The Best Gut Health Finds At M&S

Gut health has become quite a force in the world of wellbeing of late. Fibre is the new protein on social media, psyllium husk has left the supplement aisle, and the supermarkets have taken note. M&S even recently launched its Nutrient Dense range in January, which has 20 meals, snacks, and breads developed with its in-house nutritionists. The good news? M&S's food hall has become a surprisingly good hunting ground if your stomach is on the sensitive side.

So, we went for a wander round the aisles with one question: which gut health finds should you be putting in your basket? Not everything with a wellbeing-coded label lives up to the hype, and a couple of the best picks have actually already been on the shelves for years. Below are the products we’d reach for, what’s in them, and one trick that costs nothing.

First, some context. Most UK adults eat about 20g of fibre a day against a recommended 30g, according to the NHS. Working on your fibre intake is one of the simplest things you can do for your gut, and it’s where most of these picks come in.

High-fibre staples worth stocking

First, let's start with the Nutrient Dense Super Seeded Crackers. The ingredients list is short: sunflower, sesame and linseed, bound with psyllium husk powder, salt, and rosemary extract. Three crackers provide you 3.3g of fibre. Crumble them over yoghurt or pair them with hummus.

One of the key ingredients here is that psyllium husk powder, which is a soluble fibre that forms a gel in the gut. The American College of Gastroenterology recommends it for overall symptom improvement in IBS.

The Super Seeded Oaty Bread works on the same idea: oats, linseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, held together with psyllium husks. One slice brings you 6.6g of fibre. It’s dense, chewy and filling, and all those seeds add to the variety of plants you eat across the week. The American Gut Project found people eating more than 30 plant types a week had more diverse gut microbiomes than those eating ten or fewer.

An after-dinner tea for bloating

M&S’s Aniseed, Fennel & Liquorice Infusion tea is a cheap, caffeine-free habit that can help bolster your gut health. The European Medicines Agency recognises fennel fruit as a traditional herbal medicine for “mild, spasmodic gastrointestinal complaints including bloating and flatulence”. Put simply, a hot cup after dinner can provide a soothing ritual that may help support normal digestion.

One note: liquorice root makes up a quarter of the blend, and the pack advises people with high blood pressure not to overdo it.

Easy wins for busy weeks

During busy weeks where home-cooked meals aren't an option, the Nutrient Dense Satay Chicken is a solid fallback, with chicken, quinoa, cauliflower, spinach, edamame, chickpeas and peanuts in one pot. A 400g pack gives you around 11g of fibre and 40g of protein, and the label says there are no seed oils included. It does use a little date syrup, so check the pack if you’re watching sugar.

Olives make an easy snack, but read the jar, as plenty are packed in sunflower or rapeseed oil. Look for a short list of ingredients: olives, water, salt, extra virgin olive oil.

As the weather turns, keep frozen chicken bone broth in the freezer. M&S’s version is made with chicken bones, vegetables, and herbs, and works straight from frozen in rice or soups, or heated on its own with a squeeze of lemon. The gut-lining claims around bone broth rest mostly on animal research and expert reasoning, as National Geographic reported. As a warm start to a cold morning, though, it’s hard to beat.

The free trick for your sourdough

Ask for your loaf to be sliced, freeze it, then toast from frozen. In a small Oxford Brookes University study of ten adults, freezing, defrosting, and toasting homemade white bread lowered the blood-sugar response by about 40% compared with fresh. Cooling and freezing appears to change the starch so it’s broken down more slowly. Sourdough wasn’t tested, but chances are it follows a similar pattern.