These Gut Health Gummies are fun and delicious way to enjoy the amazing health benefits of everyday ingredients in a tasty, satisfying bite-sized treat. This gut healing snack comes with several different flavor variations and a bunch of options to get creative on your own.
I was never one of those kids who really liked gummy bears or fruit roll ups growing up. I always opted for ice cream as my dessert. For some reason as I’ve gotten older, I have randomly gotten the craving for some gummy bears, especially the sour ones. One of my favorite things to make when my stomach is upset or I’m coming off a cold, surgery, or sickness of sorts is my pineapple charcoal lemonade. I love the tart with a hint of sweetness and the benefits of the charcoal pulling out toxins as it is a binding agent. So, I thought why not make that drink into a gummy bear!
Pure pineapple has so many health benefits. It can help with inflammation, digestion, immunity, and many other things. Pineapple contains significant amounts of bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down protein, which may help with digestion, often you’ll find bromeliad from pineapple used in digestive enzyme supplements, these are supplements that can support the body in breaking down protein, fats and carbs so you can best utilize and absorb your nutrients. When I created these gut healthy gummies, I knew pineapple would be a great addition.
Just remember that gummy bears are not just for children, adults and humans of any age are welcome to try this recipe 😊
Lemon is another great ingredient for your homemade gut health gummies. I really enjoy the tartness from the lemon as it cuts the sweetness from the pineapple. Lemon also aides in digestion and has been shown to support bile flow which can help with liver health, detoxification and fat digestion. I recommend using pure lemon juice not from concentrate. Extra points if you juice your own lemons for your gut health gummies!
Activated charcoal is a binding ingredient that is great for toxin removal, gas, and bloating. We use it often in our practice as part of gut healing protocols. It is important to know that charcoal is non-discriminatory, meaning it doesn’t know or select what to “mop-up” and move out or leave behind, so it’s always very important to take charcoal supplements and even foods containing charcoal away from important supplements or prescriptions, as it may render them less effective. Charcoal is great when you’ve ingested a food that isn’t agreeing with you, especially if you suspect you’ve been exposed to a pathogen, it is great during a pathogen eradication protocol and fun-fact, it can help to mitigate a hangover after a night of drinking… or so we hear.
Lastly, quality grass-fed gelatin is the ingredient that makes a homemade gummy… well, gummy. Gelatin provides gut health support with it’s essential nutrients to restore and repair the healthy mucosal lining in the GI tract. Gelatin is made almost entirely of protein and it’s amino acid profile offers many healing properties. While gelatin doesn’t contain ALL of the essential amino acids, meaning it is not a complete protein on it’s own, one of the important amino acids in gelatin, called glutamic acid, is converted to glutamine in the body. Glutamine has been shown to improve the integrity of the gut wall and help prevent “leaky gut”. Gelatin may also help digestion by stimulating the production of gastric juices. Gelatin also binds to water, which might help food move through the digestive system. As well gelatin contains glycine and proline, two powerful amino acids that have been linked to brain function and mental health, sleep and more. Gelatin is also great for skin, joints, hair and nails, too.
Optional Gut Health Gummy Add-Ins:
Besides using any liquid as the base, meaning you could make some fun creations like watermelon gummies, strawberries and cream gummies (with coconut milk), spiced apple cider gummies, golden milk gummies and more, here are a few additional ideas for gut healing ingredients to add to your gummies.
GINGER: If you wanted to add freshly grated ginger, or ginger juice, this would be another great gut and digestive supportive ingredient. Ginger can bring a little kick and it has been shown to help to aid in digestion by stimulating the migrating motor complex to keep food moving through the digestive tract, it’s also been shown to reduce nausea including morning sickness1Viljoen E, Visser J, Koen N, Musekiwa A. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect and safety of ginger in the treatment of pregnancy-associated nausea and vomiting. Nutr J 2014;13:20. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-13-20, to improve bloating, reduce indigestion and soothe the entire GI tract.
TURMERIC: Turmeric would be another fun ingredient to add to your gut health gummies and while it would punch up that vibrant yellow hue, it would also bring the many anti-inflammatory benefits from the curcuminoids, Turmeric has also been shown to improve transit time and even bile secretion (which is so important for fat digestion).2Dey N, Wagner V, Blanton L, et al. Regulators of gut motility revealed by a gnotobiotic model of diet-microbiome interactions related to traveling. Cell 2015;163(1):95-107.
PROBIOTICS: Probiotics could also easily get added to your gut health gummies. Obviously you need to be sure that it’s a probiotic that will withstand the heat of the mixture. Open up a capsule or use a probiotic powder and sprinkle it in at the time you add the beef gelatin.
How to Make Gut Health Gummies:
We have made you three variations of these gut health gummies. A pure pineapple gummy using pure pineapple juice. You can juice your own pineapple or buy pure pineapple juice from the store, but you want to make sure it’s not from concentrate. We’ve also made a pineapple lemonade gummies which are nice and tart and lastly, we have a pineapple charcoal lemonade gummy.
These are extremely easy to make. I love a theme, so I went a little crazy buying different molds, but you don’t need to do that. You can pour the mixture into lined cupcake tins, ice cube trays or a small glass pan and cut them into squares. If you want to buy some molds there are a ton of places to purchase online.
The ratio for these gut health gummies is 1 cup of liquid of choice and 4 tablespoons of beef gelatin. I highly suggest getting a good quality grass-fed beef gelatin. You CANNOT use collagen peptides it will not firm up. It needs to be gelatin. Gelatin is available at most grocery stores, now.
With the 1 cup of liquid, you can make any variety that you want, the sky is the limit. You can just any time of fruit juice, lemonade, electrolyte drinks are an option as well.
Making Your Gut Health Gummies:
Pour your one cup of liquid into a small saucepan, bring to a simmer. If you like a sweeter gummy you can add 2-4 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup to the liquid that is simmering. Remove from heat and whisk in the beef gelatin 1 tablespoon at a time until all 4 tablespoons are whisked in. Whisk until there are no clumps. If there is a small clump or two that won’t mix in, I just take a fork and remove it.
It is important that this is where you are going to want to move at a quick pace if using gummy molds. The mixture will start to set rather quickly especially if the molds are small, so don’t walk away and start folding laundry or go for a workout. Using the dropper that was provided with the mold kit I sucked up the warm mixture from the saucepan and gently filled each gummy mold. This part goes by rather quickly and depending on the size of the molds you have it can make a lot of gummies! Once all the mixture has been used place the molds in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set. Once they are set, they will pop right out of the molds. It is as easy as that!
These gummies do need to be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container. They will last 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator. You can leave them at room temperature for an hour or so but definitely best to keep in the refrigerator if not eating them right away.
We cannot wait to see your creations of these Gut Health Gummies. Please make sure to tag us in any photos if you make them!
Pure Pineapple Gut Health Gummies
Ingredients
- 1 cup pure pineapple juice
- 1 tablespoon maple
- 4 tablespoons grass-fed beef gelatin
Instructions
- Add juice and maple syrup to a saucepan.
- Heat to a simmer
- Remove from heat
- Whisk in gelatin
- Pour into molds or a greased 8x8 dish
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Enjoy!
Pineapple Lemonade Gut Health Gummies
Ingredients
- ½ cup pure pineapple juice
- ¼ cup pure lemon juice
- ¼ c coconut water
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 4 tablespoons grass-fed gelatin
Instructions
- Add juice and maple syrup to a saucepan.
- Heat to a simmer
- Remove from heat
- Whisk in gelatin
- Pour into molds or a greased 8x8 dish
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Enjoy!
Pineapple Charcoal Lemonade Gut Health Gummies
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup pure pineapple juice
- ⅓ cup pure lemon juice
- ⅓ cup coconut water
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 3 activated charcoal tabs opened up
- 4 tablespoons grass-fed gelatin
Instructions
- Add juice and maple syrup to a saucepan.
- Heat to a simmer
- Remove from heat
- Whisk in gelatin and charcoal
- Pour into molds or a greased 8x8 dish
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Enjoy!
Recipe Notes: Leave out sweeteners for Whole30 and AIP-friendly gut health gummies
References
| 1. | ↑ | Viljoen E, Visser J, Koen N, Musekiwa A. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect and safety of ginger in the treatment of pregnancy-associated nausea and vomiting. Nutr J 2014;13:20. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-13-20 |
| 2. | ↑ | Dey N, Wagner V, Blanton L, et al. Regulators of gut motility revealed by a gnotobiotic model of diet-microbiome interactions related to traveling. Cell 2015;163(1):95-107. |
2 Responses
Beth, do you have to use maple syrup in the recipe? I was planning on making tart cherry gummies, but I don’t want any extra sweetener. Will they still turn out ok without the syrup?
Hey, the maple syrup is not at all necessary it’s just a matter of preference I personally find they need a little sweetness. But if you leave it out for now just fine