Are You Getting Your 30?

Adding in 30 different plants a week can help optimize your microbiome diversity

Why eating 30 different plants a week matters and how to get there with this super satisfying salad recipe.

Salad bowl with various plants, seeds, nuts and herbs. Eating 30 different plants a week matters and this super satisfying salad recipe will help you get there. Ingredients and recipe below.

Ingredients & Directions

Estimated time: 20 minutes (but this all depends on what you put into it)

Effort/Skill: Medium

Plant-Powered Bowl

SALAD

1 cucumber, chopped

1 head of your favourite lettuce, chopped

2 cups spinach (or arugula)

12 grape tomatoes, halved

4 green onions, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 avocado, diced

4 celery stalks, chopped

½ cup broccoli sprouts (or alfalfa sprouts or arugula sprouts)

DRESSING

1 handful mint leaves, finely chopped (I left the herbs in here whole as well)

1 handfuls basil leaves, finely chopped

1 lemon, juiced

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

TOPPINGS 

1 tbsp hemp seeds

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

1 small can chickpeas (rinsed and drained)

NOURISHED FACT

30 different plants a week. Why on earth would this matter? 

Well, for a few reasons:

1. 30 different types of plants in your week makes for a more diversified microbiome. With the right foods for the right bacteria, your gut has a better chance to have more diversification in gut microorganisms. This matters because the less diverse means gut dysbiosis or the increased risk to have a dysbiosis.  Every one of us is different, but with a wider range, there very well could be a broader chance for the good-for-you bacteria to flourish.

2. Lower resistance to antibiotics. The American Gut Project (research is referenced below) studied a variety of characteristics with individuals that followed a diet of 30+ different plants a week in their diet. It was noted that these individuals - regardless of whether they were vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian or omnivores - the more plants in the diet, meant less exposure to animal foods with antibiotics incorporated in their life cycle, which meant that the test subjects in the research project were less susceptible to being resistant to antibiotics.

3. Science is a beautiful thing and this study (Gut Project) provides us with such rich data collected over a five-year period, from 42 countries, with over 11,000 human participants. With such a fulsome group of individuals in this study, there was an opportunity to identify strains of bacteria that had associated characteristics with their host. Take for example, strains were found to be associated with individuals that were overweight, have immune deficiencies, etc. There is so much more to come from this, and we are on the precipice for what the future holds and what will be uncovered about the microbiome.

For the 30,000 foot view of the study, this article sums it up quite nicely. 

Sources:

Feng Y, Duan Y, Xu Z, Lyu N, Liu F, Liang S, Zhu B. An examination of data from the American Gut Project reveals that the dominance of the genus Bifidobacterium is associated with the diversity and robustness of the gut microbiota. Microbiologyopen. 2019 Dec;8(12):e939. doi: 10.1002/mbo3.939. Epub 2019 Sep 30. PMID: 31568677; PMCID: PMC6925156.

H. Buschman. Big Data from World’s Largest Citizen Science Microbiome Project Serves Food for Thought. UC San Diego Health. 2018 May 15. 2018-05-15-big-data-from-worlds-largest-citizen-science-microbiome-project-serves-food-for-thought.aspx

Valdes A M, Walter J, Segal E, Spector T D. Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and healthBMJ 2018; 361 :k2179 doi:10.1136/bmj.k2179 https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2179