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Every week, a new gut health trend seems to hit social media—sea moss gel, bone broth, Coconut Cult mousse, and loads more. Maybe you keep on scrolling…or maybe you pause, watch a few videos, and wonder: What if they’re onto something? After all, gut health is top of mind for lots of folks right now, since properly caring for your GI tract can do wonders for your overall well-being. “The health and the function of your gut impacts your body in ways that go beyond whether or not you had a good poop today,” Desiree Nielsen, RD, a recipe developer with a focus on plant-based nutrition, tells SELF. It’s been linked to everything from lower stress to better mood, for starters.
But caring for your gut doesn’t necessarily mean latching onto the latest health craze bandwagon or TikTok food fad. In fact, it often means not doing that, according to experts. “There is no regulation on the internet, so anyone can say anything,” Lisa Ganjhu, DO, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health, tells SELF. “But that doesn’t always mean that they’re correct.” What’s more, online misinformation about gut health can even be harmful if it leads people to make lifestyle changes or adopt specific habits. Repeat after us: Follower count doesn’t necessarily equate to medical accuracy.
Still, the sheer volume of information out there can make it difficult to separate fact from fiction. To cut through the noise, we went straight to the source: asking Nielsen, Dr. Ganjhu, and other gut health experts about the most common gut health myths and misconceptions they encounter in their work—and why they just aren’t true. Here’s what they had to say.
1. You *have* to poop once a day.Let’s not sugarcoat it: Your bathroom habits can be a major indicator of your overall gut health. How often you poop is often a clue to what’s going on inside.
However, the standard is different for everyone; something isn’t necessarily wrong if you don’t take a dump on the daily, according to Dr. Ganjhu. What matters most is what is normal for you, Craig Gluckman, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health with a focus on esophageal and gastrointestinal motility disorders, tells SELF. For some people, “normal” might mean pooping as much as three times per day. For others, it might mean as little as three times per week. “If you fall in that range and have no other symptoms—you feel great, you don’t often feel sluggish or bloated or have digestive pain—then I would say you’re probably doing okay,” as long as you’re drinking an adequate amount of water and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, Nielsen says. What’s more, she adds, it’s also normal “to have some variation from time to time.” (If a change persists for more than two or three weeks, though, it’s a good idea to loop in your doc.)
2. Stress and spicy food cause ulcers.Sure, you (and your gut) might not feel great after pulling an all-nighter or going to a town on a plate of Buffalo wings, but rest assured that neither is eating a hole in your stomach lining, according to Dr. Gluckman.
Most stomach ulcers—which can cause cause symptoms like dull or burning stomach pain, nausea, or heartburn—can be blamed on one of two things: an infection with a strain of bacteria called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), or misuse of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including common painkillers such as ibuprofen and aspirin. Many people are actually infected with H. pylori and don’t experience any symptoms, but around 15% will go on to develop an ulcer in either their stomach (known as a gastric ulcer) or a portion of the small intestine called the duodenum (known as a duodenal ulcer). Meanwhile, NSAIDs can be dangerous if taken over a long period of time or in high doses because they can irritate your stomach lining.
That said, stress and spicy food can make the symptoms of stomach ulcers feel worse, Dr. Gluckman says (not to mention slow down the healing process), so it’s probably best to avoid them if you suspect you have one. Smoking and drinking alcohol may also worsen symptoms.
3. Bloating is always a sign that something’s wrong.Bloating isn’t necessarily something to be worried about. In fact, “occasional bloating is really normal,” Emily Van Eck, MS, RDN, an Austin-based dietitian nutritionist, tells SELF. Most of the time, that familiar feeling of fullness is simply a reaction to food making its way through your digestive tract, not evidence of a food intolerance or other health condition.
The truth is, some items are naturally tougher on your gut than others, especially healthy high-fiber options like fruits and vegetables. When you eat beans, lentils, and other legumes, for instance, they are broken down by bacteria in your colon—a process that generates gas as a byproduct. (Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are also infamous for having this effect.) That gas buildup, in turn, can cause bloating. Sure, the resulting sensation isn’t exactly pleasant, but that doesn’t automatically make it cause for concern. For most people, bloating “is going to happen from time to time, and it’s nothing to worry about,” Van Eck says.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that all bloating is normal, all the time. People with lactose intolerance, celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or another digestive disorder might experience bloating, diarrhea, and stomach cramps if they eat certain trigger foods. Plus, bloating can sometimes be a symptom of non-digestive conditions like ovarian cancer. If your bloating is “really painful and really persistent, it’s definitely worth checking in with the doctor” about potential underlying causes, Van Eck says. But if you’re feeling a little heavy after a big meal—and the feeling dissipates after a bit? Chances are you’re totally fine.
4. Swearing off certain foods cures gas and bloating.If you automatically assume that your bloating and gas are abnormal, you might wonder if a specific food or food category is to blame—and if going cold turkey on well-known allergens like gluten and dairy could help. Logical as that approach may sound, Van Eck strongly discourages it: “That line of reasoning is just so problematic,” she says.
Since most day-to-day bloating isn’t caused by a food intolerance, an elimination diet probably won’t benefit you much. What’s more, imposing limits on the types of food you can eat can actually hurt your gut health in a few different ways—reducing diversity in your gut microbiome, for one. “What your gut really wants is the widest variety of foods possible,” and an elimination diet by definition doesn’t allow for that, Van Eck says. Over time, restricted eating can even cause nutritional deficiencies that could compound your digestive woes. In short, “blanketly avoiding certain food groups” is more likely to be harmful than helpful, Dr. Ganjhu says.
Instead of sending certain foods to the chopping block, try more established strategies for addressing your bloating, according to Nielsen. Really, “the most cleansing thing you can do for your bowel is to drink water and hit your fiber targets,” she says. Just pace yourself when it comes to the fiber. If your body isn’t used to it, a sudden influx could actually exacerbate your symptoms, so you’ll want to “build your fiber tolerance up slowly,” Nielsen says. And if your gas and bloating persist despite these changes? Then it’s time to talk to your doc about testing for allergies, intolerances, and other conditions that could be interfering with normal digestion. As a general rule, “the best way to get your healthcare information is really through your doctor or your healthcare provider,” Dr. Ganjhu says.
5. Everyone should be taking a supplement for gut health.You know that saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Well, it applies perfectly to gut health, according to Dr. Ganjhu. Taking digestive supplements can be helpful for certain people under certain circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that everyone should take them all the time—and especially not for preventive purposes. “If you don’t have to think about your gut and it’s happily plugging away, you don’t need to do anything,” Dr. Ganjhu says.
Otherwise? You’re messing with your gut health for no good reason—and it could backfire on you. Take probiotics as an example. With every capsule, you’re introducing a bunch of new bacteria into your existing gut microbiome, potentially throwing off the existing balance and causing the exact issues you’re trying to avoid, like bloating and other digestive woes. In fact, taking an excessive amount of vitamins or supplements “can potentially be extremely harmful,” Dr. Gluckman says.
Plus, keep in mind that “there’s a lack of regulation” around the supplement industry, Nielsen says. Some supplements can contain ingredients not listed on the label, including prescription drugs. (And yes, this is true for those labeled “organic” or “natural” as well, according to Dr. Gluckman.) What’s more, the FDA doesn’t assess any supplements for effectiveness before they go to market, meaning there’s no guarantee that they’ll do what they’re supposed to (or that they even contain exactly what they say they do).
6. Vitamins and other supplements can replace real food.You can buy a supplement for pretty much anything these days: fiber, fish oil, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E—all the way through the end of the alphabet. With so many nutrient-packed pills and gummies at your fingertips, you might naturally start to wonder if you even need to bother eating healthy—and you wouldn’t be alone. “People will often reach for a supplement instead of examining the lifestyle factors that could actually be at the root cause” of any digestive symptoms, Nielsen says. What’s the point of choking down a bunch of broccoli for the fiber if you can get the same benefits from swallowing a capsule?
However, don’t get it twisted: Supplements should never be treated as a substitute for actual food. In fact, research indicates they can’t fully replicate the health benefits. Evidence suggests that most vitamins and minerals in supplements aren’t as well absorbed as those in food, according to a 2019 article published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. What’s more, a 2019 study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that diets adequate in vitamin A, vitamin K, magnesium, zinc, and copper were associated with a lower risk of premature death—but only if those vitamins came from food rather than supplements. Compared to food, supplements are also more likely to cause a vitamin overdose—which can come with its own health implications—because they are so much more highly concentrated.
Basically, don’t treat supplements as your first line of defense (or make the mistake of thinking they can completely plug nutritional deficiencies in your diet). “No supplement is going to replace good healthy living—eating a healthy, whole diet rich with fruits and vegetables, managing your stress, sleeping well,” Dr. Ganjhu says.
7. Detoxing is essential.To some extent, the concept of “detoxing” makes intuitive sense. “We live in a stressful, polluted world,” and we aren’t “always eating all the things we should,” Nielsen says. But if you think you need to do a juice cleanse or water fast to “purge” harmful substances from your body—which, to be clear, usually just means signing up for a bout of prolific pooping—you’re probably not giving evolution enough credit. “Our bodies are really quite miraculous. They know how to handle our food and digest it,” Van Eck says. “Your liver, kidneys, and lungs do all of the detoxing you need.”
Not only is detoxing not necessary, it’s likely to do more harm than good. In fact, that’s “actually the opposite of what you would want to do,” Nielsen says. Most cleanses do one of two things, according to UT Southwestern Medical Center: expelling fluids from the body or irritating your GI tract, causing it to, um, expel its contents. Either way, you could end up worse than you started—dealing with electrolyte loss and dehydration in the case of the former, or struggling with diarrhea in the case of the latter.
Besides, we need solid food to prevent constipation. When you’re not eating any solids, “we are eliminating a lot of the normal physiological triggers for motility,” Nielsen says—the contractions that break food down into smaller particles so it can advance through the digestive tract. By sticking to liquids alone, “you’re also eliminating that normal stimulus for the gut to move, which could make things feel much worse once you start eating solid food again,” Nielsen says. Cue: the bloating, gas, not-pooping-enough worries that might be sending you to social media looking for a quick fix in the first place.
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