What a nutritionist packs on her plate for gut health

Gut health has become the umbrella explanation for everything we can’t pin down; bloating after a dal-chawal lunch, skin that breaks out without warning, the 5 pm slump that turns your brain to porridge. Strip away the pills and powders and you’re left with the basics: what you eat, how you eat it and whether it’s feeding the trillions of bacteria running the show inside you.

This is what that looks like on a plate. Functional medicine nutritionist and lifestyle educator Karishmma Chawla maps her day through small, repeatable choices. It reads like a microbiome-friendly routine rooted in the Indian kitchen—sabzi for fibre, khakras when you need a snack, probiotics when they help, patience when they don’t. Good digestion begins with what you choose, plate after plate.

Morning: lime water, fruit, and a gut-first mindset

She starts her day with lime water for her gut health, “as it helps keep my blood alkaline and gut lining intact and ready for morning action.” Then comes a pear, followed by “a weak black coffee so that I’m not messing around my gut linings with dark caffeine.”

To support digestion and energy from the start, she adds: “I do take a high strength B complex to extract the maximum benefits out of my food through the day.”

Breakfast: protein and a little help with digestion

Breakfast is minimal. “Usually I stick around good protein which includes organic egg whites,” she says. Before eating, “I take digestive enzyme to help breakdown my food better hence help with smooth digestion.”

Mid-morning snack: a carrot crush

Around mid-morning, she reaches for what’s become a daily ritual: “a simple carrot crush with some olive oil and a pinch of pink salt.” It’s adrenal support disguised as a snack. “Trust me, it helps with my adrenal fatigue levels and keeps me going through the day.”

Lunch: a fibre-first thali

“Lunch typically be like a normal vegetarian thali,” she says. “There would be jowar roti or brown rice with a bowl of soup or 1–2 bowls of vegetables. Also some carrot sticks or a bowl of simple salad jumps into my plate.”

Among all this, she pays special attention to vegetables. “What I consciously include is sabzi to ensure my adequate quotient of fibre in a day and help my insides to smoothly do the churning process.”

Afternoon: a mindful crunch

Between meals, she reaches for healthy fats. “This becomes the time where I graze mindfully on walnuts and almonds, pumpkin seeds—the healthy quotient of the fats, you see.”

Evening snack: clean and familiar comfort

“I do snack before my dinner as I end up being at my work,” she explains. “So I quickly hop on jowar brown rice mini khakras.” She doesn’t pick them up at random. “I’m very careful about where I get them to be sure the ingredients are clean and they’re gluten-free.” When time allows, the crackers are made at home. “Paring it will some organic egg whites again.”