Food and Fitness for Living Better

🌿 30 Plants Per Week: My Favorite Way to Think About Eating a Balanced Diet. 

One way I heard of thinking of your weekly food intake that has really stuck with me is to track how many plants you eat in a week. How many unique plants did you eat last week? All different types of plants count, so even a basic cheese pizza would have two plants: wheat (from the dough) and tomatoes (from the sauce). So count ’em up! What was your total today? Yesterday? This week? 

Let me consider today’s plants: veggie pasta (wheat, tomatoes, garlic, onion, zucchini = 5 plants), leftovers from Texas Roadhouse (sweet potato, rice, bell pepper, wheat = 3 new plants), PB banana toast (peanuts, banana, agave, chia seeds, wheat = 4 new plants), cucumber snack. So looks like I’m up to 13 plants for today, which is surprisingly good! Off to a good start this week. But, when I make a big meal and eat it all week, then I end up repeating many of these plants and don’t add unique plants to the count. 

Another 2 days of eating looked like: going out for pizza (tomatoes, wheat, onion) and getting brussels sprouts as an appetizer (brussels, jalapeno), bagels (wheat, everything seasoning has to count for at least 1), and chicken parm sandwich and bruschetta (wheat, tomatoes). So, this only added 2 plants and spices to the count, so up to 16. 

A piece I’m unsure of is the quantity needed to consider it toward the weekly count. For example, breakfast was multigrain bread toasted with peanut butter with agave and chia seeds added in with sliced banana on top. Obviously wheat, peanuts, and banana can count toward my 30, but how much agave, chia, and other seeds in the bread do I need to eat to “count” it? I’m not too worried about the count, but still an interesting point to ponder. I’ve landed at giving myself credit for about every other plant if I’m questioning my quantity. 

Another aspect of this “30 plant” approach that I like is how it accommodates a variety of eating habits, except the growing fad of carnivore diets. Vegans and vegetarians will excel in this pattern (hopefully!), Paleo too. Keto diets will struggle a bit to stay below the carb totals, but it is not impossible with low carb fruit and veg like berries, greens, and herbs, and most nuts and seeds are pretty keto-friendly. The key is to be sure you’re getting enough unique plants – introduce variety into your eating habits! The more variety you consume, the more diverse and robust your gut microbiota becomes. 

I asked AI to help me summarize the research on this topic, and here’s what I got, rearranged to my liking: Research continues to show that a diverse and thriving gut microbiome is key to not only digestive wellness, but also immune function, brain health, and even energy levels. This “30 plant” idea comes from the American Gut Project, one of the largest citizen science microbiome studies to date. The research found that individuals who ate 30 or more different types of plant foods per week had significantly more diverse gut microbiomes than those who ate 10 or fewer. Gut microbial diversity is considered a marker of resilience and health, with greater variety linked to better digestion, mood, inflammation response, and more. “Plant foods” in this case includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices. Each plant has its own set of fibers and polyphenols that feed different beneficial bacteria in your gut. The more variety you consume, the more diverse and robust your gut microbiota becomes.

Then, I asked AI to create the following sample meal plan to give an idea of what these diverse plant meals might look like. Did pretty well, in my opinion! I like how it even recommended a buddha bowl from leftover other ingredients by the end of the week.

🥗 Sample Weekly Meal Plan (30+ Plant Foods)

Here’s a 7-day meal plan designed to help you reach 30+ unique plant foods. Each lunch and dinner includes a link to a popular recipe from trusted food blogs.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

🎯 Total Plant Foods: 45+

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