Eat more plants
Five-a-day is all very well, but are you making the same few choices? When it comes to your health, make diversity your goal, says Hannah Ebelthite
in this section…
WHY DIVERSITY IS YOUR GOAL WHEN IT COMES TO GUT HEALTH
T UMMYTROUBLE-SHOOTERS
CALM AN UNHAPPY DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
EAT THE RAINBOW
MIX IT UP WITH OUR NUTRIENT-RICH RECIPES
How would you like to embrace not less? It sounds good, right – HDietitians, nutritionists and medical doctors alike are increasingly supporting the idea that a diverse, plant-based diet is the best way to feed our gut microbes and support our health. While the term ‘plant-based’ can mean vegan, it’s really a catch-all for any way of eating that prioritises plants. You can still eat animal produce if you choose, but what our gut microbes need most of all is an abundant and varied range of fibre to feast on. In short? Our guts want plants. a way of eating that means more and it’s easier than you think.
‘I like to call it the Diversity Diet,’ says Dr Megan Rossi, a dietitian and nutrition researcher at King’s College London. In her latest book, Eat More, Live Well, she introduces the idea of Plant Points and suggests we should all be aiming for 30 a week. ‘But every point has to be a different plant or it doesn’t count,’ she explains.
It might sound like a lot, but really, 30 just means making sure your five-a-day isn’t the same five, day in, day out. ‘It isn’t a number plucked from mid-air; it’s based on solid research that I’ve then tested out in clinic,’ says Dr Rossi. ‘One study in particular, carried out by the American Gut Project [the largest published study of the human microbiome to date], took stool samples from more than 10,000 volunteers around the world. It showed that people who consumed 30 different plant-based foods a week or more had greater diversity in their gut microbes than those who ate fewer than 10. With thousands of different strains of bacteria inhabiting your gut, it makes sense that they all thrive on distinct diets.’
Think about your typical weekly diet and the chances are it’s made up of key favourites; if you shop online you probably don’t vary your order much. We’re all creatures of habit and convenience – but it’s not helping our guts.
GO WHOLE
Here’s where that number 30 starts to look a lot more achievable. Because we’re not just talking vegetables and fruit.
‘People imagine what 30 different servings of veggies look like and envisage all sorts of tummy troubles,’ says Dr Rossi. ‘But think about what plant-based really means: it comes from the soil. Wholegrains are plants, legumes are plants, as are nuts, seeds and their oils. And here’s
