30 plants a week...

[JustAnotherDayWorkingAtHome]

I know we have moved from 5 day to 7 a day now to 30 plants a week.

I have read that a portion size or herbs, spices and seeds is a tea spoon. How does this work with spices, in many cases 1 teaspoon would be added to a whole dish....are they saying to count cinnamon for example on the list you would have needed to have eaten a teaspoon of that over the course of a week?

Spices count?! Didn’t know that.

I wouldn’t count them tbh. Half this is in getting roughage is it not?

Herbs and seeds make sense.

You can get about half with a good home-made curry 😋

Spices are plants and very dense in beneficial compounds and tend to be ant-inflamatory.

I like the 30 plants method because it encourages more creativity in diet.

I know we have moved from 5 day to 7 a day now to 30 plants a week.

No we haven't it's just another minor internet fad. There are no official health bodies that have changed their advice to this.

I think they're just saying that it's healthier to include things like cinnamon and other herbs and spices, plus a wide variety of other plants, than it is to eat an apple a day, lettuce with your lunch and carrots and peas for dinner and a glass of orange juice with the rest of your diet high sugar, high salt and processed food. You don't need to be prescriptive about quantity, its more about using those plants as an alternative to less healthy choices, and gradually allowing them to crowd out things less good for you. Its a better approach than 5 a day, as, as with my example above, you can do this and still have an overall unhealthy diet.

As far as I'm aware, it should be both 5-7 portions of fruit and veg per day (minimum) and 30 different kinds of plant a week!

You need both quantity and diversity. Quantity for stuff like vitamin C and dietary fibre (ideally we should be eating way more than the average British person does), diversity for all the different trace elements and compounds all these plant derived foods can contain. Re the 30 a week though....it's not so difficult once you realise that bread, coffee, chocolate and wine all count!

I like this advice because it encourages a variety of plants and therefore fibre which is so important.

Those veggies/fruits/spices are good for us and the more we eat of those it leaves less room for the other not so healthy stuff, as an occasional treat.

I think the advice originates with Tim Spector. I read it in one of his books first. His reasons for it are well argued.

Just use as many different herbs, spices and plant-derived foods (of all types!) as possible in your daily diet across a week. It's not hard and fast, the idea is just to eat as diversely as possible.

I count each dried spice/herb and so once a week, no matter how many times I use it. For example I have cinammon on my porridge every day. I don't measure anything, just use it as I wish. Same with fresh herbs. I usually use 4 or 5 different ones per week.

30 plants is more about gut microbiome and the idea that eating a diverse range of plant-based foods improves gut health, and as gut health is now believed to be so crucial to things like serotonin levels and reducing inflammation, to overall well-being. You’re still supposed to eat adequate fibre and roughage and proper portions of vegetables and fruit, but mix it up a bit so that there’s more variety in there.

I count herbs and spices over the whole week as one portion eg I eat black pepper every day

I find 20 plants to be easier than 5-7 veggies a day because my veggies are usually the same.

I think that the veggies advice is for fibre, minerals and vitamins and the 20 plants advice is for gut biome so different health purposes so one doesn’t replace the other.

I think I read somewhere that spices only count as a quarter of a unit because the amount is so small.

Is it true dark chocolate counts?
How about wine? 🍷

Yes, exactly, that's why I don't measure or officially count. I just make an effort to use as many as possible (which comes quite naturally given the type of cooking I do). If I make a curry or a middle eastern dish from scratch - which I tend to do just about weekly - I'll get plenty of variety and volume of spices in there.

I think that the "official" guidance is that 4 dried herbs/spices count as 1 of your 30 a week. I've never been sure how it works with fresh.

I generally sort of do my counting for fresh ingredients then add one or two for dried.

But the principle is that you are diversifiying what you eat as much as possible. The concept is really valuable I think and it has changed a lot about how we eat and there is no doubt that we all have healther gut biomes as a result.

I use garam masala, curry powder and turmeric. Add in ginger, garlic, onions and a ton of veg like sweet potato/butternut squash , lentils, spinach and chick peas. And I save this curry sauce in the freezer and serve it over steamed cauliflower and broccoli. Easy to get 8-10 in just in one go. Then I make a chili with carrots, celery and onions, garlic, powder, smoked paprika, cinnamon, tinned mixed beans, peppers, chillies, tomato puree and passata and that’s another easy 8 -10 depending on what you serve it with.

fit breakfast I like porridge with almonds, pecans, macadamia, walnuts and brazil nuts. Snack is yogurt and fruit. Lunch is salad. It’s actually really easy to get to 40 when you plan it out .

I just get a seasonal fruit and veg box delivered weekly from my local greengrocers. There's a big mix of stuff in that, and combined with nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, it's easy to hit the target, so no need to count.

My understanding is that herbs, spices, coffee, tea, 70%+ dark chocolate all count but only as a quarter point. That's how I always calculated it anyway. Not sure about wine, but would suspect it's only 0.25 too and you'd presumably be better off just eating grapes or raisins for 1 point, you wouldn't get a bonus 0.25 for wine as it's not an additional plant.

I like it as a method and it encourages me to add seeds and nuts to meals that I wouldn't normally add them to, and to diversify the kinds of grains we eat

dark chocolate - yes. Coffee and tea - yes (althouh I never bother to count any of these!)

Wine - sadly no!

Last year we were lucky enough to be at the top of the waiting list for an allotment.

Our diet, range of foods and cooking have improved significantly by eating what is ready to be harvested.

Fruit, vegetables, herbs and pulses.

Never felt better.

I've been a vegetarian since 1984 and grow most of my own veg and for the love of Goddess, just eat what you want. Meat, veg, rice, potatoes, spices, pasta, herbs whatever. If you want to do anything just avoid processed shit as much as you can.

Life isn't supposed to be this hard.

Broadly speaking, I completely agree with you.

But I do think that with food being so easily and widely available all year round, a lot of people have slipped into the SAME food, week in and week out. And a reminder to make an effort to diversify is a good thing.

My sister has one of those thermomix gadget things. A few of her friends have teased her about it becuase they're like, "but you can do this so easily without the gadget". But my view is that she DOESN'T do the variety without it. Now she's got it, they eat a much wider variety of food. And that can only be a good thing. She admits herself that she was very much in a rut of meat/chicken/fish with carrots/broccoli/corn/cauliflower/peas and potatoes/rice/pasta.

I'm actually limiting vegetables a fair bit at the moment because of digestive issues, but it's still easy to reach the goal.

This past week it looked like this:

Herbs - 5 full points

Spices - 5 points made up of various measures.

Nuts and seeds - 5 full points.

Onion, garlic, spring onion - 3 full points

Coffee, tea - 2 full points (I only count each of these once no matter how many types over the week)

Lentils, beans, rice, potatoes, tinned tomatoes - 5 full points

Oats, popcorn - 2 full points

Very limited intake of vegetables/fruits:

Carrots
Parsnips
Swede
Beetroot
Avocado
Blueberries
Strawberries
Kiwi
Watermelon
Lemon
Lime

I do agree with pp, there's no need to do this officially if you eat a very varied vegetable diet. But sometimes people need a guideline to follow, especially if it doesn't come naturally to them to eat this way.

I don't make a big deal of it but once in a while I count as a little exercise to keep track of how I'm doing.

I would say don't overthink it and certainly don't actually count the number you're including. It's just guidance to help make sure your food is varied.

I find it helpful every so often to take a photo of everything I eat in a day, just for my own eyes, then look over it and see how colourful a day's intake has been.

Oh! Forgot dark chocolate on my list.

When I read the title 30 plants a week, I thought OP was buying 30 plants a week and creating a fab garden or their own nursery 😳[tumble weed is rolling between my ears]😊

But the polyphenols!!