If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen plenty of cure-all gut health products fill your social media feeds or noticed influencers touting wonder products they’ve claimed have cured them of IBS or bloating. From colourful drinks and powders to probiotics and smoothie additives, hardly a day goes by when you don’t see someone making claims about a new gut health hack.

But how much can we really trust these claims? Dr Megan Rossi, aka the Gut Health Doctor, is a scientist and practising clinician who completed an award-winning PhD in gut health – and she’s on a mission to educate people on the ground-breaking research being made in the emerging field of gut health. Oh, and she’s also keen to cut through the huge amounts of misinformation being shared online. 

“Gut health is a new area of science, so there’s a lot of confusion between provable truths and the fads that often appear when there is a landmark scientific discovery and people look at how they can make it trendy,” says Dr Rossi. When it comes to gut-health trends, the key, she says, is to “think about if there have been any actual human studies to back up these claims”.

With this in mind, Dr Rossi recently shared a video debunking five gut-health trends, many of which aren’t just popular, but have become commonplace in many people’s diets. We asked her to unpack the science – or the lack thereof – behind these fads and explain what we should be doing instead to protect our gut health. 

Bone broth

Gwyneth Paltrow famously touted the effects of bone broth, but Dr Rossi explains there is little science to back up its health benefits. “Much like collagen powders, bone broth is largely gelatin,” she says. “The connective cartilage from bones contains the collagen and when you cook it, it turns into gelatin.”

She believes myths about the gut-healing properties of bone broth may have come from people who have had to reduce the amount of fibre in their diets when they’ve had an injured gut. Bone broths don’t contain fibre and are usually included in IBS plans. “There’s nothing in bone broth that’s extremely helpful for your gut, but people might be feeling better because they’ve reduced the fibre in their diet. As soon as you reintroduce the fibre, however, your symptoms will come back,” says Dr Rossi. “Essentially, there is no science around bone broth having any benefit on the gut.” 

Collagen powder

Look on social media and collagen powders appear to be the answer to many of our health concerns, but the science is more complex.

There is growing evidence that some specific hydrolysed collagen, which is not usually in powder form and tends to be expensive, might be helpful for joint and skin health. However, the more affordable power collagens on the market aren’t backed up by the same scientific claims.

“Any powdered collagen that’s less than £50 is usually very similar to gelatin, which is found in jelly,” says Dr Rossi. “Essentially, they’re not actually going to do anything because they are too big of a molecule to pass into the gut in collagen form. Instead, they have to be broken down into amino acids which you can get just as effectively from a piece of chicken or some butter beans.” 

Sea moss

Sea moss is the latest wonder product being sold as a gut cure. However, there is no science behind these claims. Instead, Dr Rossi fears it may do more harm than good. An emulsifier called carrageenan, which is being studied by her team at King’s College London, is derived from sea moss. Emulsifiers are a common ingredient in many ultra-processed foods: “I definitely wouldn’t be recommending having it as a supplement,” says Rossi. 

Gluten-free

There are over 40 trillion bacteria in your gut that all need different types of fertilisers to thrive, so one of the best things you can do for your gut microbiome is to eat a diverse and varied diet. This means the now common-place trend of cutting out certain foods can be detrimental if people are doing it unnecessarily.

“As is always the case, there is a little bit of truth behind everything,” says Dr Rossi. “For people who have coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition, their body will mistakenly see gluten as a toxin and react to it. But, for the rest of us, gluten is completely fine; however, it’s mistakenly been labelled as a toxin.”

Gluten itself is a protein, which doesn’t do anything specifically for your gut. However, you tend to find gluten in gut-living foods like barley and rye grains, which are full of prebiotics that feed gut bacteria. “The issue is that people are mistakenly cutting out gluten even if they don’t have an issue with it, which could be doing more harm than good,” explains Dr Rossi.

Daily probiotics

Downing a probiotic before breakfast is another gut health trend that’s become extremely commonplace. But again, the studies to back up how helpful this is are few and far between.

“Each different type of bacteria, or strain, does different things,” explains Dr Rossi. “For example, we know that if you take antibiotics, a specific strain of bacteria called LGG taken at a specific dose twice a day throughout your antibiotic period is really beneficial, according to studies in children. Clinical trials have shown that women with thrush benefit from taking specific strains of bacteria called LA14 and HNOO1 together with lactoferrin. So probiotics can be powerful, but they need to be very specific.”

In other words, taking a daily generic probiotic once a day will have no beneficial effects on your gut. “One very small study found that a group that took a generic daily supplement after their antibiotics had a slower regeneration of their microbiomes compared to those who didn’t take one,” says Dr Rossi. “So using them in the wrong way could do more harm than good.”     

So how can we avoid gut-health misinformation and beat the fad? Dr Rossi advises looking for human studies that have been conducted on any gut-health product you’re interested in: “Google ‘human clinical trial in sea moss’ or if you’re buying specifically from a company ask them to show you the study in humans that backs up their claims.” She also recommends being wary of studies conducted on mice, which usually have very different results from those conducted on humans.

“We always want a quick fix and a magic pill,” says Dr Rossi. “Instead we need to appreciate how complex gut health is.” One of the best things we can do to support our gut health is to recognise this complexity and feed the diverse bacteria that make up our gut microbiome.

Dr Rossi recommends eating from what she calls the “super six plant groups” every day. These include: vegetables, fruits, whole grains (such as quinoa and bulgar wheat), legumes (such as chickpeas or butter beans), nuts and seeds, and herbs and spices. “Each day, think about whether you’ve got something from each of those categories,” says Dr Rossi. “Even if you’re getting a takeaway, add a can of mixed beans to your dish just to get a fertiliser for your microbes in there.”

Think about diversity when you’re doing your supermarket shop. “Don’t just get frozen blueberries, get a pack of frozen mixed berries instead. Don’t just get pumpkin seeds, get a mixed pack of seeds. It doesn’t have to cost any extra money or time.” By eating a varied range of plants, adding some fermented foods to your diet and getting in as many different types of fertilisers as possible, Dr Rossi suggests that you won’t need to take any supplements.

Images: Getty