8 Foods To Heal Your Gut After Taking Antibiotics
Medicine has come a long way, and one of the crowning achievements of the past hundred years of medical research is antibiotics. Thanks to antibiotics, illnesses that used to be deadly can now be brushed off after a five or seven-day round of medicine.
However, there are also some downsides to taking such a powerful form of medicine. For instance, antibiotics can really damage the gut. Luckily, there are ways you can support your gut health while you take antibiotics.
How Do Antibiotics Work?
There are six main categories of antibiotics, and within these categories are hundreds of different types of antibiotics. Each category of antibiotics is used for different types of illnesses, such as ear infections or skin infections.
Most antibiotics work in one of two ways: killing bacteria in the body or preventing them from multiplying. In either case, the bacteria causing your infection will eventually die off as you continue your round of antibiotics.
Some antibiotics don’t know the difference between good bacteria and bad bacteria. They attack any bacteria they come across. Antibiotics are also systemic medications, which means they get spread throughout your body and can have full-body effects.
How Do Antibiotics Affect the Gut?
There are many cases in which antibiotics are necessary and even life-saving. However, these medications can also cause quite a few problems in your gut.
Our digestive tracts are home to trillions of bacteria that help digestion, make vitamins, support our mental health, opens in a new tab, regulate skin issues, and increase sleep quality. This gut microbiome is made of hundreds of different species of bacteria, opens in a new tab.
These bacteria exist in a delicate balance. If even one type of good bacteria starts to die off, other types of harmful bacteria can grow stronger, causing an imbalance in the gut. Unfortunately, broad-spectrum antibiotics can kill these good gut bacteria, which can contribute to this imbalance.
This can cause symptoms like:
- Nausea
- Bloating
- Diarrhea
- Indigestion
8 Foods To Eat After Taking Antibiotics
Eating a balanced diet is always important, but it’s especially important while you’re taking antibiotics. Read on for a full list of foods you can eat to support your gut health while taking these medications.
1. Yogurt
All types of yogurt are made by fermenting milk with a culture of bacteria. The result is a snack that is full of all kinds of good bacteria, including Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. These can withstand digestion and help restore balance in your gut microbiome.
You can easily turn your yogurt into a meal by adding toppings like fruit, chia seeds, nut butter, and granola. Just make sure you avoid yogurt with added sugars and flavors since these can cause more harm to your gut bacteria.
2. Kombucha
Kombucha is a type of fermented tea that is a popular replacement for soda because of its heavy natural carbonation. This drink often has a tangy taste that can easily be hidden with sweeteners and fruit juice. Many brands add a lot of sugar to their kombucha to make it more appealing to a wider range of customers, so just make sure to check the label before buying it.
3. Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut is basically cabbage that has been fermented with beneficial bacteria. This food is often pretty controversial — people tend to either love it or hate it. If you’re new to sauerkraut, try adding it to a burger or sandwich, layering it on avocado toast, or tossing it in some scrambled eggs.
4. Kefir
Kefir is another type of fermented milk, although the culture used to make kefir is a little different. Kefir tastes a lot like yogurt but it’s much thinner — think liquid yogurt. This beverage used to be hard to find, but now it’s sold in most grocery stores.
5. Garlic and Onions
Garlic and onions are rich sources of prebiotic fiber. This fiber acts like food for the probiotics in your gut, helping them reproduce and colonize your gut.
Some people prefer to eat these raw, while others prefer to cook them first to make them easier to digest. You can sautee them in a pan with some olive oil and add some of the other veggies on this list for a delicious and savory prebiotic snack.
6. Mushrooms
Mushrooms, opens in a new tab are also an unlikely source of prebiotic fiber. Certain mushrooms, like lion’s mane mushroom, are rich in beta-glucans. These are a type of polysaccharide that can withstand digestion and help feed our good gut bacteria.
That’s why we’ve included it as one of the star ingredients in our Mushroom Coffee+. This blend also features L-theanine to encourage focus and chaga mushroom to support the immune system.
7. Asparagus
Asparagus are known for their stringy, fibrous texture, which is a pretty good indicator that they’re full of beneficial prebiotic fiber. These veggies are also highly versatile — you can enjoy them sauteed with some butter, chopped up in a soup, or roasted in some olive oil and seasonings.
8. Collagen
Finally, one of the most important foods you can eat after taking antibiotics is collagen. This protein can help support the lining of the intestines, opens in a new tab, which can affect intestinal permeability. Overly permeable intestines can cause toxins to leech from our food into our bloodstream and also prevent our bodies from being able to absorb nutrients.
Collagen isn’t technically a food, but it can be found in many foods. You can naturally find collagen in eggs, bone broth, bone-in cuts of meat, and fish. You can also take collagen supplements such as our Mushroom Matcha+, which contains four grams of bovine collagen protein per serving.
The Bottom Line
Antibiotics are life-saving medicines that can treat almost any kind of bacterial infection. However, some antibiotics work by killing any bacteria they come across — even good bacteria.
Luckily, you can support your gut while taking antibiotics by eating foods like yogurt, kefir, garlic, mushrooms, and collagen. If you’d like to try the benefits of mushrooms and collagen for yourself, shop all, opens in a new tab of our mushroom blends today.
Sources:
Gut Bacteria in Health and Disease | PMC, opens in a new tab
BENEFITS OF COLLAGEN FOR MAINTAINING A HEALTHY GUT | Health Beat, opens in a new tab
Probiotics and prebiotics: What you should know | Mayo Clinic, opens in a new tab
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