About 20 years ago I worked with a guy who always had a side gig going. After his Primerica phase, he tried to sell me on a gummy made from real fruits and vegetables that would take care of a whole day’s worth of fruits & veggie nutrition in one efficient, chewy bite. It was a real time and money saver, he said, and relieved you of guilt or worry about not eating right. He made it seem like there were 2 – 3 pieces of real fruit and 5 -6 servings of actual vegetables scienced into one gumdrop. Rationally, I wasn’t buying that for a second but irrationally I was still kind of willing to buy into it as extra protection. I didn’t though, mostly because it cost as much as a month’s supply of real produce which I like to eat the real way.

There’s a lot more known these days about what a body and a gut need to function well and it always starts with real food, including prebiotics that ferment in the gut in order to feed the probiotics which help maintain the good bacteria in our gut so our internal microbiome universe of bacteria will perform a host of jobs like manufacturing hormones that make our body function, strengthening our immune system and keeping the bad bacteria actors in check. Plus, emerging research shows when we eat unprocessed or minimally process foods, our gut bacteria consume around 22% of the energy whereas with ultra processed products, our bodies soak up all 100% of the calories.

This is all preamble to introduce 25 gut-friendly recipes you can make for dinner. I can’t believe how many of them I actually want to make. Usually when I scan these sorts of lists, I come away with one or two that catch my interest. This one though…I can’t find a clunker in the mix. I can even see some having a place on the Thanksgiving table.

To good health,

E