Why you should eat 30 plant-based foods a week to optimise your nutrition

I enjoy a sweet and frothy cappuccino to offset the bitterness of my third piece of dark chocolate, and I wonder why people whine about healthy eating. I love this one.

Okay, it probably won’t help me lose weight, but scientists say it will definitely improve my health, digestion, immune system, and mood. There’s only one catch: it doesn’t just consist of chocolate and coffee. It’s much more complicated than that.

Forget “five a day”—this is the 30-a-week regimen, a diet designed to increase the variety of plant-based nutrients you need to feed the trillions of microorganisms that live in your gut; a community of bacteria, viruses and fungi collectively called your microbiome.

The state it is in can have a huge impact – positive or negative – on your body, brain, nervous system and immune system, as well as your general well-being. Each type of bacteria performs a unique job and likes different kinds of nutrients from plants. So while five a day isn’t a habit to sniff at, it won’t keep your microbiome as happy as thirty a week.

Plants contain compounds called prebiotics that provide fuel for the friendly bugs in your microbiome. They also contain polyphenols: chemicals with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that are essential for the healthy functioning of your gut, and for all the benefits that come from feeling happy.

In 2012, 11,000 volunteers participated in the US, UK and Australian Gut Project. They provided stool samples and detailed information about their diet. At the conclusion in 2018, the researchers found that people who ate more than thirty plant-based ingredients per week had better gut health than those who ate ten or less.

The UK research was led by Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the respected health website Zoe (joinzoe.com). “Increasing the variety and amount of plants in your diet doesn’t have to be difficult,” he says, “especially if you expand your idea of ​​what counts as plant foods to include spices, herbs, nuts, and seeds.”

Professor Spector makes it sound easy, but if many of us find five days a day a challenge, how on earth are we going to be able to keep up thirty a week? The good news is that it’s not as hard as it sounds. While each of your five should weigh at least 80 grams, one of your thirty grams could be a pinch, spoonful, or sprinkle of, say, a spice or herb. As long as they come from a plant, the microscopic bacteria in your gut will thank you for even the tiniest portion (although you should try to eat them regularly). This means that tea counts as one, as does coffee, tarragon, chili powder, turmeric, and, yes, chocolate, because it comes from a bean that grows on the cocoa tree. Similarly, nuts, seeds, fruits, legumes, and grains all count as one of your 30.

The downside is that they only count once, no matter how many times you have them in the week. The advantage? Different colored variants of the same ingredient each count as one because their hue is determined by different polyphenols. So green, red and yellow peppers count as three.

I tried and expected to have a hard time, but even the first week was a breeze. Day one is the easiest, because everything you have counts. I collected points with apple juice, poppy seed and millet seed on my bread, plus a cup of tea for breakfast.

I made soup for lunch, with zucchini, onions, potato and garlic, with white pepper. For dinner I had a chicken salad, so limed lettuce, tomato, dill pickle, capers, thyme, coriander and tarragon. That’s 16 plant-based ingredients in one day. But on day two, you realize all the things you can’t count anymore: the tea, the fruit juice, the herbs and spices you used yesterday, the seeds on that bread, and the onions, potatoes, and tomatoes. New on day two was a banana and some pumpkin seeds in yoghurt, plus watercress with a salad – but on day one I had already eaten all the other ingredients for the salad, so they didn’t count.

So that was 19 ingredients after two days, but all my basic ingredients were already gone. I should get creative. Day three brought dark chocolate, coffee, an orange, carrots and roasted beetroot (as parts of separate meals). That was 24 ingredients and I wasn’t even half way through.

Bridget Benelam, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, told me I was doing well and gave a compelling endorsement of the diet. “Thirty a week brings together a lot of existing knowledge that tells us it’s a good idea to eat more beans, legumes and whole grains,” she said. “We shouldn’t turn our eyes away from the five a day, but encouraging people to expand their plant intake beyond fruits and vegetables can only send a positive message. Contrary to five a day, which is the government’s official advice, thirty a week is based on research so far. This shows that a wider variety of plant foods can be good for gut health and means there are no rules on weights and volumes to eat. Most importantly, it encourages us to look for more plant-based foods and that will be good for us,” Benelam told me.

On days three through seven, I cast my plant food net wider. Sweet potato, cashews, fennel, butter beans, dates, and lentils all found their way into my menus, taking me to the magical 30 plant-based ingredients by lunchtime on day five.

By then, what I had begun to see as a “challenge” had become a good habit rather than a chore, and one that left me feeling healthier in mind, body, and outlook. As a newcomer to the 30-a-week habit, I can’t rule out the placebo effect yet, but I feel more alert, sleep better, and—perhaps thanks to the extra seeds and legumes, which slow energy releases—I’m not hungry between meals. meals through.

Of course, after every seventh day it’s time to start all over again, but that’s no problem, it’s a pleasure. After all, they don’t say for nothing that ‘variety is the seasoning of life’.