Maintaining a healthy gut and digestive tract has much wider implications for your health than just avoiding GI woes. Fortunately, making simple changes to your diet, such as limiting your intake of a popular food that’s wreaking havoc on your gut, may make a big difference.
Meet the experts: Pratima Dibba, M.D., a gastroenterologist with Medical Offices of Manhattan; Lena Bakovic, M.S., R.D.N., C.N.S.C., a registered dietitian nutritionist at Live It Up.
“Issues with gut health can have a systemic effect on the body,” Pratima Dibba, M.D., a gastroenterologist with Medical Offices of Manhattan, previously told Prevention. “When gut health is not prioritized, it can result in systemic symptoms that impede quality of life and also result in long-term complications.” Here, experts share the food that’s hurting your gut (and thus, your overall health), plus other foods you to limit or avoid that may be harming your gut health.
The top food wreaking havoc on your gut
The experts we spoke to agree that the number-one food that could be hurting your gut is highly processed and/or sugary drinks, such as soda and energy drinks. Dr. Dibba explains that processed foods, especially those that are acidic, may damage the gut lining—the barrier that absorbs water and nutrients while preventing toxins and partially digested food from making it to the bloodstream. When the gut lining is damaged, it may cause a condition called leaky gut, which the Cleveland Clinic says may play a role in the development of digestive conditions, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, and more.
“Regular sodas are a source of empty calories with no nutritive value,” adds Lena Bakovic, M.S., R.D.N., C.N.S.C., a registered dietitian nutritionist at Live It Up. “Foods which are high in added sugars promote an imbalance of healthy bacteria and promote overgrowth of harmful gut bacteria.” That’s a big problem, according to a study in the journal Infectious Medicine, which linked an unbalanced microbiome to type 2 diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic liver disease, cardiometabolic diseases, cancer, arthritis, depression, sleep disorders, and hypertension. It’s not just the sugar-laden options, either: Research suggests that artificial sweeteners may also be damaging to gut health.
Drinking soda and energy drinks may mean you are not sipping as much water, which also negatively affects your gut health. A 2024 study in iScience found that drinking enough water is essential for avoiding digestive issues like constipation, plus for maintaining a balanced microbiome and healthy immune system (much of which is housed in the gut).
Other gut-harming foods to avoid
In addition to processed drinks, Bakovic and Dr. Dibba suggest limiting your intake of the following foods to protect the health of your gut:
- Candy
- Baked goods
- Fruit juice
- Alcohol
- Spicy foods
- Excessive caffeine
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