How many plants in your main meal today?

[DragonsAndDaffs]

I've been trying to reduce UPF and increase the amount of plants we eat. We try to eat the rainbow and hit 30 different plants a week.

Dinner tonight was a prawn and edamame stir fry containing 8 plants.

Anyone else trying to eat 30?

Not a great count for dinner as went to yoga and hence wanted something light while eating late (smoked cod, spinach, a poached egg).

But I have recently heard about the 30 plants thing and have been tracking.

I get that it's a gimmick / arbitrary number but it's a great way of making to think about variety.

With a little bit of effort I've been averaging 40-50 per week. We eat plenty of vegetables but often will have the same things over and over so it's been really good at getting us eating a greater variety. I've also added in more nuts, seeds, fermented than before.

The only thing I don't eat much of is pulses / legumes - any yummy recipe suggestions love to hear them! 😁

How so?

I dont count everything because Im putting it into an app and Id be there all day if I did, but even if you only count the specific veg as such theres 6 including the chickepas

My individual meals vary but over the period of a week I usually have eaten about 40-50 different plants.

I joined Zoe in November 2023 and it took about 6 months for me to establish some new eating habits. It's second nature to me now to eat healthily.

7 unless a mushroom counts in which case 8

Today it’s 10.

Homemade veg soup
Chick pea salad with lots of added herbs and chopped leaves and tomatoes
Porridge with blueberries and almonds though not counting the almonds with the porridge nor the olives in the salad as unsure.

Yeah, technically, I guess so.

I think this just isn’t the thread for me tbh.

”I ate 30 plants for dinner” and counting things like a pinch of turmeric, a glove of garlic, diced onion and a cup of tea just seems a bit of a stretch to me.

But each to their own. And eating less processed stuff is all good, so not doing any harm I suppose.

Yeah, technically, I guess so.

I think this just isn’t the thread for me tbh.

”I ate 30 plants for dinner” and counting things like a pinch of turmeric, a glove of garlic, diced onion and a cup of tea just seems a bit of a stretch to me.

But each to their own. And eating less processed stuff is all good, so not doing any harm I suppose.

It might seem like a stretch but it means you are getting a good range of minerals and vitamins that don’t have to be present in huge amounts to do you good

and if you are eating 30 rather than 5 it is likely that your fibre intake is high so you don’t need to think 80g per portion - a clove of garlic in most meals will add up over the week anyway

For dinner last night I had about 10

Tomatoes
Avocado
Roasted red and yellow peppers
Roasted courgette
Red onion
Kidney beans
Chickpeas
Garlic
Olive oil
Oregano
(Hard boiled eggs and turkey sausage)

Breakfast this morning, about 4

(Natural yoghurt)
Chia seeds
Flax seeds
Peanut butter
Blueberries

I find making up big bean based salads and roasting up all the veggies left in my fridge about once a week helps.

It's hard to get the same quantity in if I'm just having meat and two veg type of meals.
I'm also trying to keep up decent levels of protein and healthy fats.

The kids eat and oven pizza once a week and use pocket money to buy a packet of sweets from the shop, but apart from that and there's nothing really UP. We make our own bread in a bread maker, it's just much tastier.

I'm trying to do the same OP. Last night was pretty good ... chilli in the slow cooker:

Butter beans
Kidney beans
Lentils
onions
chillis
mushrooms
peppers
Tomatoes

breakfast - 3 type of nut or 3 types of seeds, dried prunes or apricots and oats -9 over the week

I calculated the calories, protein and fibre from this new breakfast regime and compared to last years breakfast - which was usually toast and cheese or eggs or peanut butter

I get slightly MORE protein , nearly 3 times the fibre / for LESS calories and I feel full till lunch

Its about what you are exposing your gut biome to, not 30 full portions of veg

@blondebombsite13 , it's the variety not the amount. People should be eating lots of portions of veg, but not the same few veg day in day out.

Yes, the 30 different types per week is not about getting 30 different portions of 5-a-day. It's a different way of looking at plant-based health benefits. So you do include a teaspoon of turmeric (which is enough to lower inflammation) or 2 cloves of garlic (good for heart and blood circulation and antibacterial). They are not whole portions, but they are beneficial. I eat loads of salad leaves. It's rare that you can eat enough volume of salad leaves to count as a 5-a-day portion but lettuce is a soporific so it is great for helping you sleep at night.

I have a few good recipes for pulses and legumes.

A favourite is carrot and red lentil (or mung lentil) soup : Fry spring onions in olive or sesame oil. Add sliced garlic and grated fresh ginger and fry for a little while until the garlic is softened. Add 1 litre of veggie or chicken stock. Add 5 medium peeled and chopped carrots and half a mug full of very well washed red lentils or moong dal lentils. Cook on high heat until lentils have dissolved and carrots are soft. Blend into a smooth soup then taste and add to taste, if you want, a bit more salt, maybe a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, a teaspoon of honey. It should taste tangy and fresh. I am making this for lunch today.

Another good one is green lentil and aubergine vegetarian ragout for pasta.
DH makes this one: https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/aubergine-lentil-chestnut-ragu. I often leave out the chestnuts as I find chestnuts and lentils together are too heavy.

I like veggie chilli made with black turtle beans, chopped mushrooms and kidney beans instead of minced beef.

Also, pre-cooked green, brown or black whole lentils make a gorgeous base for lamb or duck and you can reduce portion sizes of the fatty meat as the lentils provide protein too. Just fry up some onions, leeks or shallots, garlic and herbs like fresh bay, rosemary, thyme. Mix in with precooked, seasoned lentils with a splash of dry sherry or white wine and put the roasting meat on top. Cover with foil so lentils don't dry out, and then crisp up the surface of the meat under the grill once it is cooked.

Last night we had crepes into which I blended spinach and peas, stuffed with mushrooms and onions. So, including the flour it was 5 plants.

Today we are having spagetti bolognese with onions, garlic, passata, a cup of red lentils, carrots, celery and courgette. So including the wheat in pasta 7.

I wondered if you could include flour but decided that it wasn't really worth including. I probably would include grains like quinoa, freekeh or spelt.

I don’t include flour either. I think it’s too refined to bear any resemblance to the plant it came from. I might include whole grains though like you said.

According to BBC Good Food:
"Is pasta healthy or unhealthy?
Refined white pasta is the most popular, however, eating too many refined carbs has been associated with an increased risk of a number of conditions. These include heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes."

My opinion is that the standard UK diet is very wheat-flour based (bread, pasta, cereals, cakes, crackers, biscuits etc) and other than wheat flour contains carbohydrate and some protein, it doesn't really have any nutritional value.

The flour won't be doing anything good to your gut biome.

Yeah, that probably makes sense about flour.

I use ALOT of herbs and spices. Paprika, turmeric, cinnamon and parsley I use every single day. I should probably count them too if it is about gut biome.

I have an inflammation disorder and every morning I mix half a lemon, a teaspoon of turmeric and cracked pepper into water to drink. It's surprisingly good. The pepper apparently activates the turmeric compounds (or something).

Re legumes- I eat alot of red lentils. I always put a cup into bolognese or chilli sauces (and blend so the DCs don't realise). Plus I really love a dhal. So easy- just onions, garlic, carrots, red lentils, stock, turmeric and curry powder of whatever strength you prefer (mild for me). Simmer until gloopy. Gorgeous.

Today for lunch I am making a pea and spinach frittata, - peas of course are legumes. I only say that because my father got anxious about 'hating' lentils when he was on a specialist diet and I had to remind him of that!!!!!

Also- the famous Swedish split pea soup. Glorious.

Herbs and spices are counted on Zoe, who I think are the ones that came up with this whole idea. Makes sense to me - even a teaspoon is a huge amount to a teeny weeny gut microbe, certainly enough for it to make a good meal of. They do say that you might want to have the herbs and spices more than once in a week though to up the quantity consumed.

Last night, one 😁. That very unusual for me, as I’m a bit of an unofficial Zoe nut. I think it’s fine to have balance, though, and I don’t stress. I had about 20 earlier in the day, including the small bits and pieces.

We’ eat plant-based as a family so don’t find it too tricky. Last night was gnocchi

cauliflower gnocchi
potato (also in gnocchi)
kale
Sauce made with:
cashews
red peppers
butternut squash
nutritional yeast
garlic
oat milk
Pud:
kiwi
banana
coconut yoghurt
almond butter

So I guess that’s 13 in one meal which isn’t too bad

@StrawberryKetchup02 , Oat milk is UPF, as is coconut yoghurt. Nutritional yeast isn't a plant but it is nutritious.