Articles

Evidence based

Evidence Based

This article is based on scientific evidence, written by experts and fact checked by experts.

Our team of licensed nutritionists and dietitians strive to be objective, unbiased, honest and to present both sides of the argument.

This article contains scientific references. The numbers in the parentheses (1, 2, 3) are clickable links to peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Think You Need a Gut Cleanse Diet? Try a Gut Reset Instead

Written by Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC on November 12, 2024

Written by Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC on November 12, 2024 — Reviewed by Heidi Turner

• Why Not to Gut Cleanse|
• How to Reset Your Gut|
• Diet Changes|
• Further Support|

The concept of a “gut cleanse diet” has become popular in recent years. Many products and programs claim to bring health benefits by detoxifying your digestive system. 

These protocols often contain fibers and “binders”—such as chlorella, pectin, psyllium, silica, activated charcoal, and clays. The promise is that these agents will remove heavy metals, toxins, parasites, or accumulated waste from the intestines 1. 

However, most gut cleanse diets and colon cleanses are vague about the specific toxins they remove, make bold wellness claims that don’t have scientific evidence to back them, and may have side effects 2. 

Let’s look at why it’s better to think about resetting your gut rather than cleansing it.

Why a Gut Cleanse Diet Isn’t Needed

A gut cleanse diet or detoxification products such as detox teas might sound like a shortcut to better gut health. But these products are rarely needed. This is because the intestines, liver, and kidneys are well-equipped to eliminate harmful compounds as long as the body has the nutritional support it needs. 

The fibers in gut cleanses and detox diets can also worsen a sensitive digestive tract. And there’s a risk that binders might increase the risk of mineral deficiencies 3 4. 

Why a Gut Reset Is the Better Solution

At the clinic, when clients have gotten invested in the idea of a gut cleanse diet, we steer them in the direction of a “gut reset” instead.

By gut reset we generally mean: 

• Using a short-term (1–2 day) liquid fast, such as an elemental diet 
• Following this up by careful reintroduction of foods that could cause sensitivities
• Transitioning to a healthier, gut-friendly diet going forward

This approach helps support the body’s own natural detoxification systems and avoids adding the fibers and binders in detox products that can upset an already sensitive gut.

A gut reset achieves the goal of easing gastrointestinal symptoms, fatigue, and brain fog, but safely and with longer-term success than using a quickie “cleanse”.

How to Reset Your Gut

The following two-step approach to resetting your gut is the one we find works best with most of our clients.

Step 1: A Liquid Fast

The first step in a gut reset is a 24–48 hour liquid fast. This gives the body a reprieve from having to break down and digest solid foods.

Like a runner who rests a sprained ankle until they can start running again, giving your gut a break allows it to start healing and be ready to handle food. 

During a liquid fast some of my clients prefer to just have water or a clear bone broth. However, a popular alternative to this is an elemental diet, which is a hypoallergenic complete meal replacement formula that contains predigested nutrients.

In this article, our focus is on short-term elemental fasting to reset your gut. But in the case of microbial overgrowth like SIBO and Candida, longer-term elemental fasting is recommended (1 to 3 weeks). If you use long-term elemental fasting (a week or more), it’s vital to be monitored by a health professional.

Benefits of an Elemental Diet

An elemental diet is effective as a gut reset/cleanse because it provides nutrients that are rapidly absorbed in the upper part of the small intestine. This provides good quality nutrition while allowing the rest of the small and large intestines to heal and repair without their usual digestive workload.

Elemental diet fasting has been shown to: 

• Reduce inflammation 5 6
• Starve bacterial overgrowths 7

Research also suggests using an elemental diet helps to ease: 

• Inflammatory gut diseases, including Crohn’s disease, eosinophilic esophagitis, and eosinophilic gastroenteritis 8 9 10
• Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) 7
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) 7

We’ve found elemental diets help with more than just digestive issues and gut imbalances. For example, clients report improved chronic fatigue and joint pain. 

We only use elemental diets that are technically “semi-elemental” (with carbs and proteins that are partially, not completely, broken down) at the clinic. This makes them taste a lot more pleasant than fully elemental diets. Research suggests these formulas are digested, assimilated, and tolerated as well or better than fully elemental 11.

Step 2: Food Reintroduction

After the liquid diet, the next step is to gradually transition back to a whole food meal plan diet.

A healthy diet should ideally include veggies, whole grains, fermented foods (like kimchi, kefir, and sauerkraut), nuts, meat, eggs, fruits, and legumes (such as beans and lentils). But when gut health is poor, you may have food intolerances. Following a food reintroduction protocol helps identify potential food sensitivities that could contribute to symptoms. 

A gradual reintroduction process also eases the burden on your digestive and immune systems. Starting with softer, less allergenic foods—like steamed vegetables and soups—can make the transition smoother.

To help with food reintroduction after liquid fasting, our clinic has adapted a protocol from a 2021 literature review that you might find helpful 12. It’s detailed in the infographic below.

The most successful food reintroduction typically unfolds as follows:

• Days 1–7: Introduce the least allergenic foods.
• Days 7–14: Continue with the least allergenic foods and add in minimally allergenic foods.
• Days 14–21: Add in moderately allergenic foods while continuing with least and minimally allergenic ones.
• Days 21–31: Gradually introduce the most allergenic foods, one at a time.

For an example of what increasing solid food intake might look like in practice, you could use the example below. It shows three days of meal ideas for weeks 1–3.

In week 4, if all is going well, you’d try the most common allergens, such as fish, dairy, peanuts, and gluten. 

Keep in mind everyone is different, and you may find quicker time scales work if you don’t have too many food sensitivities.

Another option is to take a hybrid approach by continuing to replace 1–2 meals per day with elemental diet shakes, which can further ease the transition back to whole foods.

A Diet Change (No Fasting) May Be All the Gut Cleanse You Need

The gut reset I’ve described above can be very effective. However, fasting may not be needed if your symptoms are fairly mild such as occasional fatigue, brain fog, or bloating.

If a client came to me looking for a gut cleanse diet, I’d typically start by discussing simple dietary changes first.

Many clients see the health and wellbeing improvements they’re after with one of the following diets (rather than jumping straight to a liquid fast).

• The Mediterranean diet, which is a whole-food anti-inflammatory diet, helps improve and support overall health, digestive health, and a healthy gut microbiota 13. 

• The Paleo diet, which excludes grains and dairy, can be useful if you have these common food sensitivities.
• A low FODMAP diet, which limits specific carbohydrates and prebiotic fibers, is particularly useful for reducing gas and bloating in people who have IBS-type symptoms 14.

Working with a healthcare provider or nutritionist can determine the best diet for your needs. 

I’d usually only move on to resetting the gut with a liquid fast if dietary adjustments don’t move the needle on symptoms sufficiently. That said, if you’d like to do a short-term fasting or elemental diet reset sooner, it should be safe to do so. If you’re unsure, check with your doctor.

Bear in mind there is also the option of intermittent fasting, which doesn’t involve liquid fasting but extends the overnight fast and may improve the microbiome 15. With intermittent fasting, a person’s eating is confined to an approximate 8-hour window during the day (e.g., don’t start breakfast until 10 am and finish the evening meal by 6 pm).

How to Further Support a Gut Reset

A comprehensive gut reset benefits from more than fasting and food reintroduction. By adding probiotic supplements and healthy lifestyle adjustments, you can further enhance your gut health and set the stage for lasting results.

Use Probiotics for Gut Microbiome Support

In any plan aimed at improving gut health, adding probiotic supplements can significantly enhance the results. Probiotics boost levels of beneficial gut bacteria, help heal a leaky gut, and reduce inflammation 16. 

We recommend a combined approach using three types of probiotics for optimal results:

• Lactobacillus/Bifidobacterium species: 1–50 billion CFU daily for 2–3 months
• Bacillus species: 2–6 billion CFU daily for 2–3 months
• Saccharomyces boulardii: 10–15 billion CFU daily for 2–3 months

This strategy of using a triple-species probiotic product often yields the best outcomes for gut health improvement.

Reset Your Lifestyle Too

To support a gut health reset, adding in some lifestyle resets makes good sense too. Many of my clients benefit from removing alcohol (temporarily at least), creating a consistent sleep schedule, increasing their physical activity, and getting on top of stress.

• Exercise: Regular physical activity is especially beneficial because it helps promote a healthier gut flora 17. Even modest effort exercise can bring great benefits. Choose an activity you enjoy. 
• Stress management: High stress can disrupt the microbiome. Implementing stress-reduction techniques—like yoga, meditation, and time outdoors in nature—can help.
• Sleep: Lack of sleep is one of the lifestyle factors that contributes to poor health in general, including poor gut health. Aiming for at least seven hours of shuteye a night is a good goal. You can prep your body for sleep by having a wind-down routine before bed, not eating too late at night, and keeping regular sleep and waking times.

Reset Not Cleanse

A gut cleanse diet isn’t necessary or useful for most people. In fact, it can be harmful if you’re sensitive to ingredients like fibers and binders in many detox products.

Resetting the gut with a liquid fast is a more powerful way to improve gut health, especially for people who don’t respond fully to foundational gut supports like dietary adjustment, healthy lifestyle changes, and probiotics.

Most clients can reset their gut with a 2–4 day elemental diet, but longer-term use is also possible with practitioner support for overgrowths like SIBO. 

They then transition to whole foods over a few weeks, or by using a hybrid approach (part solid food, part elemental diet) for a while if that suits them better.

My book, Healthy Gut, Healthy You, provides a detailed step-by-step gut healing guide. Or if you feel you need a tailored approach, contact us at the Ruscio Institute for Functional Health for an appointment.

The Ruscio Institute has developed a range of high-quality formulations to help our clients and audience. If you’re interested in learning more about these products, please click here. Note that there are many other options available, and we encourage you to research which products may be right for you. The information on DrRuscio.com is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.