Digestive wellness concerns everyone. At any one time 1 in 3 of us will have digestive discomfort of some kind, according to the WHO. It's no surprise that it's a big issue on social media.

There's even a phenomenon called #GutTok. This trending TikTok hashtag started to appear during 2022 and currently has 1.1 billion views. Even more impressively, the more generic hashtag #guthealth has 5.8 billion views on TikTok. The most liked TikTok video about gut health has 2.5 million likes. Posts tend to feature recipe suggestions that will help (often smoothies and salads), supplement advice and lists along the lines of “the top 5 best/worst foods for gut health”.  

Gut health is a deeply personal, even intimate, topic. This means that it is easy to come across as authentic when you talk about it, and if there’s anything that engages people on social media it’s authenticity.

While there are some warnings about the things people on social media recommend to boost digestion, with some key influencers more enthusiastic than well-informed, this topic shows every sign of growing. Digestive wellness is a powerful shaper of markets, having created entirely new categories and growth niches, and trends like #GutTok will only add fuel to this.