5 Science-Backed Ways to Improve Gut Health

When people think about health and weight loss, they often focus on calories, exercise, or willpower.

But there’s a major player that’s often overlooked: your gut.

At Real Life Medicine, we see gut health as one of the cornerstones of real, lasting wellbeing—because it doesn’t just affect digestion. It impacts metabolism, weight regulation, mood, sleep, cravings, and even your motivation to make healthy choices.

This is thanks to the gut-brain axis—a powerful, two-way communication network between your gut and your brain, involving nerves, hormones, and your gut microbes themselves. When your gut is thriving, everything else works better. When it’s not, it can throw your entire system out of balance.

The good news? You don’t need expensive supplements or complicated protocols. You can improve your gut health with simple, science-backed strategies.

Here are five practical ways to support your gut—without the woo.

#1 Eat Low Carb Real Food

A low-carb, real food approach naturally cuts out added sugars and ultra-processed ingredients—two things known to disrupt the gut microbiome and promote inflammation.

Whole foods like non-starchy vegetables, quality proteins, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats are rich in nutrients and prebiotic fibre, which feed beneficial gut bacteria. A diverse, well-fed microbiome is linked with lower inflammation, improved insulin sensitivity, and better weight regulation, as detailed in this Nature review.

#2 Try Safe Intermittent Fasting

Time-restricted eating (such as a 12:12 or 16:8 window) gives your gut time to rest and repair. This benefits both your gut lining and the circadian rhythms of your gut microbes.

Recent research shows that intermittent fasting can:

• Reduce gut permeability (“leaky gut”)
  
• Lower systemic inflammation
  
• Improve hormone signals that regulate hunger and fullness 
• Enhance gut-brain communication (Read the study here)

#3 Include Fermented Foods

Fermented foods like unsweetened yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, and sauerkraut introduce probiotic bacteria that support a healthy gut ecosystem. These beneficial microbes produce metabolites like short-chain fatty acids, which:

• Strengthen your gut lining
  
• Support mood-related neurotransmitters (like serotonin)
  
• Boost immune response
  

Just 2–4 servings of fermented foods a day increased microbial diversity and reduced inflammation markers. (View the research)

#4 Manage Stress (Your Gut Feels It Too)

Your gut has its own nervous system (the enteric nervous system), which connects directly to your brain via the vagus nerve. Stress disrupts this communication, increases cortisol, and alters the microbial balance.

Research shows that high stress is associated with:

• Gut barrier breakdown (increased permeability)
  
• Reduced microbial diversity
  
• Increased emotional eating and cravings (Here’s the study)
  

The antidote? Regular nervous system regulation. Think: deep breathing, gentle movement, tapping (EFT), meditation, or a walk in nature.

#5 Improve Sleep Quality

Your sleep and gut health are tightly interconnected. Poor sleep disrupts your microbiome, increases inflammation, and dysregulates appetite hormones like ghrelin and leptin.

Meanwhile, a balanced microbiome helps produce melatonin and GABA, two key neurotransmitters for restful sleep.

This bidirectional link between gut health and sleep means that improving one supports the other. (Read article)

The Science Behind the Simplicity

• Food and fasting shape the microbial environment, balance blood sugar, and reduce inflammatory signals.
  
• Fermented foods increase microbial diversity and enhance communication with the brain and immune system.
  
• Stress and sleep management maintain gut lining integrity and protect the vital gut-brain connection.
  

These aren’t trends. They’re foundational, evidence-based strategies to help you feel better, think clearer, and lose weight in a sustainable way.

With love and great health

Dr Lucy and Dr Mary XX 
 

P.S. Want to turn this knowledge into action?

Join the waitlist for our 12 Week Mind Body Rebalance starting late August. It’s where we help everyday (and busy!) people like you make healthy changes easy, doable, and long-lasting—without guilt, confusion, or overwhelm.

👉 Click HERE to learn more and secure your spot now

Dr Mary Barson and Dr Lucy are the founders of Real Life Medicine. They help women who have been on every diet under the sun, optimise their health and achieve long lasting weight loss without feeling miserable or deprived.

They do this with their 3 step framework that

• Improves metabolism
• Develops mindset skills
• Provides tools to implement it easily into busy lives

With this comes increased energy, vitality and confidence.

You can avoid chronic disease and stop living life on the sidelines!