecessarily can alter your gut microbiome to the extent that the pathogens become resistant to them, a condition known as antibiotic resistance. Therefore, you must make sure that you take antibiotics only if required.

What to take away from the gut cleanse?

Although the 3-day gut cleanse diet is demanding, it can be a great starting point to transition into a healthier lifestyle. You should continue to apply its healthful concepts in your regular lifestyles, such as eating anti-inflammatory, high-fiber, and fermented foods, as well as avoiding processed foods and saturated fats. In addition, you must ensure that you stay physically active, get enough rest, and manage your stress levels.

How long does it take for the Benefits to manifest?

Your gut may have accumulated toxins over a period of time, but the good news is that it takes only a couple of days for your gut to come back to normal. You can expect to see results in two to four days of eating well. It is recommended to stick to a healthy diet and lifestyle even after the gut cleanse to see long-term positive effects on your gut health.

Who Should Avoid a Gut Reset?

People with certain health conditions, taking prescription medications, as well as pregnant or nursing women should avoid short-term gut cleanses. Additionally, since a gut cleanse involves dietary restrictions, it may not suit people who are recovering from eating disorders. It is best to talk to your dietician before making any significant dietary changes. It is also advisable to inform your healthcare provider or dietician about any uncomfortable symptoms, as they may arise due to an underlying health condition.

Conclusion

The gut microbiome is responsible for performing a variety of functions in the body, including breaking down food, modulating the immune system, protecting against pathogens, regulating hormone production, and producing essential neurotransmitters. A ‘3-Day Gut Cleanse’ aims to improve your gut health by restoring the balance of your gut microbiome. Doing gut cleanses on regular basis ensures optimal functioning of your gut, which is fundamental for your overall well-being

Poor gut health is not only the result of a poor diet but also poor lifestyle habits. Therefore, the 3-day gut cleanse encourages you to eat a healthful balanced diet as well as lead a healthy lifestyle.

It is ideal for a post-holiday detox or after an antibiotic course, as such lifestyle changes can wreak havoc on your gut microbiome. Being prepared for the gut cleanse well in advance can help you remain proactive during the cleanse and allow you to follow the protocol with ease. In addition, you may also look into the 10 Best Pre-And-Probiotic Supplements Currently Trending in the Market for Promoting Gut Health.