Advertisement
6 Nourishing Recipes To Calm Inflammation & Heal Your Gut
Your gastrointestinal system plays a big role in your overall health. After all, it's home to about 80 percent of your immune system, and gut health problems can be linked to many inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.
Your microbiome, the trillions of bacteria in your gut, regulates not only your digestion but also, in part, your hormones, brain, and genetic expression. And microbiome imbalances like candida overgrowth and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) can lead to imbalances throughout your body.
You are what your microbiome eats. The foods you choose play a significant role in the prevention of degenerative diseases by improving your microbiome environment. If all disease begins in the gut, as Hippocrates once said, then so does healing.
Here are six of my favorite gut-healing recipes for overall health:
1. Nourishing Chicken Zoodle Bone Broth Soup
Ingredients for the bone broth
- Whole organic chicken
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 inch of ginger root
Ingredients for the soup
- 4 to 6 cups organic chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 to 2 cups chopped onions
- 1 to 2 cups chopped carrots
- 3 to 4 small to medium zucchinis
- 2 cups shredded organic chicken
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
- Himalayan sea salt to taste
Preparation
Bone broth:
1. Rinse the chicken, and place it in the pot.
2. Fill your pot three-quarters full with water, and add the herbs and vegetables.
4. Cook on medium-high until bubbling, then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer covered, at least 8 hours, up to 48 hours, to taste.
5. Allow to cool, then pour stock through a strainer and transfer to Mason jars to store in the fridge.
Soup:
1. Sauté the onions and carrots in coconut oil until onions are soft.
2. Add bone broth and bring to a boil.
3. Make the zucchini into noodles. Slice the zucchini into your desired size of strips, either thick or nice and thin (more like actual noodles) with a julienne slicer.
4. Once the carrots are tender, add the zucchini and simmer (covered or uncovered) until tender. The time will vary depending on the size of your zucchini "noodles."
5. Add the chopped chicken and garlic, bring back to a boil, and then turn heat off. Cover and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
Benefits: Bone broth, the gut super healer, contains many building blocks for your enterocytes, your gut-lining cells. The natural blend of gelatin, glucosamine, glycine, and minerals found in bone broth can help calm diarrhea1, constipation2, and food intolerances. If you struggle with histamine intolerance, I recommend cooking the bones in the broth for a shorter amount of time.
2. Rejuvenating Celery Juice
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 bunches organic celery
Preparation
Juice the celery. Drink it fresh.
Benefits: As simple as it sounds, celery contains many minerals and nutrients3 that are great for your gut. I've seen this simple solution do wonders in thousands of patients when consumed consistently. Over time, the juice will help restore your stomach's natural acid, HCL, aiding in healthy digestion and microbiome balance. I recommend drinking 16 ounces of fresh celery juice on an empty stomach in the morning.
3. Gut-Soothing Ginger & Slippery Elm Tea
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger root
- 1 teaspoon slippery elm powder
- 2 cups purified water
Preparation
1. Grate the fresh ginger root into your teapot.
2. Pour 2 cups of water into the pot and boil.
3. Strain.
4. Stir in and dissolve slippery elm powder.
Benefits: Ginger and slippery elm are both anti-inflammatory4 and healing to your intestinal lining.
4. Probiotic Superfood Burger
Ingredients
- 1¼ pounds grass-fed ground beef
- ¼ cup organic mustard
- ½ cup drained organic sauerkraut
- ½ head organic lettuce
- ½ cup watercress
- ½ a white organic onion, sliced
- Himalayan sea salt to taste
Preparation
1. Heat grill to medium-high. Form the beef into four ¾-inch-thick patties. Season with salt.
2. Cook the patties until desired readiness.
3. Use the lettuce leaves as the "sandwich buns" and add the burgers, onion, watercress, mustard, and sauerkraut.
5. Dr. Will's Gut-Healing Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain almond milk
- 2 tablespoons grass-fed collagen powder
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon probiotic powder
- 1 teaspoon deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL)
- 1 teaspoon zinc carnosine
- 1 tablespoon L-glutamine powder
- 2 cups chopped kale
- ½ cup frozen organic berries
Preparation
Combine the ingredients into a blender.
Benefits: Gut medicines like collagen, zinc carnosine, coconut oil, probiotics, and L-glutamine are easy to get in when you blend them into delicious smoothies. I make ones like this every morning!
6. Anti-Inflammatory Turmeric Milk
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of black pepper
- 1 teaspoon raw honey
- ¼ teaspoon ginger powder
Preparation
1. Blend ingredients well in a blender.
2. Pour into saucepan and heat for 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat until warm.
Benefits: Turmeric is great for putting out the flames of inflammation7. Its benefits are amplified and made more bioavailable when mixed with fats like coconut and spices like black pepper. Ginger is another great anti-inflammatory4 and gut-healing tool.
7 Sources
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27749689/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5622680/
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nutrition-research-reviews/article/effects-of-flavonoids-on-intestinal-inflammation-barrier-integrity-and-changes-in-gut-microbiota-during-dietinduced-obesity/C32467493BB55E5C3C2A119641F6FB84/core-reader
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12468270/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29310736/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21784145/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664031/
Watch Next
Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes
Enjoy some of our favorite clips from classes
What Is Meditation?
Mindfulness/Spirituality | Light Watkins
Box Breathing
Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar
What Breathwork Can Address
Mindfulness/Spirituality | Gwen Dittmar
The 8 Limbs of Yoga - What is Asana?
Yoga | Caley Alyssa
Two Standing Postures to Open Up Tight Hips
Yoga | Caley Alyssa
How Plants Can Optimize Athletic Performance
Nutrition | Rich Roll
What to Eat Before a Workout
Nutrition | Rich Roll
How Ayurveda Helps Us Navigate Modern Life
Nutrition | Sahara Rose
Messages About Love & Relationships
Love & Relationships | Esther Perel
Love Languages
Love & Relationships | Esther Perel
