What to do for a healthy gut? Your honest guide

Do you often feel inexplicably tired, struggle with skin problems, or fluctuating moods? If you're looking for an answer to the question "What to do for a healthy gut?", the journey doesn't start with a generic diet, but with a crucial insight: Your well-being begins in your gut. Your gut is so much more than just a digestive organ – it's the secret center of your entire health.

Why your well-being begins in your gut

Perhaps you know the feeling all too well: After a long day at work, you feel drained, unfocused, and your mood is at rock bottom. Many quickly attribute this to stress or lack of sleep. But often, the true cause lies much deeper – in your microbiome. This is the vast community of trillions of bacteria in your gut that have a direct connection to your immune system, your energy levels, and even your emotions.

If this delicate ecosystem gets out of balance, it can have far-reaching consequences that you might not immediately associate with your gut:

• Constant fatigue: A disturbed gut can hinder the absorption of important nutrients. The result? You feel listless, even though you get enough sleep.
• Skin problems: Blemishes, rashes, or a dull complexion are often a reflection of your internal state. Your skin shows what's going on in your gut.
• Mental health: The so-called gut-brain axis is not a one-way street. An unbalanced microbiome can significantly disrupt the production of happiness hormones like serotonin and thus directly affect your mood.

The path from symptom to solution

Many of us tend to only fight the symptoms – the bloating, the fatigue, the skin impurities. But that's like only wiping up the water without fixing the leak in the pipe. The truly sustainable way is to find the cause and address it specifically. This is where a proactive approach begins, to better understand your body and take responsibility for your health.

The process is actually quite logical: You start with the symptom, analyze the cause, and thus find your personal solution.

This illustration makes it clear: The first step is always to become aware of a symptom. This is followed by in-depth causal research, which ultimately leads to a tailor-made plan. Generic advice rarely helps here, because you need to understand what your body individually needs.

The first step to a healthy gut is to understand it. Instead of just treating symptoms, it's about identifying personal triggers. Only then can you take targeted and effective measures.

A personalized test from mybody-x.com can be your decisive tool. It sheds light on the situation and provides you not with vague assumptions, but with concrete data about the state of your body. This finally gives you the basis to make the right decisions for your health. If you want to delve deeper, you can find out in our article why gut flora is so important and how it influences your body down to the smallest detail.

Where your gut problems really come from

You've decided to get to the bottom of your gut problems – great, that's the most important first step. But before you rush out and buy expensive probiotics, we need to pause for a moment. Because generic advice like "just eat healthier" rarely leads to the goal. Why? Because it completely ignores the true, very personal cause of your complaints.

Your gut is not a simple tube, but a complex ecosystem. And what throws this system out of whack is often a combination of several factors, some of which you may not even be aware of.

Does this perhaps sound familiar to you? Coffee on the go in the morning, one stressful appointment after another at the office, a quick lunch from the canteen, and in the evening you're just too exhausted to cook fresh food. This modern everyday life is pure stress for your gut and one of the main causes of discomfort. But often it's the insidious enemies that we underestimate the most.

Stress: The direct attack on your gut barrier

Chronic stress is much more than just a feeling of overload. It puts your body in a constant state of alarm. The result: Your body constantly releases the stress hormone cortisol, which can directly attack the protective mucous layer of your intestinal wall.

Imagine this protective layer like a bouncer. Cortisol can bribe this bouncer, so the connections between the intestinal cells become looser. Doctors call this condition "Leaky Gut" or "permeable gut".

Suddenly, undigested food particles, toxins, and bacteria can enter your bloodstream uncontrollably. Your immune system sounds the alarm and reacts with inflammation throughout the body. You then feel this as bloating, inexplicable fatigue, skin problems, or new food intolerances.

Nutrition as an accelerant

Highly processed foods, sugar, and artificial sweeteners are the second major problem. While fiber from vegetables is food for your beneficial gut bacteria, sugar and white flour products feed precisely the wrong inhabitants in your gut.

• Sugar: Is the favorite food of yeasts like Candida and promotes the growth of bacteria that actively fuel inflammation.
• Artificial sweeteners: Studies show that sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose can negatively alter the composition of the gut flora and even contribute to glucose intolerance.
• Processed foods: Emulsifiers in ready meals, preservatives in processed meats, or baking aids can directly attack the delicate mucous layer of your gut.

You are not alone with your complaints. An evaluation by the KKH Kaufmännische Krankenkasse from 2022 shows an alarming trend: Especially young women between 20 and 24 years old are increasingly suffering from digestive disorders. Here, more than one in five women (22%) sought medical help. You can read more about the alarming figures in the KKH press release.

The insidious enemies in everyday life

Besides stress and diet, other factors often unknowingly sabotage your gut balance. First and foremost, the use of medication, especially antibiotics. They can save lives, but unfortunately they don't differentiate between good and bad bacteria – and can throw your microbiome out of balance for months or even years.

Lack of exercise is also a factor that many underestimate. Regular, moderate exercise stimulates intestinal activity, promotes blood circulation, and thus naturally supports healthy digestion.

As long as you don't know the true causes of your problems, your efforts often remain a frustrating guessing game. You try one diet after another, without knowing that perhaps an undetected intolerance or a very specific imbalance of your bacteria is the actual problem.

This is where a personalized approach makes all the difference. Instead of continuing to grope in the dark, an analysis like the gut microbiome test from mybody-x.com gives you a clear picture of the state of your gut. It shows you in black and white which bacterial strains predominate in you, whether inflammation markers are elevated, and what the condition of your gut barrier is. With this concrete data, you can finally act specifically, instead of just fighting symptoms.

How to eat for a happy gut

Your diet is without question the most powerful tool you have to actively control the well-being of your gut. What you eat determines which bacteria feel at home and multiply in your microbiome. But don't worry: a gut-friendly diet doesn't mean you suddenly have to nibble on celery sticks and give up everything you like. It's more about clever, sustainable adjustments that make a huge difference.

The thought of completely overhauling one's diet can quickly become overwhelming. That's why we're focusing on small but extremely effective steps that can be easily integrated into your daily routine.

The magic number 30 for your microbiome

Forget complicated diet rules for a moment. If you only want to remember one thing, it's this: Try to eat 30 different plant species per week. This simple rule is a real game-changer for your gut flora.

Why is that? Because variety on your plate directly leads to diversity in your gut. Each plant species provides different fibers, vitamins, and phytochemicals that serve as food for a wide range of beneficial gut bacteria.

That sounds like a lot at first, but it's easier to implement than you think. The term "plants" includes everything here:

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas)
• Whole grains (oats, quinoa, rye)
• Nuts and seeds
• Herbs and spices

Each variety counts as one point. An apple is one point, a handful of almonds is another. If you sprinkle sunflower seeds over your salad, you've already collected the next point. A simple nut mix as a snack can bring you 5–6 points in a single day.

This variety is crucial. Because the topic of digestion is omnipresent in Germany: Every year, around 2.4 million people in this country are hospitalized due to diseases of the digestive tract. At the same time, in 2024, 60 percent of those surveyed stated that they suffer from digestive problems. The goal of 30 plants per week is a scientifically sound approach to specifically strengthen the diversity in the microbiome and counteract this.

Prebiotics and Probiotics: Your Gut Dream Team

To make this even more tangible, we need to understand two important terms: prebiotics and probiotics. Just imagine your gut as a garden.

Probiotics are, so to speak, the "good seeds" – meaning living microorganisms that you supply to your gut. They settle there and help maintain balance. You'll find them primarily in fermented foods.

Prebiotics are the "fertilizer" for these seeds. These are indigestible fibers that serve as food for the good bacteria already living in your gut and help them multiply.

A healthy gut needs both: New, beneficial bacteria (probiotics) and the right food so that a strong and diverse community can develop (prebiotics).

Here are some of the best sources for both:

• Top probiotics for your diet:

  • Natural yogurt & kefir: Look for products without added sugar.
  • Sauerkraut (unpasteurized): Only raw sauerkraut from the refrigerated section contains the living cultures.
  • Kimchi: The fermented Korean cabbage is a true bacteria bomb.
  • Kombucha: A fermented tea drink – a great alternative to soft drinks.
  • Miso: A Japanese seasoning paste made from fermented soybeans.

• Top prebiotics (the best bacterial food):

  • Onions, garlic & leeks: The base of so many savory dishes.
  • Artichokes & asparagus: Especially rich in the prebiotic inulin.
  • Bananas (especially the slightly green ones): Contain valuable resistant starch.
  • Legumes: Lentils, beans, and chickpeas are true fiber heroes.
  • Whole grain products: Oats are a perfect start to the day.

A practical tip: Start slowly with these foods, especially if you've previously eaten a low-fiber diet. This gives your gut time to get used to the new food and avoids bloating.

Simple food swaps with a big impact

The change doesn't have to be radical. Often, it's the small, conscious exchanges in everyday life that bring the greatest long-term success. Here are some examples you can implement immediately.

Gut-Friendly Food Swaps for Your Daily Life

This table shows you simple swaps to replace gut-damaging foods with nutrient-rich, gut-friendly alternatives and explains why it's worth it.

These simple changes are an excellent start. But what if you continue to have complaints despite a healthy diet? What if you follow all the tips, but bloating, fatigue, or skin problems just won't go away?

Here's a crucial point: "Healthy" isn't the same for everyone. A food that is beneficial for most people can become a problem for you personally. Undetected food intolerances are often the hidden saboteurs on the path to a healthy gut.

An intolerance test from mybody-x.com can finally provide clarity here. It analyzes how your immune system reacts to hundreds of foods. This way, you'll find out whether supposedly healthy foods like almonds, tomatoes, or oats might be triggering a silent inflammatory reaction in you. With this knowledge, you can specifically adjust your diet and finally eliminate the real culprits, instead of continuing to grope in the dark. If you want to know more about which foods really help with gut problems, you'll find more valuable tips with us.

More than just food: Your lifestyle as the key to gut health

You've changed your diet, dutifully eat fiber and avoid sugar, but somehow you still don't feel really fit? That's a frustrating feeling that many of us know. Often, the reason for this isn't on the plate, but hidden in our daily lives.

A gut-friendly diet is the foundation, absolutely. But if you're constantly under pressure, barely sleep, or sit at your desk all day, you're sabotaging your own efforts. Imagine you're building a beautiful house (your diet), but the foundation (your lifestyle) is fragile. That can't go well in the long run. Your gut reacts extremely sensitively to stress, lack of sleep, and exercise – often even more strongly than to what you eat.

Reduce stress, improve digestion: Calm your gut-brain axis

Have you ever had sudden stomach rumbling before an important meeting? That's no coincidence, that's your gut-brain axis at work. This direct neural connection between head and stomach is not a one-way street. Constant stress in the head causes pure alarm in the gut. Your body releases cortisol, which can make the delicate gut barrier leaky (leaky gut) and fuel silent inflammation.

The good news is: You are not helpless in this cycle. You can actively break it. Often, even tiny, conscious breaks are enough to calm your overstimulated nervous system and give your gut a well-deserved break.

A simple 5-minute breathing exercise for immediate relaxation:

1. Sit upright or lie down comfortably. One hand rests relaxed on your stomach.
2. Slowly inhale deeply through your nose, counting silently to four. Feel your abdomen gently rise.
3. Hold your breath briefly, counting to two.
4. Slowly and completely exhale through your mouth, counting to six. Feel your abdomen flatten again.
5. Repeat this for five minutes. Concentrate only on the feeling of your breath, coming and going.

This small exercise is incredibly effective. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system – the part of your nervous system responsible for "rest and digest." This demonstrably lowers cortisol levels and can immediately alleviate acute stomach rumbling.

If you feel that stress is your constant companion, a hormone test from mybody-x.com can be extremely insightful. It measures your daily cortisol profile and shows you in black and white whether your stress level is actually chronically elevated. With this knowledge, you can take targeted action instead of continuing to grope in the dark.

Sleep: The nightly repair shop for your microbiome

Sleep is to your gut what a deep nightly cleaning is to a city: absolutely indispensable. Even a single night of poor sleep can significantly disrupt the diversity of your gut bacteria and shift the balance in favor of bad bacteria. Yes, even your small inhabitants in the gut have a clear day-night rhythm.

Good sleep is not a luxury, but a biological necessity. It is the time when your body fights inflammation, repairs the gut barrier, and the microbiome can regenerate.

Here are some practical tips for better sleep hygiene that really work:

• Blue light detox before bed: The light from your phone, tablet, etc., blocks the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. Put devices away at least one hour before going to sleep.
• Establish fixed bedtimes: Try to maintain a similar rhythm even on weekends. This stabilizes your internal clock immensely.
• Create a sleep cave: Your bedroom should be cool and absolutely dark. The ideal temperature is around 18 degrees Celsius.
• Kitchen closing in the evening: Give your digestive system a break and eat your last large meal at least three hours before going to bed.

Get your gut moving: Gentle activity instead of high-performance sports

Exercise for the gut doesn't have to be a marathon. On the contrary: Moderate, regular activity is often much more effective than rare, high-intensity sessions that only stress the body additionally. Exercise stimulates intestinal peristalsis – that is, the wave-like muscle contractions of your intestines – and thus ensures regular "transport."

Even a simple walk after eating can work wonders. It not only gently stimulates digestion but also helps stabilize blood sugar levels. The goal is not to completely exhaust yourself, but to lovingly activate your body. Experts recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week to strengthen the immune system and sustainably promote gut health.

This is more relevant than ever, considering that stress, lack of exercise, and an unhealthy diet are considered the main causes of gastrointestinal infections. A recent evaluation by the AOK showed that these infections were responsible for a record number of sick leaves in 2023 – one in seven employees was affected. This clearly underlines how important a resilient gut is for our general health. You can find more about these alarming figures on the AOK information page.

By firmly integrating these three pillars – stress management, sleep, and exercise – into your daily life, you create the best possible environment for a healthy microbiome. And the best part? A happy gut gives you back the energy you need for more exercise and a more relaxed everyday life. This creates a positive cycle that takes your health to a whole new level.

When a test brings clarity and how mybody-x.com helps you

You've changed your diet, tried to reduce stress, and exercise regularly – but somehow, no improvement seems to set in? If you've reached the point where generic advice no longer helps, it's time for a new approach. Instead of continuing to wonder what might be missing in your gut, the next logical step is to finally find out.

Persistent complaints are more than just an annoyance. They are clear signals from your body that something is out of balance. If you recognize yourself in one or more of the following points, a test is probably the most effective way to finally gain clarity.

The typical warning signs of your body

Sometimes the signs are subtle, but often they are very clear. Pay attention to these recurring patterns that indicate a deeper underlying problem that cannot be solved with general measures alone.

• Chronic bloating and a constant bloated stomach: You look like you're five months pregnant after eating, even though you've only had a salad? This is not normal and often indicates dysbiosis or undetected intolerances.
• Unclear food reactions: You feel like you can tolerate almost nothing anymore, and you react to more and more foods with abdominal pain, diarrhea, or skin rashes.
• Persistent fatigue and lack of energy: You are constantly exhausted, even though you get enough sleep? A disturbed gut can block the absorption of important nutrients like iron or B vitamins. A nutrient test from mybody-x.com can shed light on this.
• Skin problems like acne, eczema, or rashes: Your skin is often a reflection of your gut. Chronic inflammation inside often manifests on the skin.
• Mood swings or mental exhaustion: If the gut-brain axis is disturbed, this can directly affect your psychological state.

If you're constantly struggling with the same symptoms despite all your efforts, it's time to stop guessing. A test provides facts about the state of your body, not assumptions.

A test from mybody-x.com is your personal analysis tool in this case. It allows you to take a precise look inside your system and uncover the true causes of your complaints.

Your path to clarity with mybody-x.com

We have deliberately designed the entire process so that you can carry it out easily and conveniently from home. No waiting for appointments, no complicated procedures.

First, you take a sample at home, completely uncomplicated. Depending on the test, this is a small stool or blood sample – just a few drops from the fingertip. Everything you need for this can be found clearly explained in the test kit.

Afterwards, you send your sample free of charge to our ISO-standard certified partner laboratory in Germany, where it will be analyzed using state-of-the-art methods.

But the most important part comes next: You don't receive incomprehensible raw data, but a comprehensive, easy-to-understand results report. It not only shows you where the problems lie, but also gives you concrete, tailored recommendations for diet and lifestyle.

Imagine finding out through an intolerance test that the "healthy" almonds you eat daily trigger a strong immune reaction in you and are the cause of your bloating. Or a gut microbiome test shows that you are missing important bacterial strains responsible for the production of the happiness hormone serotonin – a possible explanation for your low mood. If you want to learn more about these possibilities, our article on the gut microbiome test is an exciting read.

The decisive added value for you

What sets us apart from other providers is the holistic approach that truly begins after the results. You won't be left alone with your data. Your results report is a practical guide that helps you translate the information directly into your daily life.

In addition, our free expert coaching is available to you. Our qualified health advisors take the time to go through your results with you, answer your questions, and help you implement the recommendations optimally. This transforms mere information into a real, actionable plan for better well-being.

Your most important questions about a healthy gut – plain talk instead of myths

The path to a better gut feeling is often full of question marks. One starts to deal with one's diet, reads about probiotics and encounters countless tips – and in the end, the confusion is greater than before. At mybody-x.com, we hear every day what questions are most pressing for you. Here are the answers – honest, direct and from practice, so you know what really matters.

How long does it really take to build up gut flora?

Honestly? Patience is your most important companion here. The idea that you can repair a gut flora that has been out of sync for years in just a few days is unfortunately a myth. The regeneration of your microbiome is as individual as you are and depends heavily on where you start.

The good news is: You often feel the first positive changes, such as less bloating or more reliable digestion, after just two to four weeks of consistent change. That's the first motivational boost! However, building a truly stable and diverse gut flora, especially after antibiotic therapy or long-standing complaints, is more of a marathon. Realistically, plan for three to twelve months here. Staying consistent is key. A test from mybody-x.com can help you by showing you a clear starting point and allowing you to objectively measure your progress after some time.

Are probiotics from the pharmacy always a good idea?

Not necessarily. Probiotics can be extremely useful, but they are not a panacea that you simply take on a whim. It is a common misconception that a "shotgun approach" with arbitrary bacterial strains works. In the best case, nothing happens; in the worst case, you throw your already sensitive ecosystem even more out of balance.

Your gut has very specific needs. The most sensible first step is always to provide your microbiome with the right "food" through a varied, fiber-rich diet. If you want to help specifically, it is wiser to first find out who is actually missing in your gut. A microbiome analysis from mybody-x.com shows you exactly which bacterial strains are underrepresented. With this knowledge, you can specifically select the appropriate probiotics or fermented foods and don't invest blindly.

Can my gut really affect my mood?

Yes, absolutely – and massively. This connection, the so-called "gut-brain axis", is not imagination, but hard science. Your gut is a veritable hormone factory. Did you know that it produces around 95% of the "happiness hormone" serotonin?

An imbalance in your gut flora, i.e., dysbiosis, can significantly disrupt the production of these crucial messenger substances. You then feel the consequences directly: mood swings, inner restlessness, anxiety, or even depressive moods can have their root in a stressed gut. A healthy gut is therefore one of the most important pillars for your mental well-being.

I eat healthily, but still have symptoms – why is that?

That's perhaps the most frustrating experience ever, and a problem we hear incredibly often. You eat avocados, tomatoes, almonds, and eggs – all things considered healthy – and yet your stomach rumbles, you're tired, or your skin is acting up. How can that be?

The answer often lies in undetected IgG food intolerances. These are not classic allergies, but delayed immune reactions. Your body reacts to supposedly healthy foods with silent inflammation. These can manifest hours or even days later as bloating, headaches, fatigue, or skin problems. So you eat "healthy," but unknowingly feed your symptoms. This is exactly where an intolerance test from mybody-x.com finally brings clarity. It analyzes your body's reaction to hundreds of foods and gives you clear guidance on which foods truly do you good and which you should avoid for a while so that your gut can calm down.

Are you ready to stop guessing and discover the true causes of your symptoms? mybody-x.com offers scientifically sound analyses for home use that provide you with clear answers and a personal action plan.

Discover the right test for you now on mybody-x.com