Create Your Personalized Leaky Gut Diet Plan

Michael Ruscio

Written by Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC on February 20, 2024

Noora Alakulppi

Written by Michael Ruscio Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC on February 20, 2024 — Reviewed by Noora AlakulppiNoora Alakulppi

Learn the Foods to Include, Ones to Avoid, and Leaky Gut Tips for Success

Key Takeaways

Finding a diet that minimizes your gut inflammation is one of the most important steps you can take to improve a leaky gut, but finding what works for you can be confusing. There are many templates you could use for leaky gut healing, but let’s simplify this process of choosing which one is right for you.

The most effective place to start is by understanding that leaky gut diets aren’t “one-size-fits-all”, and the most important thing you can do is listen to your body. Keeping that in mind, there are a few foundational things that can be helpful to remember when building your leaky gut diet plan.

In this article, I’ll run through the foods that you might consider including (and removing) from your diet, along with some research-guided examples of what this might look like on a practical level. Some of these guidelines are more intuitive than others—such as cutting out processed foods and added sugars—but a few are a little more surprising, like how liberally adding every fruit and vegetable to your diet might not be a great idea while tightening up your gut lining.

Whether it’s by simply adding a few foods into your diet and slowly removing others, or by starting a ground-up Paleo-style or FODMAP elimination diet, I’ll guide you through your options so that you can be the one to decide what leaky gut diet is best for you.

Diet is Pivotal in Leaky Gut

Diet strongly influences leaky gut.

Leaky gut syndrome—formally known as intestinal permeability—occurs when gaps open between the cells that line your small intestine. This allows undigested food particles, bacteria, and toxins to enter the bloodstream, where they can trigger an immune system reaction and cause a wide array of symptoms. The following are concerns that I often see in my patients with leaky gut:

Intestinal inflammation caused by a poor diet is one of the main causes of leaky gut. Eating certain foods, such as gluten, can increase a protein called zonulin in the gut, which drives intestinal permeability [1]. Zonulin is also closely linked to symptoms in people with celiac disease [2]. The use of NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can also contribute to leaky gut syndrome [3, 4].

Eating an anti-inflammatory diet that is right for your body is a key strategy to improve leaky gut symptoms, and can help maintain a healthy microbiome and intestinal wall.

Start With the Basics to Find Your Best Leaky Gut Diet

There are two main goals when eating to heal a leaky gut: reduce gut inflammation by eating healthy, whole foods and avoiding foods that are triggering inflammation and damaging your gut.

As I walk through some of the best and worst foods for leaky gut, remember that these are general guidelines and not every person with leaky gut syndrome will react to every single one of these foods. Additionally, some of the foods that are listed as “good” may be inflammatory specifically to you and are contributing to some of your symptoms. If you feel you are reacting to any food, just cut it out for a few weeks and see if it helps.

There are more guided leaky gut diet plans that can help you identify many of your food triggers that I’ll cover later on in this article. But if you are looking for a simple and effective place to start building your diet, try adding or eliminating some of the foods listed below, and just see how your body responds.

The Top Foods to Include on a Leaky Gut Diet

I’ll start this off by running through some of the foods that I often see relieve symptoms of leaky gut syndrome in my patients, focusing on their research-backed benefits for gut health. I’ll also cover some easy and practical ways that you can implement these therapeutic foods into your diet without requiring a major diet overhaul.

Here is a collection of whole-food meal ideas to help you imagine what a leaky gut diet plan might look like. For more, check out these leaky gut recipe ideas and this leaky gut shopping list.

Advanced Diet Options

Most people will experience a significant improvement in leaky gut symptoms after following an anti-inflammatory diet for 3-4 weeks.

If you are happy with the results of your diet changes, there is no need to make further changes. If your symptoms have not fully resolved, you might want to consider a more structured diet plan.

Choose either the paleo diet, low FODMAP diet, or elemental diet to start, (which I’ll detail below) and customize.

If your primary symptoms are mild gut symptoms, food sensitivities, joint pain, chronic fatigue, brain fog, skin issues, or health issues such as autoimmune diseases: Start with a Paleo diet template, as it tends to remove the most common inflammatory foods that may be connected to your symptoms.

If you don’t fully respond to Paleo or your primary symptoms are significant digestive issues, like gut pain, gas or bloating, diarrhea, or constipation, including IBS or IBD: Start with the low FODMAP diet. FODMAPs are particularly problematic for people with leaky gut, so this is a great elimination protocol for a leaky gut diet plan.

If you are starting out with a very reactive gut: You may find it helpful to start with a short reset with an elemental diet.

Probiotics for leaky gut are also a powerful way to heal your gut lining, reduce intestinal inflammation, balance your microbiome, and reduce leaky gut symptoms. They make for an easy and safe addition to your leaky gut diet—you can find out more about these powerful microorganisms for leaky gut here.

Paleo Diet Basics

The Paleo diet is an anti-inflammatory diet that:

A Paleo diet is one of the most relaxed variations of an anti-inflammatory diet, which makes it a great place to start, especially if you are experiencing a wide array of health symptoms.

Low FODMAP Diet Basics

Leaky Gut Diet Plan

A low FODMAP diet is low in prebiotic fermentable sugars that may feed your bad bacteria and worsen your leaky gut. You’ll find an article here that walks you through how to complete a low FODMAP diet, from start to finish.

As a quick overview, high FODMAP foods you’ll want to AVOID include:

A low FODMAP diet also may be gluten-free, because gluten is a high FODMAP food, and dairy-free because most dairy products are high in lactose, a FODMAP.

Low FODMAP foods you’ll want to INCLUDE are:

In a 2021 clinical trial, patients with IBS symptoms were given a low FODMAP diet for 3 months. The researchers documented a decrease in serum zonulin and lipopolysaccharide, indicating a decrease in intestinal permeability. Importantly, they also found that the low FODMAP diet improved gut symptoms, mood, and quality of life in the participants [37].

As a quick caveat when it comes to eliminating fruits and vegetables, a 2018 clinical trial found that five servings of fruits and vegetables per day decreased serum zonulin levels [38]. So we want to be careful not to fall into extremes with fiber and prebiotics in either direction. My recommendation would be to incorporate five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, trying to hit 25 to 30 grams. If you feel like your gut symptoms become worse, then you may want to try cutting out the high-FODMAP foods and adding in more low-FODMAP foods.

A Prescription-Grade Leaky Gut Diet

An elemental diet is a nutritionally complete meal replacement designed to provide a temporary, low-residue diet so your digestive tract can rest. It’s most often used as a short-term reset diet that can be followed up by a Paleo or low FODMAP diet.

An elemental diet has been shown to dramatically decrease intestinal inflammation and digestive health problems in numerous studies and clinical trials [39, 40, 41, 42] and is a great choice for leaky gut syndrome with severe symptoms (like IBD) or symptoms that don’t initially respond to other elimination diets.

Elemental diets often taste terrible, making them inaccessible for many people. That’s why I developed my own elemental formula, which my patients report tastes great (available in chocolate and vanilla).

Don’t Feel Better on Your Leaky Gut Diet? Here’s What to Do

If you don’t see results from a simple, whole foods diet, unidentified food intolerances, eating unhealthy “health” foods, and unaddressed bad bacteria may be the cause. This is where you can really tailor your leaky gut diet to your body’s preferences.

The top 3 reasons I see in the clinic why people don’t respond to an elimination diet are:

Unidentified Food Intolerances or Food Allergies: Even though the Paleo and low FODMAP diets remove a lot of inflammatory foods, you may have a sensitivity to a food you’re still eating. A more comprehensive elimination diet, such as autoimmune paleo (AIP), may help you identify food sensitivities you weren’t aware you had.

Eating Unhealthy “Health Foods”: There are lots of pre-packaged foods that are advertised to be “Paleo” or “healthy”, but they may not be right for you. For example, many people mistakenly believe that “gluten-free” is synonymous with “healthy”. But gluten-free products may aggravate bloating and gas due to high starch content. The best strategy is to eat real, whole foods, and to avoid pre-packaged, processed food, even if it’s advertised as healthy.

Unaddressed Bad Bacteria: If you have a bacterial overgrowth or gut infections, you may need a stronger approach than diet alone. Using probiotic supplements can both help repair the gut lining and rebalance an overgrowth. See our Probiotics Starter Guide for more.

Relax Things a Bit (If You Can)

All of the advanced leaky gut diets can be customized to include healthy foods that don’t irritate your symptoms.

Not all of the removed foods on the Paleo or low FODMAP diet are bad for everyone. For example, the Paleo diet is grain-free. But you may find that you tolerate some grains just fine, and need more carbs than the diet typically provides. The low FODMAP diet removes most legumes, but you may find you tolerate certain beans just fine.

Once your symptoms have subsided, you can start a gradual process of reintroducing foods to see how your body reacts. As your gut lining heals, you may be able to broaden your diet considerably. As long as you aren’t noticing any increase in symptoms, listen to this message from your body, and adapt the diet accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Eating right for leaky gut is most simply about including healthy, whole foods that are right for you, and avoiding processed foods.

These simple changes reduce gut irritation and symptoms, provide a simple detox, and allow your gut lining to heal. You’ll likely be feeling much better in a matter of weeks.

Dr. Michael Ruscio is a DC, Naturopathic Practitioner, researcher, and clinician. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Bridgeport and has published numerous papers in scientific journals as well as the book Healthy Gut, Healthy You. He also founded the Ruscio Institute of Functional Health, where he helps patients with a wide range of GI conditions and serves as the Head of Research.

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➕ Links & Resources

Further Reading: