30 Different Fruits and Vegetables

[AhBiscuits]

I was reading yesterday about how you should have 30 different fruits and vegetables each week for gut health. I don't get anywhere close to that, I eat a lot of the same things. Like for I'll have an apple and a satsuma with my lunch every day, I'll have broccoli a couple of times a week, my side salads are usually the same few things. I need to try and branch out.

For inspiration, what fruit and vegetables do you eat in a normal week?

I reckon I usually have

Grapes
Raspberries
Strawberries
Banana
Apple
Orange
Onion
Tomato
Lettuce
Cucumber
Pepper
Carrots
Brocolli
Peas
Sweetcorn
Lentils
Kidney beans

There's other things from time to time but these are probably the things I always have.

I use this website, because eating what is in season, is generally cheaper, fresher and more nutritious. http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/ I also grow alot of things in my garden

I don't get take-away often, but if we have an Indian, in addition to other things, I always get a bhindi bhaji which is okra. Its not just variety, but we should eat the rainbow, because different colours in fruit/veg provide different nutrients.

Some other veg I often buy or grow:
-samphire
-bok choy/choy sum or other Asian greens
-wombok/Chinese cabbage
-Purple cabbage. Some veg such as carrots, mange tout, broccoli and other things come in a purple variety, so I'll get some when available
-jerusalem artichokes
-yacon
-porcini, oyster, shitake, enoki mushrooms
-various colours of beetroot
-kuri and butternut squash
-various courgettes, patty pan, round ones and yellow ones
-celeriac

Fruit
-various melons
-mangoes
-grapes

Baked beans
Mushrooms
Different coloured peppers
Celery
Garlic
Onions - red or white
Nuts
Seeds
Avocado
Mango
Passion fruit
Endive
Spring onions
Sweetcorn
Edamame beans
Broad beans

I read that. But I don't think it has to be a full portion. If you squeezed lemon juice and grated zest over your broccoli or added a spoonful of flaked alonds or seeds to porridge, that would count

For fruit most weeks I have:
apple
pear
banana
melon
grapes
frozen blueberries
orange or clementine

then also one or two of these each week depending on season: strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, dried apricots, grapefruit, peach, nectarine

Veg weekly:
onions - red, white, spring
garlic
peppers
courgettes
aubergine
peas
carrots
broccoli
tomatoes (I know they're not strictly veg but in veg meals)
potatoes with skins on
lettuce
mixed salad leaves (rocket, watercress etc)
cucumber
avocado

Then a few of these: fennel, asparagus, spinach, cabbage, kale, chard, sweet potato, butternut squash, mushrooms, leeks, olives, kidney beans, butter beans, edamame, broad beans, swede, sweetcorn, celery

Add herbs, nuts, seeds - fresh basil, cashews and parsley in home made pesto, mint or dill on sauces and stirred into rice or couscous. Add garnish of sesame, sunflower, pumpkin seeds

I vary between white, brown, red rice, wholewheat couscous, barley, potatoes for the carbs - afaik they all count towards the 30 variety too

As PP say - 30 plants rather than 30 fruit and veg so spices and herbs count but I wouldn't rely on a pinch of two year old cumin from the back of the cupboard 😀

When I first read about this I tried recording mine and hit 30 within about three days each week. I don't do anything special but I am a lifelong vegetarian who has always eaten seasonally and menu planned.

You don't need to turn veggie but menu planning and making the most of seasonal produce will give you more variety and keep your produce bills down!

Maybe start by planning more variety in the lunch fruit and one new salad/veg dish each week, vary the grains, seeds and nuts as well. Over ambition when changing diet just makes it hard - gradual change is easier. Seasonal eating seems back in vogue at the moment so there are lots of recipe sites tagging recipes on seasonality

I was reading about what the typical diet is like in Japan, in particular the importance they place on good food in schools, and it had made me think about what my family eat a bit more. Our diet isn't terrible, but can definitely be improved and I'd like for us all to have more variety and further reduce UPF.

It's the veg range that looks a little limited on your list.
I try to buy all veg grown in the UK, Europe if there isn't enough range ; this means the veg I eat changes all year round which I enjoy.

Could you try adding:
Cabbage (red braised, Savoy and sweetheart)
Cauliflower
Sprouts
Parsnips
Swede
Celeriac
Turnips
Courgettes
Aubergine
Spinach
Kale
Leek
French beans
Runner beans
Broad beans
Fennel

Oh yes, and asparagus every day from next for the next month!

Interesting thread! I’ve never thought about this before. Thinking back over this week I’ve had;

Cabbage
Carrots
Bean Sprouts
Mushrooms
Sweet potato
Lettuce
Cucumber
Tomato
Red Onion
Coriander
Kidney beans
Black beans
Apples
Blueberries
Tangerines

Usually I’d cook a dinner sort of thing and have broccoli, peas and carrots with that but I haven’t got round to it this week.

Not sure who it was but it was on you tube.

We started doing this just to keep track. I’m vegetarian so get beans and lentils and so on so it’s quite easy, a little bit more of
of a challenge for my family. What helps us is that we always have a couple of cooked veg as a side as well as a bowl of salad with dinner (except for when we have stir fry which involves quite a lot of veg anyway). Lunch is usually a ‘something’ and salad wrap/sandwich (for me cheese or falafel, for my family ham and chicken and so on).

And for all snacks and meals we try and follow something fresh, something with protein and something with carbs. So if we get a snack (not when working) it might be fruit/natural yoghurt/seeds for example.

I really like this way of eating because it’s about adding stuff not restricting.

I would question their credentials - sounds like they don't know the difference between white potatoes and white grains (whitened due to refining and stripping out the fibrous layer).

So was that Queen was a lizard...
Potatoes are not dangerous or bad. If anything quite the opposite. Vit c, fibre, starch, potassium. Any idot claiming on youtube they are bad is just that. Idiot.

People need to start checking their sources! All that access at our fongertips to actual reliable sources....

It's amazing that Zoe has managed to monetise what my mother taught me - eat a good variety of fruit and veg, cook from scratch where ever possible and use plenty of herbs and spices.

Heartening to hear as to be honest I am not very keen on sweet potatoes.

It's so difficult to do if you have IBS or intolerances tbh. No beans or pulses, having to go light on things like peppers, garlic and onions.

It also amazes me how much fruit people eat. How do you fit you fit it all in?? I eat very simply. Very basic meals, no snacks. I'm on the upper end of BMI, so not undereating. Also when there's only two of you, so much would go to waste if you are buying all that variety over one week. A broccoli or cauliflower lasts two meals, so that also limits the variety, unless you throw half away as it's gone off.

I always have tinned beansprouts & water chestnuts to add to a stir fry, frozen berries, mango & pineapple to snack or have with yogurt/dessert/breakfast. Also radishes & beetroot always in the fridge - they last for ages & are great with salads & sandwiches. I also try to mix up my root veg for winter meals like casseroles/stews so adding kohlrabi & mooli/white radish as well as usual carrots/parsnip etc.

I started keeping track recently too in order to improve my diet without a specific plan.

I have a jar of mixed nuts I eat from every day (4 or 5 varieties) and also mixed seeds for breakfast granola/porridge topper (another 4-5 varieties). From what I've read, variety matters more than the quantities of individual foods so sometimes I add variety by picking up a healthy ready-made meal, for example a lunch salad box that easily contains up to 5-8 varieties I wouldn't otherwise buy individually. That on top of the weekly staples (apple, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, onion, garlic, peas, some type of beans, berries) make it quite easy to get to over 30.

Plenty of people in the U.K. some decades ago were perfectly healthy, while eating only fruit and vegetables that were in season in the U.K., with maybe the odd orange or banana thrown in - but they would often have been ‘treats’.

So in winter, largely potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, parsnips, swede, turnips. In summer, a small selection (by today’s standards) of salad items, plus e.g. peas and runner/French beans during the short season. Plus maybe the odd tin of peas.

Fruits in season, so strawberries and other soft fruit (expensive if they didn’t grow them) in summer, plums and pears in late summer - often bottled if there were a lot) plus of course apples - which would be carefully stored for the winter, if possible.

Most of my Gparents and GGparents lived very healthily into their 80s or early 90s on such diets - but virtually everything was cooked from scratch, no junk food (except maybe the very occasional fish and chips) certainly no UPFs, which (if at all) barely existed.

Wheat, oats, rice, cornflower, sugar (a refined plant product), cocoa, tea, coffee, pepper, ginger - most of us have no problem getting in 30 different plant products over a week.

People have books and health programmes to sell. After 5 a day, 10 a day and 30 a week I'm waiting for the next one.

I didn't know you could get tinned bean sprouts. That sounds useful as they seem to last about 5 minutes.

For breakfast I almost always have some Greek yoghurt with two kinds of fruit, often banana and raspberries but whatever I have that needs using. At lunchtime I always have an apple and a satsuma with my lunch. I don't know if that's a lot of fruit and I'm sure someone will be on to say 'all that sugar 😱'

Do you suppose you can count different types of coffee & tea? ;-)

Chai on Monday, green on Tuesday, Ethiopian on Wednesday, Colombian on Thursday...

Certainly not 30!

Apple (daily)
Tomatoes (daily)
Banana (few times a week)
Grapes (few times a week)
Satsumas
Mango
Strawberry
Potato
Broccoli
Beans
Peas
Carrot
Onion

Basically this is a hyped up 'eat five a day.' Which we've been told to do for years, they've just added things like tea, coffee, herbs and spices because they know that some people can't even reach five.