There are no human studies directly assessing leaky gut and the impact of non-organic foods on leaky gut.

However, there is a 2014 meta-analysis that did find that organic foods contain more polyphenols,

which are antioxidants, that have been shown to reduce leaky gut.

So think about it this way.

We should favor conventional whole foods over organic processed foods, meaning conventionally raised chicken breast over organic chicken nuggets.

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Prebiotics feed bacteria. Probiotics are the bacteria. There was a lot of hubbub around prebiotics. We went back five plus years ago. There was kind of

this renaissance of the microbiota and how important it is for us to feed our gut bugs. So we have a

healthy microbiota and therefore all of the benefits one can reap from having said healthy

microbiota. However, this is not what the clinical research is bearing out. We're actually

seeing that for the most part, aggressively feeding your gut bacteria with high-dose prebiotic

supplements can be detrimental. Enter this meta-analysis summarizing 11 randomized control

trials, and they found that prebiotic supplementation

led to no improvement in the symptoms of IBS, gas, bloating, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea,

or an oscillation of the two. And they did look at different prebiotics. So helpful in the sense that it wasn't just one, they examined inulin, partially hydrolyzed

guargum, and galacto-ologosaccharides.

Leading these researchers to conclude, quote, prebiotics do not improve gastrointestinal

symptoms or quality of life in patients with IBS.

But they do increase bifidobacteria.

That last note I think is important,

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