Is half of your social circle suddenly obsessed with their gut health? You’re probably not alone.
From 2015’s “The Good Gut” by Erica and Justin Sonnenburg to Netflix’s 2024 documentary “Hack Your Health,” numerous documentaries, books, and articles in the last decade — including by Business Insider — have explored the potential benefits of caring for the gut. Between December 2021 and April 2022, Google searches for “gut health” doubled, the search engine’s data shows, and have kept rising since.
In turn, the global digestive health market — which encompasses functional foods and dietary supplements, from probiotic yogurts to juice “cleanses” — is projected to be worth $71.95 billion in 2027, up from $37.93 billion in 2019, according to market research by Fortune Business Reports.
But the increase in interest doesn’t seem to be because significantly more people have gut problems than in previous decades, Dr. Kyle Staller, a gastroenterologist and director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, told BI.
← removed sentence in brackets and added line break And our diets haven’t changed enough in recent years to have worsened gut health on a population-wide scale, he said.
Instead, health experts told BI the buzz comes down to a combination of growing research suggesting gut health plays a larger role in our overall health than previously thought, the rise of wellness influencers, and a post-pandemic obsession with preventative health.
The link between the gut microbiome and our general health is clearer than ever
The trillions of microorganisms in our digestive system, known as the gut microbiome, are at the center of this health craze. Early research suggests that a healthy gut microbiome is one that contains a diverse range of microbes, nurtured by things such as high-fiber and fermented foods, and is linked to many physical and mental health benefits.
This research was advanced with the launch of the Human Microbiome Project at the National Institutes of Health in 2007, and influential gut-health labs have since been established at institutions including Stanford University and King’s College London.
And there’s been a 4,300% increase in the number of academic papers mentioning the terms “gut health” or the “gut microbiome” in the last decade — from three papers in 2014 to 132 papers in 2024 — according to data from Elsevier’s Scopus research database.
This explosion of research coincided with the rise of social media and the erosion of certain taboos, including talking about gastrointestinal issues, Staller said, especially for women.
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With greater social awareness, comes greater misunderstanding
People being candid about their digestive problems on social media has made us more aware of the gut’s role in our health and wellbeing, Stephanie Alice Baker, a sociologist at City St George’s, University of London, who researches online health misinformation and wellness culture, told BI.
And as fad diets fall out of fashion, gut health has become a socially acceptable replacement, she said.
The idea of wanting to lose weight is more taboo now than it was 15 years ago, Baker said. “Now, people still want to be slim, but they’ll often frame that goal through the lens of health or self-optimization,” she said, because it’s more socially acceptable.
And when a health trend gains awareness online, an influx of companies, products, and services will always appear in response, she added.
But Staller said that the research is still new, and we understand much less than people might think. He cautions against jumping to conclusions based on one or two scientific studies or anecdotal evidence being shared online. Don’t believe that products marketed as “natural” are automatically beneficial, he added.
“People seem to think that somehow we might be able to hack our guts and cultivate the ideal microbiome,” Staller said, with probiotics or fermented foods. But we don’t know how to create the “ideal microbiome” because we don’t know what one looks like yet, he said.
While there’s no “magic trick” or miracle product for good gut health, Staller recommended focusing on generally healthy habits: getting enough sleep, eating a nutritious diet including enough fiber, and being active.