Want to hack your gut health? Try 30 plant points a week

Research suggests that consuming a diverse range of 30 different types of plants each week offers numerous health benefits. A varied plant-based diet provides a spectrum of essential nutrients, antioxidants, and fiber, contributing to improved overall well-being. Studies show that such variety supports gut microbiome diversity, enhances nutrient absorption, and may reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

So, what’s a plant point?

Plant points are racked up by eating different types of wholefoods from plants every week. Each type gives you one of its points value, irrelevant of how much or how many times you eat it in a week. Points are alloted in the following ways:

• Each different type of fruit of vegetable counts as one point the first time you eat it in a week.
• Different coloured fruit and vegetables (such as red and green apples or yellow and orange peppers) count as different types and give you a new point
• Fresh, dried, canned and frozen plants all count (always aim for no-added salt or sugar)
• Extra virgin olive oil, tea, coffee, garlic, herbs and spices count as ¼ point each.
• Vegetable stock counts as half a point.
• Any plants that have been heavily processed, such as fruit and vegetable juices, white grains, etc. don’t count so try and stick to your wholefoods.

That sounds really complex, is it?

Not really, there are lots of tips and tricks to make it easier for busy people. GastroDoctor’s in house dietitian, Bryony Campion, offered the following life hacks to up your plant points in just one shopping trip…

Make Mixed Magic

Choose mixed products rather than single variety products – for instance if you routinely add any tinned beans, pulses or lentils to your diet, swap from single types to a tin of mixed beans. Most types have 4 or 5 varieties included and will instantly increase your plant points from 1 to 4-5! Other examples might be

• If you buy frozen fruit, buy a bag of mixed varieties to increase your plant points from 1 to up to 4 or 5.
• If you usually have just iceberg lettuce, choose a bag that has other things added such as mixed leaves, shredded cabbage or carrot.
• If you are really short of time and find chopping onions a chore, invest in a frozen vegetable base mix (sometimes called a mirepoix or soffritto) to increse your plant points from 1 to 3 (onion, celery and carrot)
• Equally, have a few bags of frozen mixed veg on hand so you can still get variety in one go when time is really short. Most bags contain at least 4 different veggie types for 4points!

Hack Your Snacks

If you’re partial to a handful of nuts and dried fruit, make sure you buy mixed bags or mix the nuts and fruit you like together in a storage jar. Each different type of nut and dried fruit counts as a point.

If you like a cracker with toppings, choose whole grain and go for a plant based topping. Wholemeal oat cakes topped with peanut butter and a slice of banana or hummus and a slice of cucumber give you a full 3 points!

Spice It Up

Whilst each herb or spice only counts as a quarter of a point, over the course of a week this can add in a lot of extras. Spices don’t have to be hot and many foods are delicious for a couple of additions. Collecting a few different spices every shopping trip can be super helpful in getting you to your goal.

• Add ground cinnamon to porridge or breakfast cereal
• Add dried chives, dill or taragon to scrambled eggs
• Add dried oregano and mace or nutmeg to tomato sauces or bolognese
• Add ground cumin, corriander and turmeric to cooking rice
• Add dried rosemary or thyme to stews or casseroles

Is there anything else I should know?

This is a journey, not a race! Whilst 30 seems to be a magic number for your microbiome health, every choice that increases the diversity of plants in you diet is going to improve your overall health. So have a go and keep a track of you points to help you keep motivated – there a handy link to a printable scoresheet to stick on the fridge below!