Supplements for Gut Health
The gut is an often-underrated piece of our overall health. It plays a crucial role in our holistic health by breaking down the foods we eat, improving nutrient absorption, and more. When your body is able to process nutrients more efficiently, you can enjoy improved metabolic health and higher energy levels.
Whether you are experiencing specific issues like bloating and indigestion or you simply want to boost your gut health and promote an even healthier gut microbiome, supplements can be a great addition to your daily routine. Still, not all supplements are the same, so it’s important to do your research and understand the best ingredients to look for. Choosing the right natural supplements for gut health and digestion can go a long way toward helping you improve your intestinal health and promote your overall health and wellness.
Why Gut Health Matters
Although it may be often overlooked, gut health is a crucial component to our overall health and wellness. A healthy gut is better able to digest the foods you eat and absorb the key nutrients they provide. After all, food is fuel, and it is only as helpful as your body’s ability to put it to use.
If your gut is unhealthy, the consequence is an upset stomach, gas and bloating, irritable bowel, and intestinal distress. With an inflamed or damaged gut, you may struggle to absorb nutrients, which could lead to general fatigue, gastrointestinal discomfort, and further digestive issues.
The gut has also been found to be incredibly powerful and impact many other key systems. For example, the gut-brain connection is well established by research, showing that gut disorders can influence your mental health. About 70-80% of the immune system is also located in the gut, so a healthy gut microbiome can promote a healthy immune response as well.
How Daily Supplements Improve Digestion
Daily supplements serve several functions for supporting your gut health and digestion. The right supplements can help support a healthy gut lining and reduce inflammation. Supplements can also help improve your gut’s ability to break down food and digest nutrients, so making the right supplements a part of your daily routine can help you support long-term digestive health.
Many lifestyle factors can make digestion less inefficient—for example, as we age, we lose many of the natural digestive enzymes our body produces to break down foods and get the necessary nutrients.
Supplements can serve several functions that improve digestion:
- Soothing swelling or irritation in the intestines and improve digestion
- Helping the small intestine absorb more of the nutrients that we eat
- Reducing gastrointestinal discomfort by soothing inflammation and reducing bloating
- Increasing diversity of the gut microbiota
Combining Supplements with a Healthy Diet
Although supplements are helpful for improving your gut health, it’s important that you don’t expect a full transformation in your gut health from supplements alone. Supplements should be taken in addition to a healthy diet.
Foods with fiber and whole grains take longer to break down and provide nourishment for the gut microbiome. It’s also a good idea to incorporate probiotics like fermented foods, which have living bacteria that can help to repopulate the gut microbiome.
Some foods that naturally support gut health include:
- Yogurt
- Kimchi
- Sauerkraut
- Whole grains bread
- Brown rice
In addition to including the above foods, you should also work to avoid eating foods that are rough on the gut. Inflammatory foods like processed or oily foods can inflame your intestines and affect your overall digestive function.
Key Ingredients To Look For in Digestive Supplements
A digestive supplement is only as beneficial as the ingredients in the formula. If you are looking for a supplement, you should check the label for a proper dosage of ingredients tailored directly to gut health.
Some helpful ingredients to look for include:
- Probiotics – Probiotics are live bacteria cultures that, when consumed, join your gut microbiome to help rebuild and rebalance your gut health.
- Prebiotics – While probiotics are actual bacteria to contribute to your gut health, prebiotics are ingredients that support the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut.
- Digestive enzymes – Enzymes play an important part in breaking down food, so a supplement with digestive enzymes is more likely to promote healthy nutrient absorption.
- Fiber – Both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber are helpful for promoting regularity, nourishing your gut microbiome, and supporting overall gut health.
Try to find a supplement that has as many of these benefits as possible. A supplement does not have to have all of the above ingredients to be considered worthwhile. Which ingredients you look for will also depend on your personal needs and which will have the most benefits for you.
How To Choose the Right Digestive Supplements
In a search for a helpful digestive supplement, it’s important to make sure you do your own research and not just pick something off a shelf. Not all supplements are the same—the FDA doesn’t regulate supplements, meaning that quality is not always airtight. Plus, everyone is different, and there are a ton of different supplements out there, so it’s a good idea to research which ones are best for you and your specific needs.
To choose the right supplement, you should take the following steps:
- Identify your specific digestive needs – Consider what issues you are having in your day-to-day life, such as bloating or fatigue, and begin deciding which nutrients are most valuable to promoting your gut health from there.
- Verify quality and purity of supplements – Check the ingredient label and look for a supplement that contains the above ingredients and avoids significant filler ingredients, like magnesium stearate or silicon dioxide.
- Check the ingredient levels – Some supplements use minimal amounts of the actual target ingredients while using filler for the rest, offering a false pretense for the benefits of the supplement, failing to achieve what the supplement says it will.
- Consider the side effects – Even some natural ingredients can have potential side effects, so be sure to do your research on the supplements you are considering taking and monitor how your body responds to supplements once you start taking them.
Taking the above steps ensures that you can make the most of the supplement you take for the most benefits. Before starting any supplement routine, it’s always a good idea to consult your medical provider. Your doctor will be able to consider your personalized health needs and offer unique advice on what supplement offers the most benefits for your body.
Targeted Supplements for Digestive Health
Even with an understanding of what you should look for, finding the right supplements that check all the necessary boxes can still be a challenge. At re:vitalize weight loss and wellness, we offer and recommend the following supplements to improve your gut health.
Digest:Renew
The Digest:Renew supplement is a popular choice for targeting uncomfortable lower digestive issues, like gas, bloating, and an upset stomach. These issues are often the result of inefficient digestion—addressing your digestive system can have ripple effects.
The Digest:Renew formula contains premium sourced vegetarian enzymes that help your body better process nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and fiber. With the support of these enzymes, your body will be able to better break down and process the foods you eat to promote more comfortable digestion.
Pure:Probiotic
Pure:Probiotic provides your body with 13 strains of active probiotic cultures, and it also features prebiotics and postbiotics to support healthy intestinal bacteria. By repopulating and reinforcing your gut microbiome, this supplement helps provide a wide spectrum of gastrointestinal support. A diverse and healthy balance of gut bacteria promotes healthy digestion and benefits individuals who experience gas, bloating, and general irregular digestion.
This supplement uses a unique fermentation process that involves using 95 different natural herbs and barks cultivated over three years in order to maximize the health of the microflora. This careful fermentation process provides a greater bioavailability of the nutrients.
Pure:Probiotic also outperforms other probiotic supplements in the following ways:
- It’s not freeze-dried with hibernating bacteria
- It offers a longer list of strains of bacteria compared to other supplements with only 2 or 3
- It does not have a dairy base and contains no milk
- There are no animal-based ingredients
Gastro:Renew
The Gastro:Renew supplement supports healthy and more efficient stomach function. The formula features ingredients like the Bromelain enzyme, which comes from pineapple and is healthy for the stomach. This supplement combats pain and swelling for a more comfortable digestive system.
The formula also contains natural ingredients like fennel and ginger, which both promote better digestive health. Ginger promotes a process called digestive motility, which is the rate at which food moves through the stomach and into the digestive process, allowing for more efficient digestion and less discomfort. Meanwhile, fennel reduces inflammation and swelling in the digestive tract for improved digestion and nutrient absorption.
Aloe:Pure
The Aloe:Pure supplement has a foundation of aloe vera and other natural ingredients to promote gut health and address concerns like cramping, bloating, or overall discomfort. Aloe vera contains unique bioactive compounds called acemannan polysaccharides, which may have natural anti-inflammatory properties that can soothe the intestines for improved digestion and reduced discomfort. The Aloe:Pure formula also contains other beneficial ingredients like inulin and MCT oil extract.
Inulin is a type of soluble dietary fiber that acts as a prebiotic and supports your overall gut health by offering anti-inflammatory properties and feeding a population of healthy gut bacteria. Meanwhile, medium chain triglyceride (MCT) oil extract is derived from coconut or palm oil, providing a source of sustained energy and supporting your gut ecosystem, promoting a healthy gut microbiome.
Re:Balance
The Re:Balance formula does exactly what the name implies, rebalancing your overall health and wellness, including your gut. The key ingredient in this supplement is the noni fruit, a nutrient-packed superfood full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.
Noni fruit is well-known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation can be damaging to gut health by inflaming the intestines and limiting their ability to absorb nutrients. By helping to limit the body’s production of inflammatory cells, the noni fruit in the supplement can combat inflammation in the intestines to promote nutrient absorption, digestion, and metabolism. Also rich in antioxidants, noni fruit promotes immune system regulation in addition to boosting your digestive function.
ACV Complex
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) features properties that promote positive digestive health and a healthy insulin response. The re:vitalize ACV Complex features organically cultured and fermented ACV to act as a probiotic that goes above and beyond in aiding in digestion support by balancing your gut microbiota and helping to regulate acid reflux.
ACV also optimizes the body’s natural alkalinity, supporting a healthy insulin response if taken after meals. Studies show that acetic acid in apple cider vinegar can help manage your blood sugar and insulin levels, which supports your body’s natural digestive process and metabolic health as it converts food into energy.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Supplements can be very valuable to include in your daily routine, but you can diminish the benefits if you’re not careful to use them properly. When taking supplements, it’s important to be mindful of how and when to use them.
The most common mistakes when taking gut supplements include:
- Over-reliance on supplements – If you expect to see miraculous changes from supplements alone and do not incorporate other dietary or lifestyle changes, you’ll likely be left disappointed in the results.
- Not taking supplements consistently – Supplements are helpful, but they are less so if you only take them occasionally, so it’s important to take them daily and maximize their potential results.
- Ignoring other lifestyle factors – Just as it’s important to support your supplementation with a healthy diet, you should also maintain a healthy overarching lifestyle by getting consistent sleep and monitoring your stress levels.
Ultimately, the best way to benefit from your supplement routine is to be conscious and mindful of how you incorporate them, ensuring that you stay consistent and take other steps to support your overall health. By keeping these common pitfalls in mind, you can maximize the potential benefits you experience by taking a supplement.
Take a Holistic Approach To Gut Health
A good supplement for gut health will offer ingredients like probiotics, prebiotics, digestive enzymes, and fiber while also taking into account your individualized needs. Still, it’s important to remember that supplements are an addition to a healthy lifestyle, not a replacement for one. Supplements should only be taken in combination with other healthy habits, like eating right, managing stress, and getting sleep.
At re:vitalize, we can help you on all sides of your wellness journey. We offer a collection of several great supplements that can help you rebalance your gut health. Then, we can also support you with one of our holistic programs to change the way you eat and offer the guidance of our holistic weight loss coaches and board-certified nutritionists. Both our Weight Loss & Metabolic Reset programs and our Flexible Weight Loss programs can support you in building a routine that works for you and your lifestyle.
Check out our full collection of supplements to support your digestive health. To start a program that supports your holistic health and wellness, schedule a virtual or in-person consultation with our team today.
