Most gut advice is a long list of things to start doing. More fibre, more fermented food, more water, more more more. Helpful, sure but also can feel a bit overwhelming. 

So here's the opposite. Ten things you can quietly stop doing, starting today, that your gut will thank you for. No green juice required (unless you happen to love green juice, which I do TBH).

1. Stop stressing yourself into knots

I'll start here because it's the one I'm worst at. My gut knows I'm stressed before my brain has caught up. Tight deadline, important meetings, ten too many things on my to-do list, and my stomach starts doing somersaults and making dodgy noises.

It's because your gut and your brain are in constant conversation, which is why the gut gets called the "second brain". When you're stuck in fight-or-flight mode, digestion drops to the bottom of your body's to-do list. You can eat all the right things and still feel rubbish if you're wound up like a spring. 

You don't need to do anything drastic with this one but some easy things to think about. A ten minute walk. Phone in another room for an hour. Actually saying no to something. Small stuff, done often, beats a grand wellness overhaul. 

2. Stop falling for every fad diet

Carnivore, all-juice, no carbs ever, the one where you only eat beige food before noon. Someone is always selling a shortcut.

Most restrictive diets do the same thing to your gut. They shrink your variety. And variety is the bit that actually matters. Your gut needs a wide range of plants, and cutting out whole food groups for no medical reason tends to leave them hungry and you bloated.

If a diet makes you miserable, anxious, or glued to a spreadsheet of "safe" foods, it's probably not the one. Here's the easy way to think about shopping for gut health in our supermarket shop list.

3. Stop treating sleep as optional

Your gut runs on a daily rhythm, same as the rest of you, and skimping on sleep throws it off. Bad sleep is linked with more cravings, more bloating, and a generally grumpier gut.

Pick a bedtime and roughly stick to it. Boring advice. Hard to do sometimes. But it works.

4. Stop smoking

No lecture, you already know. But it's worth saying that smoking reaches your gut too, not just your lungs. It shifts the balance of bacteria down there and is linked with a whole stack of digestive problems. Stopping smoking is one of the best things you can do for your insides, top to bottom. 

5. Reduce the random alcoholic drinks

Any regular drinking is rough on your gut. Alcohol irritates the gut lining, knocks your bacteria out of balance, and makes bloating and dodgy mornings far more likely.

The fix isn't necessarily zero. It's noticing whether "a couple" has quietly become "every night", and giving your gut a few clear nights off each week to recover. 

6. Stop eating the same five meals on repeat

We all have our greatest hits. The same lunch, the same dinner, the trusty Tuesday pasta. Comforting, yes. But your gut bacteria get a bit bored, and a bored microbiome is a less diverse one.

The number a lot of researchers point to is 30 different plants a week. That counts herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, beans, the lot. Sounds like a faff. It's really just chucking a different tin of beans in, swapping your usual apple for whatever's on offer, throwing seeds on top of things you're already eating. Easy wins, big gains. 

7. Stop inhaling your food

Argh, I personally feel this is so flipping hard to do. Because I love to be busy. 

Eating at your desk in 90 seconds flat feels efficient. My gut disagrees. So does yours.  Digestion starts in your mouth, and when you barely chew, your stomach has to do the heavy lifting for food that should have turned up half broken down already. Cue bloating.

Slow down. Chew properly. Put the fork down between bites if you have to. Your gut isn't a bin chute - you want to look after it.

8. Stop living on ultra-processed everything

The odd ready meal or shop-bought pizza isn't the enemy. But when most of your meals come from a packet with heaps of ingredients you can't pronounce, your gut notices.

 Ultra-processed food tends to be low in fibre and heavy on the stuff that feeds the bacteria you'd rather not have more of.

You don't have to cook everything from scratch like someone with three free hours and a stand mixer. Just tip the balance. A bit more real food, a bit less from the bright shiny packet. 

9. Stop sitting still all day

A body that never moves makes for a sluggish gut. Movement helps things, ahem, move along, and people who are active tend to have more diverse gut bacteria. A walk after dinner does more than you'd think, and it's one of the simplest gut habits going.

10. Stop ignoring what your gut's telling you

This is the big one. If you're bloated all the time, running to the loo constantly, or your stomach's been off for weeks, that's information, not background noise. Pushing through and hoping it sorts itself out is the gut equivalent of ignoring the engine warning light.

Most of the time it's something fixable. Sometimes it's worth a chat with your GP. Either way, your gut is trying to tell you something, and the no-shame rule applies. We talk about bloating and bowel habits round here like the totally normal bodily functions they are. If you want a place to start, we've written about how to fix your bloating and why you might have diarrhoea all the time.

Notice there's nothing on this list about being perfect. You don't have to do all ten, and you definitely don't have to do them flawlessly. Pick one. Drop it. See how you feel. (If you want the bigger-picture version of all this, five things I genuinely believe about gut health is a good read.)

Your gut's been with you through worse, and it's surprisingly good at bouncing back once you stop getting in its way.

Want a quick read on where your gut's at? Our Find Your Gut Match quiz takes about two minutes.