The #1 Herb for Better Gut Health, According to Dietitians
Reviewed by Dietitian Alyssa Pike, RDNYour gut impacts digestion, immunity, mood and even how long you live—it's that vital.
Mint supports gut health by easing cramps, reducing inflammation and fighting bad bacteria.
Use fresh mint leaves or tea to gently aid digestion. Just be cautious if you have acid reflux.Gut health is a hot topic—and, quite frankly, for good reason. Your gastrointestinal system doesn't just digest your food, it also houses your unique microbiome, or the trillions of bacteria and microbes that reside within your gut. To say it's kind of a big deal would be an understatement.
Whether you struggle with a digestive condition like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or you're simply a health enthusiast who is eager to care for your gut health, we've got you covered. Leading gut-health dietitians have shared their No.1 herb to add to your diet if gut health is on your radar.
Feeling sick, tired, fatigued, irritable, moody? If any of these sound like something you've experienced before, then it's time to take a closer look at your gut health. Feeding and fueling your microbiome to the fullest is crucial for not only your physical well-being, but your mental well-being, too.
Research shows a direct impact of the gut on both health and disease–even suggesting that a healthy microbiome plays a role in longevity. One study found that people who tend to live the longest consume more fiber, and as a result, have microbiomes that resemble those of much younger people. (It's safe to say that fiber is our favorite F-word!)
'Prioritizing a healthy gut is crucial for several reasons, including digestive efficiency, immune support and mental health and mood regulation,' says Jessie Wong, RDN, a gut-health dietitian and founder of Poopedia, a website devoted to improving poop consistency. 'Having a healthy gut optimizes the breakdown and absorption of nutrients, ensuring that the body gets the essential vitamins and minerals it needs for overall health and functioning,' she says.
In addition, gut health is also important for disease prevention and management. 'Given the microbiome is responsible for the inflammatory response, it's crucial to optimize your gut health to prevent chronic inflammation that can occur in diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes,' says Beth Rosen, M.S., RD, owner of Beth Rosen Nutrition. 'Plus, a balanced microbiome can help to reduce constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating in digestive disease diagnoses,' she says.
This small but mighty herb packs a flavorful punch of nutrition in every bite. According to gut-health experts, mint is the No. 1 herb you need to add to your eating plan.
But, just why is this popular flavor in toothpaste and chewing gum so stellar when it comes to gut health? Mint has properties that help reduce inflammation and stomach cramping and can kill harmful microorganisms, says Wong.
Mint is the general term given to the family of plants that exhibit that minty-fresh feeling you've come to know. While two of the most common forms of mint you've likely encountered include spearmint and peppermint, the latter is the one most frequently encountered when you hear mint and gut health combined.
In fact, research has found that peppermint oil, for example, can help relieve digestive discomfort in people who have IBS, as well as quell indigestion—and it's been shown to be safe to use for short-term relief. 'Mint's antispasmodic properties help relax the muscles of the digestive tract, while its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects promote a balanced gut environment,' says Wong.
It is worth noting that doses used in research don't exactly translate to the same mint we'd use in a kitchen. Meaning you can't expect a leaf of mint to alleviate symptoms associated with IBS overnight. However, drinking mint tea has been used to alleviate stomach pain and nausea. If you are interested in using something stronger, like peppermint oil, talk to a healthcare professional before using supplements to make sure they're safe for you.
Mint is a great choice, but it's not the only herb that bodes well for your GI tract. 'Other herbs like ginger, turmeric and fennel also offer substantial benefits. It's essential to adopt a holistic approach, incorporating a variety of herbs and foods to support overall gut health,' says Wong.
Adding fresh mint into a healthy eating pattern doesn't require a trip to a specialist. 'While using fresh mint leaves may not reproduce the same effects seen in clinical trials, it still adds a refreshing flavor to dishes,' says Wong.
With that in mind, Wong recommends clients use three to five fresh mint leaves in recipes. 'This amount is a good starting point for adding freshness and a mild digestive benefit to their meals,' says Wong.
Rosen agrees, adding that peppermint can also be steeped as a tea. One thing to keep in mind is being careful with mint if you have acid reflux. Mint can be a trigger for GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), especially if you consume a lot of it. Understanding how mint affects you will be important for deciding how to include it in your eating plan. 'While this may irritate those with GERD, for others it can help alleviate indigestion and nausea,' says Wong.
To get you started on your journey using mint in your own kitchen, first and foremost, store it properly. This can be done on the counter or in the fridge, as long as you follow these tips for storing fresh mint.
Mint is a powerful herb that has shown to have beneficial properties that bode well for gut health. Not only is it easy to toss into recipes during the summer months, it's also a wonderful flavor enhancer to upgrade water. Consider stocking up on fresh mint and other herbs and spices during your next grocery haul and, we promise, your gut will thank you.
Read the original article on EATINGWELL
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Experts issue warning over dangerous new insect species spreading across US: 'Managing them is not easy'
An invasive tick species from Asia is quickly multiplying across the eastern United States, and according to Patch, it's prompting concern from environmental officials. The Asian longhorned tick, first identified in the U.S. in 2017, has now been found in at least 17 states and is spreading particularly fast in southeastern Pennsylvania, where cases have surged by 150% over the last five years. Unlike most ticks, the Asian longhorned tick doesn't need a mate to reproduce. One female can lay up to 3,000 eggs, resulting in infestations so dense that wildlife officials have found hundreds of ticks on a single animal. "Managing them is not easy because of how numerous they are and how easily they can come back," Risa Pesapane, a preventive medicine professor at Ohio State University, said, per Patch. Luckily, there's no strong evidence linking these ticks to Lyme disease. However, their ability to transmit other illnesses, including a cattle disease called Theileria orientalis that causes severe anemia and fever, poses an urgent threat to food supply chains and native animal populations. Their rapid spread also puts pressure on local ecosystems. Asian longhorned ticks feed on a wide range of animals, from deer and raccoons to dogs, cats, cattle, and even squirrels and skunks. With their capacity for rapid growth and adaptability to mild, humid conditions, experts warn that they could eventually populate much of the eastern U.S. and parts of the West Coast. Invasions like this destroy biodiversity by outcompeting native tick species and disrupting predator-prey relationships that keep nature in balance. In a world already struggling with rising temperatures and shrinking habitats, the introduction of yet another aggressive species threatens to worsen existing issues. According to Patch, experts say prevention and early action are key. Pesticides can work, but only when applied directly. Even then, ticks often bounce back. The best approach is to keep pastures mowed, regularly check pets and livestock, and report sightings to local health officials. If you find a tick on you, store it in rubbing alcohol and contact your doctor or county health office. For pets and livestock, get in touch with your vet immediately. Perhaps most importantly, support efforts to protect native ecosystems. The more resilient our local wildlife and natural habitats are, the harder it is for invasive species to take hold. Should the government be able to control how we heat our homes? Definitely Only if it saves money I'm not sure No way Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Community collaboration crucial in addressing homelessness in Abilene
ABILENE, Texas () – Young professionals gathered at the Community Foundation of Abilene for an 'Abi Chat' during the Abilene Young Professionals luncheon. Networking took a purposeful turn to address homelessness through collaboration with the West Texas Homeless Network. The West Texas Homeless Network (WTHN) is a coalition of organizations dedicated to advocating for action that realigns systems and resources to end homelessness in Abilene, rather than merely managing it. The WTHN is neither a non-profit nor a for-profit organization; instead, it focuses on helping communities prevent and eliminate homelessness through collaboration and strategic planning. The Executive Director of Abilene Hope Haven shared why events like this are important in keeping the conversation with the public and continuing to address the needs of the Big Country Homeless community. 'We have a great network of people. We always are going to need to fill different gaps, depending on what's going on in the climate of our community. But we have a wealth of providers in the network that are really good at doing a holistic approach to those experiencing homelessness,' Horton shared. Horton says the Abilene community's wealth of resources and willingness to work together are its strengths. Whether a person needs help with mental health, food insecurity, substance abuse, or any number of issues that homeless neighbors face, the network is ready and willing to step in. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Forget 'biological age' tests — longevity experts are using an $800 under-the-radar blood test to measure aging in real-time
Doctors and scientists are using a blood plasma test to study longevity. The test measures proteins and can tell you about your organ health. This field of proteomics could one day help detect diseases like cancer before they start. Should you have that second cup of coffee? How about a little wine with dinner? And, is yogurt really your superfood? Scientists are getting closer to offering consumers a blood test that could help people make daily decisions about how to eat, drink, and sleep that are more perfectly tailored to their unique biology. The forthcoming tests could also help shape what are arguably far more important health decisions, assessing whether your brain is aging too fast, if your kidneys are OK, or if that supplement or drug you're taking is actually doing any good. It's called an organ age test, more officially (and scientifically) known as "proteomics" — and it's the next hot "biological age" marker that researchers are arguing could be better than all the rest. "If I could just get one clock right now, I'd want to get that clock, and I'd like to see it clinically available in older adults," cardiologist Eric Topol, author of the recent bestseller "Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity," told Business Insider. Topol said armed with organ age test results, people could become more proactive stewards of their own health, before it's too late. "When we have all these layers of data, it's a whole new day for preventing the disease," Topol said. "You see the relationship with women's hormones. You see the relationship with food and alcohol. You don't ever get that with genes." A test like this isn't available to consumers just yet, but it's already being used by researchers at elite universities and high-end longevity clinics. They hope it can become a tool any doctor could use to assess patient health in the next few years. A startup called Vero, which was spun out of some foundational proteomics research at Stanford University, is hoping to beta test a proteomics product for consumers this year. "Knowing your oldest organ isn't the point; changing the trajectory is," Vero co-founder and CEO Paul Coletta told a crowd gathered at the Near Future Summit in Malibu, California, last month. Coletta told Business Insider Vero's not interested in doing "wealthcare." The company plans to make its test available to consumers for around $200 a pop, at scale. Their draw only requires one vial of blood. The big promise of proteomics is that it could be a more precise real-time tool for tracking important but subtle changes that emerge inside each of us as we age. Genetic testing can measure how our bodies are built, spotting vulnerabilities in a person's DNA that might predispose them to health issues. Standard clinical measurements like a person's weight, blood pressure, or cholesterol readings are a useful proxy for potential health issues. Then there are the increasingly popular "biological age" tests available to consumers at home. Most of those look at "epigenetic changes" — how environmental factors affect our gene expression. Proteomics does something different and new. It measures the product that our bodies make based on all those genetic and environmental inputs: proteins. It offers a live assessment of how your body is running, not just how it's programmed. If validated in the next few years, these tests could become key in early disease detection and prevention. They could help influence all kinds of medical decisions, from big ones like "What drugs should I take?" to little ones like "How does my body respond to caffeine or alcohol?" Some high-end longevity clinics are already forging ahead using proteomics to guide clinical recommendations, albeit cautiously. Dr. Evelyne Bischof, a longevity physician who treats patients worldwide, said she uses proteomic information to guide some of the lifestyle interventions she recommends to her patients. She may suggest a more polyphenol-rich diet to someone who seems to have high inflammation and neuroinflammation based on proteomic test results, or may even suggest they do a little more cognitive training, based on what proteomics says about how their brain is aging. Dr. Andrea Maier, a professor of medicine and functional aging at the National University of Singapore, told BI she uses this measurement all the time in her longevity clinics. For her, it's just a research tool, but if the results of her ongoing studies are decent, she hopes to be able to use it clinically in a few years' time. "We want to know what kind of 'ageotype' a person is, so what type of aging personality are you, not from a mental perspective, but from a physical perspective," Maier said. "It's really discovery at this moment in time, and at the edge of being clinically meaningful." "Once we have that validated tool, we will just add it to our routine testing and we can just tick the box and say, 'I also want to know if this person is a cardiac ager, or a brain ager, or a muscle ager' because now we have a sensitive parameter — protein — which can be added," Maier said. The two big-name proteomics tests are Olink and SOMAscan. For now, their high-end screening costs around $400-$800 per patient. "I'm losing lots of money at the moment because of proteomics for clinical research!" Maier said. Top aging researchers at Stanford and Harvard are pushing the field forward, racing to publish more novel insights about the human proteome. The latest findings from Harvard aging researcher Vadim Gladyshev's lab, published earlier this year, suggest that as we age, each person may even stand to benefit from a slightly different antiaging grocery list. To research this idea, Gladyshev looked at proteins in the blood of more than 50,000 people in the UK, all participants in the UK Biobank who are being regularly tested and studied to learn more about their long-term health. He tracked their daily habits and self-reported routines like diet, occupation, and prescriptions, comparing those details to how each patient's organs were aging. He discovered some surprising connections. Yogurt eating, generally speaking, tended to be associated with better intestinal aging but had relatively no benefit to the arteries. White wine drinking, on the other hand, seemed to potentially confer some small benefit to the arteries while wreaking havoc on the gut. "The main point is that people age in different ways in different organs, and therefore we need to find personalized interventions that would fit that particular person," Gladyshev told BI. "Through measuring proteins, you assess the age of different organs and you say, 'OK, this person is old in this artery.'" For now, there's too much noise in the data to do more. Dr. Pal Pacher, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism who studies organ aging and injuries, told BI that proteomics is simply not ready for clinical use yet. There's just too much noise in the data. But he imagines a future where a more sophisticated protein clock could help link up which people may be most vulnerable to diseases like early cancer, kidney disease, and more. (A California-based proteomics company called Seer announced last weekend that it is partnering with Korea University to study whether proteomics can help more quickly diagnose cancer in young people in their 20s and 30s.) "How beautiful could it be in the future?" Maier said. "Instead of three hours of clinical investigation, I would have a tool which guides me much, much better, with more validity towards interventions." Read the original article on Business Insider
