6 Fruits That Can Help Boost Your Gut Health

You can eat the fruit as is, but you can “double up” the gut health benefits by adding chopped kiwi to yogurt, says Amanda Sauceda, RD, a registered dietitian in Long Beach, California, focused on gut health. “By choosing a yogurt with live and active cultures you can get the benefits of probiotics along with the pooping benefits of kiwi,” she says.

For sensitive stomachs, Sauceda recommends baked or stewed apples, which will be easier to digest than raw apples while still providing gut health benefits. “Basically, it’s an easy and quick way to cook the apples to bring out their natural sweetness. You can then use [them] as a snack all on [their] own or as a topping for pancakes, yogurt or even ice cream,” she says.

For people who dislike the taste of green bananas, she suggests experimenting with green banana flour in baking instead.

As bananas ripen, their resistant starch content decreases while natural sugars increase. “Less ripe bananas have stronger prebiotic effects, while ripe bananas are gentler on the stomach and easier to digest,” Ivanina says.

Berries deliver what Ivanina calls a dual benefit — they contain both fiber and a high concentration of polyphenols that work together to support the microbiome.

You can add berries to smoothies, yogurt parfaits, or homemade chia pudding — or eat a handful as a single serving snack, Sauceda says.

Fresh, ripe papaya is typically easiest to digest. Ivanina recommends squeezing lime juice on the fruit and eating it that way, while Sauceda prefers adding papaya to fruit salad.

“Pears are among the highest natural sources of sorbitol,” Ivanina says. “This is the same mechanism used by [laxative] medications like lactulose.” That said, she warns that too much sorbitol can also increase gas production in some people because gut bacteria ferment it.

Try eating pears with the skin on whenever possible to maximize fiber intake, Ivanina says.