Can You Eat 30 Different Plant Foods in a Week?

Gut health is a hot topic these days. A typical Western diet is high in processed foods and refined sugars, like fried foods and packaged snack foods which contain unhealthy oils that can lead to inflammation. Plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, spices, and herbs are much better for overall health, especially the health of our guts. In today’s post I’ll talk about some of the new and exciting research around improving gut health by increasing your intake of plant-based foods.

Why 30 different plant foods?

Research at the American Gut Project has revealed that people who eat at least 30 different varieties of plants each week have a more diverse gut microbiome than those who eat 10 or fewer. Gut health is vital; when something is off with the good and bad bacteria of our gut, overall health can suffer. Eating a larger variety of plant foods can make the good bacteria in your gut stronger to help you fight off illness and infection.

Many of us have our favorite fruits and vegetables and it’s easy to purchase the same things week after week. Let’s say you buy spinach, zucchini, apples, and bananas each week. These are of course healthy options, but without adding in other varieties of plant foods your gut bacteria aren’t able to flourish. Try switching it up each week to get the most benefit out of your plant foods!

What counts as a plant food?

Though 30 may seem like a big number, there are a lot of options that may make it easier than you think to increase your variety of plant foods. Just a few examples include:

Category	Examples
Vegetables	garlic onion broccoli cauliflower carrots spinach bell pepper mushrooms kale zucchini squash potato asparagus
Fruit	apples pears oranges blueberries strawberries raspberries bananas mango pineapple grapes
Whole grains	rice buckwheat popcorn millet oats barley rye quinoa
Legumes	pinto beans chickpeas black beans kidney beans soy beans green lentils red lentils
Nuts & seeds	cashews almonds pecans walnuts pistachios peanuts pumpkin seeds sunflower seeds chia seeds flaxseed hemp hearts
Herbs & spices	basil cilantro parsley mint thyme oregano saffron black pepper chili powder cloves coriander cumin nutmeg ginger

It’s not as hard as it looks!

Though the number 30 can seem daunting, there are several ways to make increasing the variety of plant foods in your diet easier:

• Instead of buying a bag of just spinach or romaine, look for bags of mixed greens - each type of leafy green will count as 1 plant food!

• Look for bags of frozen mixed vegetables rather than just one type of vegetable

• Switch up the types of beans and lentils you use in your bowls or tacos

• Buy or make your own mix of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit instead of eating only one or two types

• Try chickpea or lentil pasta instead of regular pasta

• Shop with the seasons to help you change up the fruits and veggies in your diet

As you can see, there are numerous benefits to improving the health of your gut by increasing the variety of plant foods in your diet. Aiming for 30 different plant foods right away can be daunting, so it’s fine to go slow with adding more to your diet. Stay tuned for next week’s post where I’ll give you an example of how I eat 30 plant varieties in one week!