Digestive Health · Digestive Wellness · Gut Health · Healthy Habits · Lifestyle Tips ·Jul 01, 2026

Your Summer Gut Shopping List

Charlotte Winter

Co-Founder of The Nutritional Biochemist

The phrase ‘gut health’ is everywhere, with conversations around it having never felt or been more mainstream. Earlier this year, the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) published a consensus statement in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, bringing greater scientific precision to this term. The expert panel defined gut health as ‘a state of normal gastrointestinal function without active gastrointestinal disease and gut-related symptoms that affect quality of life’. This consensus statement recognises multiple factors contribute to gut health, which are intimately interrelated. These include digestive physiology, the gut microbiome, intestinal permeability, immune function, and gut-brain signalling. Importantly, diet emerges as a key modifiable determinant of gut health, owing to its effects on metabolism and gut microbial composition.

Diet, Fibre and the Microbiome

Within the landscape of dietary components, fibre stands out as a key substrate shaping gut microbial composition. Dietary fibre is a complex carbohydrate which resists digestion in the small intestine and passes largely intact into the colon, where some of these fibres may become the primary fuel source for resident bacteria. This fermentation process produces short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), metabolites including butyrate, propionate, and acetate that exert wide-ranging effects on intestinal integrity, immune regulation, and metabolism. An increased intake of fibre-rich foods has been shown in the research to enrich short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria in the gut.

However, it is important to note fibre differs widely in both structure and function. Fibre found in different food sources offers varying properties and benefits. These include viscous, fermentable and bulking fibres reducing blood sugar spikes after meals and promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.

Supporting Gut Health: The Full Picture

While fibre is a cornerstone, supporting your gut health works best as a composite approach. A few additional pillars worth noting:

Hydration: essential for fibre to do its job. Increased consumption requires adequate fluid to move effectively through the digestive tract. Summer heat increases fluid losses, making conscious hydration even more important.

Food group diversity: a diet rich in a wide range of plant foods provides greater exposure to diverse fibre types, polyphenols, and micronutrients that collectively support digestive health.

Artificial sweeteners are worth limiting. Emerging evidence suggests that some non-nutritive sweeteners may alter gut microbial composition and function. Though the research picture is still evolving, focusing on whole-food sources of sweetness such as fruit is a reasonable approach.

Consider Targeted Probiotics: Probiotics are live microorganisms, often referred to as ‘good’ or ‘friendly’ bacteria, which have been shown to improve the gut microbiota and are linked to numerous health benefits to the host.

Shop Targeted Probiotics

Your Summer Shopping List

The abundance of fresh produce in summer makes it the perfect time to stock up on foods that naturally complement your probiotic routine. Many people can quickly name high-protein foods yet struggle to list high-fibre or microbiome-supportive options with the same ease. Below are some key foods to prioritise:

Fruits

• Berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries) rich in polyphenols that exert prebiotic-like effects on the microbiome.

• Apples, a source of both pectin and insoluble fibre from the skin. Eating whole rather than juiced preserves the fibre benefits.

• Cherries are rich in anthocyanins associated with reduced markers of inflammation.

Vegetables

• Artichokes a natural source of inulin, which acts as a prebiotic.

• Fennel a good source of insoluble fibre with traditionally recognised digestive benefits.

Legumes

• Chickpeas an excellent source of resistant starch. Cold chickpeas (cooked and cooled) increase resistant starch content.

• Lentils a versatile source of resistant starch whilst also a great source of plant-based protein.

Wholegrains & Seeds

• Oats a particularly well-evidenced source of beta-glucan, a soluble fibre beneficial for LDL cholesterol reduction and blood glucose regulation.

• Flaxseeds are beneficial for digestive regularity and associated with favourable effects on the gut microbiome.

• Chia seeds form a viscous gel due to their fibre content, slowing digestion and promoting satiety.

Fermented Foods

Fermented foods such as live-culture yoghurt (including sheep's milk varieties), kefir, kombucha, and kimchi contribute beneficial live microorganisms that may transiently support microbial diversity. They work in tandem with fibre; the fibre feeds the bacteria; the fermented foods contribute to the community.

Additional Fibre

Supplementing Fibre can help to aid digestion and absorption of probiotics, try FibreKind alongside your daily probiotics to help avoid bloating day to day!

Conclusions

Gut health is shaped by many interconnected factors, but diet remains a powerful lever you can control daily. By prioritising fibre-rich, minimally processed, and microbiome-supportive foods, you supply the substrates your gut bacteria rely on. Summer’s abundance of fresh foods makes this easier than ever: small, consistent choices in your shopping can support your gut health and quality of life.

Author

Charlotte, Co-Founder of The Nutritional Biochemist

BSc in Biochemistry, MSc in Management from University of Bath and MSc in Nutrition from King’s College London.

Sources

• Brahe LK, Le Chatelier E, Prifti E, et al. Dietary modulation of the gut microbiota – a randomised controlled trial in obese postmenopausal women. British Journal of Nutrition. 2015;114(3):406-417. doi:10.1017/S0007114515001786

• Leeuwendaal, N. K., Stanton, C., O'Toole, P. W., & Beresford, T. P. (2022). Fermented Foods, Health and the Gut Microbiome. Nutrients, 14(7), 1527. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14071527

• Marco, M. L., Cunningham, M., Bischoff, S. C., Clarke, G., Delzenne, N., Lewis, J. D., Meisel, M., Merenstein, D., O'Toole, P. W., Staudacher, H. M., Szajewska, H., Wells, J. M., & Quigley, E. M. M. (2026). The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) consensus statement on the definition and scope of gut health. Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology, 23(5), 432–448. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-026-01176-x

• Meiners, F., Ortega-Matienzo, A., Fuellen, G., & Barrantes, I. (2025). Gut microbiome-mediated health effects of fiber and polyphenol-rich dietary interventions. Frontiers in nutrition, 12, 1647740. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1647740

• Nazzaro, F., Fratianni, F., De Feo, V., Battistelli, A., Da Cruz, A. G., & Coppola, R. (2020). Polyphenols, the new frontiers of prebiotics. Advances in food and nutrition research, 94, 35–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.afnr.2020.06.002

• Sanz, Y., Cryan, J. F., Deschasaux-Tanguy, M., Elinav, E., Lambrecht, R., & Veiga, P. (2025). The gut microbiome connects nutrition and human health. Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology, 22(8), 534–555. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01077-5