7 gut friendly foods that can help improve your mental wellbeing

We’ve all heard the adage, ‘you are what you eat’, but this saying deserves a modern reworking based on everything we now know about our gut, or our large and small intestine, stomach and colon, and how significant it is for mental wellbeing. ‘You are what you absorb’ feels more fitting and connects with what we know about how closely linked our gut, the nutrients it absorbs and the trillions of bacteria within are to our mental wellbeing. When balanced, these bacteria are brilliant for our mental health, helping us make serotonin, one of our happy hormones.

If you are what you absorb, then the foods that we add into each meal can have a significant impact on many aspects of our health, including our mental wellbeing. What’s exciting is that you may already have many of these foods in your fridge and storecupboard. Oily fish, apples, potatoes, butter, kefir, kombucha, kimchi, olive oil and chicken have benefits that support the health of our gut, including the diversity of the bacteria within, and help us make more serotonin, our happy hormone. This shows that nutrition doesn’t need to be complicated – the foods us eat every day can really make a difference!

Gut-friendly foods that can help improve your mental wellbeing

It’s ‘offishal’: oily fish is brilliant for mental wellbeing

Living on an island, us Brits have easy access to a wide range of oily fish, such as mackerel and haddock, which are all notable for being a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, an anti-inflammatory nutrient that has a positive impact on both gut bacteria and mental wellbeing. There are links between chronic inflammation and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, and research tells us that adding anti-inflammatory foods like oily fish into your meals is a helpful way to promote mental wellbeing.

Use the acronym SMASSHT (salmon, mackerel, anchovies, haddock, herring, trout) to remember the huge variety of oily fish we have at our fingertips. Adding oily fish to your meals 3 times a week has been shown to have positive health benefits – add canned sardines to salads, add smoked mackerel to your morning omelette or make fishcakes from tinned wild salmon.

Get your fix in this masala mackerel dish flavoured with ginger, tamarind, cumin and garam masala.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

An apple a day keeps the doctor away might not strictly true, but apples have benefits that make them supportive for our gut and mental health. Apples are rich in pectin, a type of prebiotic soluble fibre that helps feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut. This prebiotic effect helps to maintain the balance between beneficial and not-so beneficial gut bacteria, which then promotes mental wellbeing. In the UK, we are lucky to have access to local apple varieties year-round, including Bramley, Cox, Egremont, Jazz and Braeburn. Make sure to eat the apple skin to increase your pectin intake!

Try in this spelt and apple salad with crispy nuts and seeds.

Potatoes can turn that frown upside down

White potatoes have taken a bit of a reputational hit in the last few years due to their high carbohydrate content, but what if I told you this is exactly why they are such a fantastic food for both gut health and mental wellbeing? Potatoes, when cooked and then cooled, are rich in resistant starch, a type of prebiotic fibre that feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut and increases production of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that travels through the gut-brain axis to reduce inflammation and improve mental wellbeing. Potatoes are also rich in polyphenols, an antioxidant that helps reduce the inflammation that is linked to depression and anxiety. When you next make a roast dinner, chop and parboil Maris Piper potatoes (with a teaspoon of baking soda to make them extra crispy), let them cool for a few hours, then roast them in very hot goose or duck fat for a gut friendly addition to your meal!

Pair with another gut-friendly ingredient, sauerkraut, in this crispy spud salad recipe.

Butter late than never

Our bodies really are amazing. After they ferment or ‘eat’ the prebiotic, or fibre rich foods in our diet, the trillions of bacteria in our gut release short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate. Butyrate helps to calm the inflammation that is linked to depression and anxiety, as well as upregulate brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), a protein that supports the growth and survival of neurons, or brain cells, which help to improve mood and cognitive function. We can also get butyrate from grass-fed butter and other dairy products such as full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt, foods that are rich in flavour and gut and mental health benefits.

The three Ks: kefir, kombucha and kimchi

Amongst the trillions of bacteria in our gut are specific strains that have been shown to have mental wellbeing benefits. The lactobacillus strains L. rhamnosus, L. helveticus and L. plantarum, found in kefir, yoghurt, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut and miso, have been shown to help increase serotonin production in the gut, reduce chronic inflammation and help us release more GABA, a neurotransmitter or brain chemical that helps regulate mood and anxiety levels. These days it’s easy to find kefir, kombucha and kimchi in major supermarkets across the UK, so pick one and have fun finding ways to add them into your meals – a few tablespoons of kefir in your morning smoothie, a glass of kombucha with lunch and a small serving of kimchi as a condiment with dinner.

Introduce kefir to your morning routine in this winter sunshine breakfast bowl.

Drizzle on some olive oil

Living so close to the Mediterranean, we in the UK are lucky to have access to the most delicious and highest quality olive oil on the planet. Great for drizzling on salads, adding to cakes or cooking with, olive oil, especially the extra virgin version, is a tasty and gut-friendly addition to your meals. Olive oil contains oleic acid, a fat that helps reduce inflammation and support brain health. This healthy fat is also rich in polyphenols, antioxidants that act like prebiotics, feeding gut bacteria and promoting diversity in the gut microbiome. Like butter, olive oil is another way to increase BNDF in the brain, which in turn increases our mental resilience.

Make your own chilli-infused olive oil to add to soups and salads

I feel like chicken tonight…

Can happiness be found in the gut? Maybe. 95% of our primary happy hormone, serotonin is made in our gut, and the food we eat is an essential part of this process. Sources of poultry such as chicken, turkey, duck and goose contain vitamin B6, a nutrient that our bodies need to make serotonin. In addition, these foods are an important source of the amino acid, tryptophan, which is then helped by vitamin B6 to convert to serotonin in the gut. Try chicken liver, fried with onions and garlic or made into a rich pâté, for a rich source of vitamin B6.

Give turkey a fresh and zingy twist in this keema curry.