Total Restore is a dietary supplement used to improve gut health which is sold by the brand Gundry MD. The brand claims that this supplement can help to promote a healthy gut lining and reduce gas and bloating.
But does Total Restore contain ingredients proven to enhance gut health? Does the supplement contain any unhealthy ingredients? Are the active ingredients effectively dosed? And is Total Restore better or worse than popular gut health supplements like Bye Bye Bloat?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Total Restore to give our take on whether or not it's healthy to be effective for improving gut function, and whether or not it's healthy.
We'll also share our concerns about some of the active ingredient doses, discuss the risk of side effects, and compare Total Restore to other popular gut health supplements to pick our winners (and losers).
Key takeaways:
- Very low doses of some active ingredients
- We consider this supplement to be underdosed
- We do not currently recommend Total Restore
Strange Ingredient Doses
We consider some of the ingredients in Total Restore to be extremely underdosed.
The ingredients shown below are not all of the active ingredients in this supplement; just the ones we consider to have the strangest dosages:
Total Restore provides 7 milligrams (mg) of magnesium. This is 2% of the Daily Value (DV), or less than 10% of the magnesium content in one small banana according to the USDA.
Berberine is a medicinal chemical compound derived from plants, and has been shown in some medical research to improve gut health. However the berberine dose in Total Restore is only 3 mg.
A 2020 medical review on berberine and gut health found that the ingredient may be effective, but the only dosage cited was from an animal trial using over 1,000x the amount that's in Total Restore for an equivalent human dose.
VitaBerry is a patented berry blend with a total dose of 22 mg. This equates to an average ingredient dose in this blend of 4 mg.
According to the USDA, one single strawberry is 18,000 mg. One single strawberry provides 4,500 times the strawberry dose as exists in Total Restore.
Sometimes supplement manufacturers will include minuscule doses of exotic active ingredients to make the Supplement Facts label look impressive.
The doses shown above are highly questionable in our opinion, and we cannot locate any clinical evidence that these ingredients at such low doses improve gut health.
Ingredient Dose Analysis
The remaining active ingredients in Total Restore are shown below:
L-glutamine is the highest-dosed ingredient in this formulation, but we also find it to be significantly underdosed at only 213 mg.
A clinical trial on l-glutamine supplementation and gut function used a dose of 30,000 mg, which is over 100x the amount in Total Restore.
A separate clinical trial published in the Nutrients journal categorized glutamine supplementation into “low,” “medium” and “high” groups. The “low” dosage was 300 mg per kilogram (kg) of fat-free mass, which equates to a dose over 100x the amount in Total Restore.
Grape seed extract was shown in an animal study to favorably influence gut bacteria and reduce inflammation, but like the previously-cited study, the dose used was 300 mg per kg daily, or over 100x the amount in Total Restore for a human-equivalent dose.
Licorice root is included in this supplement at a dose of 54 mg. A 2012 clinical trial found that licorice root extract reduced indigestion at a 150 mg dose, but extracts are significantly more concentrated than raw plant material like what's included in Total Restore.
We are unable to identify one single ingredient in this formulation that we consider likely to be effective for improving gut health or microbiome function at the included dose.
We consider every active ingredient in this supplement to be significantly underdosed based on clinical research, and Gundry MD fails to cite any clinical studies on their product page suggesting that these ingredients are effective at the included doses.
Total Restore is one of the worst-formulated dietary supplement we've ever reviewed on Illuminate Health in our opinion.
At least MCT Wellness (another Gundry MD supplement we recently reviewed) contained a few active ingredients that we considered to be effectively dosed.
Highly Questionable Health Claims
There are several health claims on the Total Restore product page that we consider highly questionable, and we want to highlight two such claims.
As shown below, Gundry MD claims that Total Restore "helps to reduce 'junk food' cravings:"
There is no citation for this claim, and we have not seen any clinical evidence of this claim.
It looks based on the markers at the end of the sentence that this claim is cited, but the citation just leads to a statement that "Every individual is unique" and not to any clinical studies proving the claim to be accurate.
Gundry MD also claims that licorice root can help the gut lining, again without providing any proof:
This header references licorice root extract, but as we highlighted in the ingredient review, Total Restore does not contain licorice root extract, but instead contains licorice root.
We recommend that consumers entirely disregard any health claims made by brands that fail to provide any proof of such claims, and we consider it a red flag that Gundry MD lists "licorice root extract" when marketing this product while their Supplement Facts label instead lists licorice root.
Total Restore vs. Popular Gut Health Supps
Here's how Total Restore compares to other popular gut health supplements in terms of potential effectiveness and healthiness, in our opinion:
Bye Bye Bloat
Contains naturally-derived active ingredients like organic parsley leaf powder, which is clinically shown to relieve bloating.
Many organic research-backed ingredients and no unhealthy additives; much higher-quality formulation than Total Restore.
Winner: Bye Bye Bloat
Supergut
Contains flavoring additives and a synthetic vitamin and mineral blend that we consider to be unhealthy, as we documented in our Supergut reviews article.
Total Restore wins from a healthiness perspective.
Winner: Total Restore
Morning Complete
Contains an active ingredient at an unspecified dose, which is clinically shown to cause liver injury in some cases at high doses.
Also contains two inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy.
Total Restore is a much healthier and safer formulation.
Winner: Total Restore
Does Total Restore Cause Side Effects?
Gundry MD does not appear to have funded any clinical trials testing Total Restore, so it's impossible to say definitively whether or not the supplement is likely to cause side effects. However, we can make an educated guess based on the ingredients.
We do not consider Total Restore likely to cause side effects in healthy adults based on its stated ingredients.
All of the active ingredients in Total Restore are non-toxic and well-studied, and this supplement contains non-toxic and safe inactive ingredients.
If anything, we consider most of the ingredients in Total Restore to be underdosed, as documented in previous sections, and an ingredient that's underdosed is less likely to cause side effects than an ingredient that's effectively dosed or included at too high of a dose.
Our Clean Gut Health Picks
Manukora MGO 850+ is our top whole food gut health pick.
A 2024 clinical trial reported that manuka honey ingestion "correlates with beneficial modulation of gut microbiota composition."
MBG Organic Fiber Potency+ is our top gut health supplement.
MBG Organic Fiber Potency+ contains 100% soluble fiber, which was described as "one of the most important nutrients for the gut microbiota" in a clinical review published in the Molecules journal.
Both of the products recommended in this section are free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
Total Restore Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Contains research-backed active ingredients
- May support optimal gut health
- Free shipping from brand's website
Cons:
- Highly questionable active ingredient doses
- Doesn't appear to be clinically tested
- Questionable health claims on brand's website
- Hard to find unsponsored customer video reviews
