If you are trying to heal your gut, it’s normal to feel confused about what to eat or constantly stressed about food triggering your symptoms. You are definitely not alone—I’ve been there, as I used to struggle with leaky gut, leaving me in fear of food. After conventional medicine and countless doctors left me still struggling with persistent constipation, bloating, acne, abdominal pain, dermatitis, and more, I healed my gut naturally and even transformed my fear of food into confidence and pure enjoyment. 

One of my integral gut healing practices is cooking in my own kitchen, and it’s one of several transformative modules in my gut healing masterclass Inner Alchemy: Your Essential Guide To A Healthy, Balanced Gut. Cooking real food has the power to transform your relationship with what you eat. Our Inner Alchemy’s Strength Eating Diet prioritizes balance, not deprivation. Nourishing your gut and embracing food as medicine will deepen your understanding and intuition of the ingredients that help you thrive from the inside out. 

As a holistic chef and nutritionist, I share recipes here on Shayna’s Kitchen that are free from gluten, refined sugar, seed oils, and anything processed. Here are some of my go-to recipes to strengthen your gut lining, soothe gut inflammation, and build microbiome diversity to enhance vitality and optimally support your digestion, immunity, skin, hormones, and mental health. 

Alkalizing Bone Broth

Warm, hearty, and nutrient rich, my alkalizing bone broth recipe is a gut health staple. Why buy depleted bone broth from the store when you can make nutrient and mineral rich bone broth at home?

Drinking bone broth is particularly beneficial for boosting collagen. As we age, we naturally produce less and less collagen, a protein that serves as the “glue” holding together the cells in our skin, connective tissues, bones, and the gut lining. 

Derived from collagen is gelatin, which improves joint health and nutrient absorption in the digestive process. Glycine is an anti-inflammatory amino acid in collagen that helps to calm an irritated gut. Another key amino acid found in bone broth is glutamine, which directly supports gut cells in maintaining their integrity, helping to prevent and repair leaky gut. 

Gut Health Olive Oil Lemon Shot

In addition to bone broth, lemon juice also helps to alkalize gut pH, which reduces gut acidity and inflammation, issues that cause digestive issues like leaky gut and irritable bowel syndrome. Alkalizing your gut supports the growth of your gut’s healthy bacteria, which are crucial to nutrient absorption, mental well-being, disease prevention, and metabolic function.

My morning gut health olive oil lemon shot combines lemon juice and Shayna’s Kitchen Certified Organic Ancient Italian Olive Oil. Extra virgin olive oil is one of my favorite ingredients ever, a superfood rich in anti-inflammatory polyphenols, omega-3s, and monounsaturated fats, and linked to a lower risk of premature death, cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. Olive oil first thing in the morning lubricates the digestive tract before your first meal, and the oleuropein in olive oil helps stimulate the digestive system and aid bowel movement. 

Gut Healing Bone Broth Hot Cacao 

Gut health is a journey that takes time. It’s not an overnight fix, but rather a restorative process that requires patience and dedication as you heal. It’s also about discovering different ways to keep your favorite food traditions alive by making gut healthy versions of them!

My gut healing bone broth hot cacao celebrates the holidays and the journey towards vitality and optimal wellness! To 1 cup of my homemade beef broth I add coconut milk, cacao powder, maple syrup, collagen, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt to create a festively savory and sweet drink with incredible gut healing benefits. 

Balanced Spinach Salad 

Gut health is connected to everything, controlling 80% of your immune system and 80% of your nervous system while producing 95% of your serotonin, a happiness hormone and neurotransmitter.

A healthy gut is a garden that contains millions of different strains of gut flora, also known as your gut microbiome. To nurture our inner garden, we need to feed our guts the rainbow—a wide and balanced range of nutrients.

I like to make this balanced spinach salad for its wonderful variety of different vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts: spinach, green beans, peas, zucchini, dil, parsley, basic, radishes, lentil, broccoli, almonds, walnuts, olive oil, peaches, tarragon, and lemon!

Herbed Salmon With Light And Fresh Salad 

My recipe for herbed salmon with a light and fresh salad gets you the perfect, restaurant-style crispy skin on salmon, an excellent source of protein and omega-3s. Making this dish is easier than you might think and my recipe for the sauce with parsley, dill, extra virgin olive oil, and lemon is to die for! Quinoa and peas, sources of complex carbohydrates, along with the salmon and greens will leave you feeling full and satisfied. 

Gut-Friendly Sauerkraut And Greens Toast

Eggs and toast are classic American breakfast staples, so I had to make a gut-friendly version—sauerkraut and greens toast. Topping off gluten-free, sourdough bread with sauerkraut, eggs, extra virgin olive oil, and sprouts makes for a simple and easy breakfast filled with probiotics, protein, and healthy fats. Taking probiotics or eating probiotic foods to balance gut bacteria and omitting gluten to reduce gut inflammation are key nutritional habits that help to heal your gut. Sourdough bread dough is made through a process of fermentation that produces natural prebiotics and probiotics. Sauerkraut, fermented cabbage, is a natural probiotic food that supports digestion health and microbiome diversity. 

Give these recipes a try and tag me! https://instagram.com/shaynateresetaylor

More of my gut-healthy, gluten-free, and refined-sugar-free recipes: https://shaynaskitchen.com/recipes/  

Shop organic ingredients, tools, and essentials: https://shop.shaynaskitchen.com/collections/shop 

Join our next spiritual wellness retreat: https://shaynaskitchen.com/wellness-retreats/ 

Learn and grow with Shayna’s courses: https://shaynaskitchen.com/masterclasses/