Understand your gut
Learn more about what may be influencing your digestion and everyday wellbeing.
Step detail and daily tasks
Created by Dr Berit Nordstrand, MD
Feel better from the inside out.
GutWise helps you understand your gut and build healthier habits across food, sleep, stress, movement and recovery, through a simple 12-step journey designed by physician and author Dr Berit Nordstrand.
1 week free. Cancel anytime.
Doctor-designed · Science-informed · Built for real life
- 18
- books written by Dr Nordstrand
- 12
- step program
- 1991
- medical doctor since
Your gut is connected to much more than digestion.
Digestion is where most people notice their gut first. It is not where the story ends. Research continues to map how gut health interacts with the rest of the body, which is why GutWise works across food, sleep, stress, movement and recovery rather than food alone.
Your gut
Areas of active research
An active research field describing two-way signaling between the digestive system and the nervous system.
Select a connection to read more.
- Gut and brain: An active research field describing two-way signaling between the digestive system and the nervous system.
- Gut and immune system: A large share of immune tissue sits close to the gut, and researchers continue to study how the two interact.
- Gut and metabolism: Studies explore how gut bacteria take part in how food is broken down and used by the body.
- Gut and sleep and stress: Sleep, stress responses and digestion appear to influence one another, and the mechanisms are still being mapped.
- Gut and energy: Research looks at how digestion and nutrient availability relate to how energetic people feel through the day.
12 steps. Small changes. A healthier everyday life.
GutWise is not a content library or a tracker. It is a guided 12-step journey that helps you turn what you already half-know into things you actually do. One clear focus at a time, supported by short videos, practical exercises, recipes and food tools.
01
Start
Begin where you are, with a simple baseline.
02
Build
One manageable step introduced at a time.
03
Last
The habits hold, at your own pace.
You don't need another perfect diet. You need habits you can live with.
What GutWise helps you do
Eat for your microbiome
Build greater plant diversity and learn how to nourish your gut bacteria.
Recipes and food tools
Sleep and recover better
Understand how sleep, stress and recovery interact with your gut and overall health.
Courses, breath work, relaxation
Make change that lasts
Take manageable steps rather than starting another all-or-nothing health plan.
12-step journey
Built on published research. Designed for a normal week.
The 12 steps were not assembled from opinion. Each one takes an area with a real published literature behind it and turns it into something you can do this week. The sequence is the clinical part: which changes people manage first, and what makes them hold.
Variety feeds diversity
In the largest citizen-science microbiome study to date, people eating more than 30 different plant types a week had more diverse gut microbiomes than those eating fewer than 10, whatever diet they followed. Variety, not virtue.
McDonald et al., mSystems, 2018Diet shows up faster than you'd think
A 17-week randomised trial found a diet high in fermented foods raised microbiota diversity and lowered a set of inflammatory markers in blood. The same trial found raising fibre alone over a short period did not shift diversity, which is a useful reminder that this is more complicated than "eat more fibre".
Wastyk et al., Cell, 2021The techniques are named, not invented
Action planning, self-monitoring, feedback, goal setting: the methods behind the 12 steps are catalogued techniques in the behaviour-change literature, not house terminology. Across 94 studies, people who planned when, where and how they would act did substantially better than people who only intended to.
Michie et al., Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 2013 · Gollwitzer & Sheeran, Adv Exp Soc Psychol, 2006Twelve weeks is a considered length
Real-world research on habit formation finds automaticity building over roughly two to three months, with wide variation between people, and finds that missing a single day does not derail it. The programme is built to that timescale rather than a marketing one.
Lally et al., European Journal of Social Psychology, 2010GutWise has not been evaluated in a clinical trial. When programme outcome data exists, we will publish it.
Created by Dr Berit Nordstrand
Physician, author and lifestyle-medicine expert, in clinical practice since 1991. Dr Nordstrand has spent her career helping people understand the connections between food, physical health, mental health, sleep, stress and how they function day to day. GutWise is that work, turned into a program you can follow.
One of Norway's best-known voices on food and health.
Background
- Medical doctor since 1991
- Dual specialist and trained cognitive therapist
- Author of 18 books
- Experienced clinician and educator
What members say
A fantastic tool for anyone who wants to make good lifestyle choices. I recommend the GutWise app, both because I use it myself and because of my work.
Rebekka Nøkling
GutWise member
Start free, then subscribe
- 1 week free, full access, no charge during the trial
- Then $14.00 per month
- Cancel anytime in the App Store or Google Play
- Full access to all 12 steps, recipes, courses and classes
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Prices are charged in your local currency through the App Store or Google Play; the exact amount is confirmed before you subscribe.
The app is available in English and Norwegian.