A Gut Health Dietitian’s 10 Essential Pantry Staples
What do I always keep stocked in my pantry?!
Keep scrolling to check out my 10 Essential Pantry Stockers
10 Pantry Essentials For Optimizing Gut Health:
Tigernut Flour - I proudly call myself the tigernut queen. I love this brand because it’s organic and ships super quick! Why do I love tigernut?! It’s ground up from a root vegetable (so it’s naturally grain free) but has a super nutty flavor, tastes naturally sweet and is rich in prebiotic fiber (great for your good gut guys). I love to use it baking flour in muffins, pancakes or cookies - you can snag my popular salted banana chocolate chip muffins in my cookbook here. Whole tigernuts are also a fun nut-free snack!
Bone Broth - I am obsessed with FOND bone broth because its shelf stable and richer in protein than any other brand on the market! They also taste amazing, I love the turmeric black pepper flavor just for sipping as a pre-workout snack with a banana and sunflower butter. Not only can their bone broth help to replete minerals, it’s rich in glycine and other gut repair nutrients to help with soothing and healing the gut.
Grass fed Gelatin - Similar to bone broth, gelatin is rich in amino acids that support gut healing and repair. Gelatin = the broken down form of collagen that is typically easier for your body to digest. I like this brand from grass fed animals and use it in my gut healer gummies (I make these weekly) with organic cranberry juice for extra antioxidants!
High Quality Salt - Ingesting high quality sodium and potassium DAILY are paramount to supporting stress at a baseline level (not to mention energy levels)! AND, not all salt is created equal - choosing trace mineral unrefined salt from brands like Redmonds or Maldon = the goal. But ‘I thought salt was bad for my heart?!’ The research has greatly shifted in the world of salt and heart health - choosing unrefined salt, salting to taste, cooking most often at home and prioritizing mostly whole foods helps optimize heart health. What can hurt heart health? Eating lots of ultra-processed, packaged foods and/or dining out most of the time (where highly processed, inflammatory salts and oils are being used).
Electrolytes - As I mentioned in #4, baseline repletion of lytes like sodium, potassium and some magnesium daily is vital to fueling your bodily reactions - think of electrolytes as the ‘spark plugs’. For a balanced source of repletion, I like Jigsaw Adrenal Cocktail or my OG Mineral Mocktail recipe. Other brands I love that use great ingredients include Rayvi (by a fellow functional RD friend) and LMNT.
6. Organic Green Tea - I love me a daily matcha, it’s truly one of my daily glimmers :). Not only do I love green tea for the taste - the health bennys are endless from the nervous system calming support of L theanine, the antioxidant rich tea leaves and the liver and detox benefits from the green tea catechins. I recommend brands that 3rd party test for contaminants like heavy metals - Pique or Siply (a local, female-founded ATX brand).
7. Organic Coconut Milk - To make #6 happen, I LOVE the creaminess of organic coconut milk frothed into my daily matcha. Out of all the plant milks, coconut takes the cake - it’s rich in the immune supportive fatty acid, lauric acid. This is converted in the body to monolaurin - a highly beneficial antifungal and antimicrobial compound. Coconut milk is also naturally rich in potassium - a foundational mineral. Always go for organic canned full fat coconut milk without any emulsifiers or gums.
8. Grass fed Jerky Sticks - So many women struggle with eating enough protein. Protein in portable, snack form is an absolute must in my world! I use these to fill in protein gaps when I’m traveling (often part of a travel breakfast) or taking snacks with me on the go. Nutrient-dense, well sourced brands I love include Chomps (love the spicy beef and turkey pepperoni) and Epic (I like the venison and spicy chicken). Watch for those that are sugar loaded or not organic/grass fed.
9. Sprouted Beans & Grains - I’m all about finding ways to ‘hack’ food to make it easier on my gut - getting sprouted beans and grains is one of them! What does that mean? These plant foods have been soaked and then sprouted to be reduced in things like phytates, oxalates and lectins that can sometimes be a little tougher on the gut (especially in autoimmune). I stay stocked on sprouted beans from Eden Organics (they do the soaking pre canning) and sprouted grains from nuts.com.
10. Raw Manuka Honey - this type of honey is richer in Methylglyoxal (MG) - a compound that supports immunity. This is my go-to the second I feel a cold or sickness brewing and it’s also great topically for burns or small wounds. My go-to for highest potency and benefit is Bees & Trees (use my code GROUNDEDNOURISH for a discount).
An exclusive peek into my pantry :)
