Gut Health: Truth or Trend?

Coconut Cult

A box of pasta, a jar of yogurt, a bag of sour gummy worms. These three foods that couldn’t be more different. Yet they all share one similarity: on their packaging, you’ll find the words “gut healthy”. Apparently, everything from sea moss to potato chips cares deeply about our intestines now.

The global digestive-health market is projected to grow exponentially, from $37.93 billion in 2019 up to $71.95 billion in 2027. This isn’t just juice “cleanses”, but functional medicine, dietary supplements, and digestive sodas.

From the TikTok “For You” page to probiotic soda cans, ‘gut health’ has been slapped on everything, and used by corporations to entice their audience into ‘buying more’ to improve their health. However, through this cycle of capitalization on health, the public is at risk of misinformation and false conceptions regarding one’s gut.

Nutritionist Tapp Francke, founder of STANDWellness, an integrative health center, describes the gut as more than just a black box, but a living ecosystem with trillions of living organisms: “The gut flora — the good gut bugs — are the microbes living in your gut helping you digest food, create neurotransmitters, immune cells, and vitamins.”

The gut is this long tube of organs running from the mouth to the anus. It functions as a digestion machine, breaking down our midnight Shake Shack grub into microscopic molecules that can be easily processed by the body.

Healing your gut means more than reduced bloating and efficient food breakdown: it directly correlates to clear skin and mood. Microbes help produce neuro-transmitters, like serotonin, that send signals to our brain.

The world of probiotics and gut health has been a thing long before the 21^st century, although less innovation than today. Russian biologist Élie Metchnikoff (1907) proposed diseases were caused by “bad gut bacteria” and suggested that the consummation of fermented milk (yogurt) could cure the gut. By the late 80s, popularity around ‘fiber’ and ‘probiotics’ resurfaced in products like Activia, marketed for digestion.

Since then, the world of gut health has flourished, shifting the narrative of gut health from solely a ‘digestive organ’ to a complex world of microorganisms that affect the whole body.

Popularity surrounding the gut has exploded in the past decade. The number of academic papers mentioning the terms “gut health” or the “gut microbiome” has increased by 4,300 percent according to Business Insider.

However, gut health trendiness hasn’t expanded because our diets have gotten worse. The combination of wellness influencers promoting the topic and the obsession with preventive health since COVID-19 in 2020 has accelerated the desire to advocate for our internal health.

Product innovation has been one of the largest contributors to the gut health trend. From Jalapeño-Peach flavored kombucha to $40 jars of coconut cult, companies know consumers will buy anything that tastes decent and looks stylish in your fridge. This phenomenon has led to 1.8 million posts tagged #guthealth on TikTok, enticing the whole world to buy into this trend.

Nevertheless, a rising trend is always accompanied by misinformation. Claims posted online are usually backed by little scientific research, and these promises made can easily sway victims into spending unnecessary money on products-or worse, harming their body.

Francke adds in “I’m all for gut health being trendy — I’d much rather that than something unhealthy — but you’ll always have people jumping on the bandwagon saying the wrong things…  I think the biggest problem is that when you're on social media and you have basically eight seconds to get your point across You're missing most of the conversation.”

A notable misconception surrounding gut health was spotlighted by a recent lawsuit, involving the prebiotic soda drinks ‘Poppi’. Poppi market their drinks as a solution to your gut, carrying slogans like “Be Gut Happy. Be Gut Healthy”. However, the $8.9 million lawsuit revealed that the drinks do not contain enough inulin (fiber) to actually benefit you.

Another myth: the absolute necessity of taking additional probiotic supplements. Take sea moss, a trending ‘gel’ claiming to detoxify the body. Isa de Sabrit ’28 said, “I tried sea moss—it didn’t do anything, so I think it more of a placebo effect.” That’s the key takeaway: these products can make you feel like they’re working, but real gut health doesn’t just come from on trendy supplement.

Now, from an economic standpoint, a market void has appeared: for companies to capitalize on the rising demand for ‘gut-healthy’ products. Startups and major companies are rushing to invest in fermented, prebiotic products and develop scientific innovations to target gastrointestinal issues.

Simply Beverages, known for their sugary lemonades and juice, have introduced a line of prebiotic soda made with no added sugar and 20-30% juice. Major brands are pivoting their mantras to cater to an audience of wellness-focused young adults, even if that means leaving behind a legacy of their signature drink options.

Starting as an experiment with apple cider vinegar, Poppi sold to PepsiCo for a whopping $2 billion in May 2025. Pepsi made this strategic decision to strengthen its position in the rapidly growing wellness market, and more specifically, functional drink market.

Passing gut trends like okra water and aloe vera shots will likely simmer out from the spotlight in a couple years. But there is proven scientific evidence backing the support of the gut microbiome, that doesn’t include spending rent on a jar of yogurt.

Francke explains the single best thing to support your gut is eat a wide variety of foods. “A major problem is people who eat very few things because what happens is that the various fibers in your gut can only feed certain bacteria so the more different things you eat the better.”

Research recommends focusing on generating healthy habits: sufficient sleep, staying active, and eating a nutritious diet (fiber, protein, vegetables, etc.)

Gut health doesn’t have to be this complex stressor on people’s lives. With adequate education on health and knowledge behind what’s fake and whats real, people can learn to make health-conscious decisions without being lured into the world of misinformation.