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?

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." This advice by Michael Pollen is all anyone needs to know about food, I think. By food he means what your grandparents would recognise as food, so defintely not highly processed

Yeah I also follow Michael Pollen's guidance although the 'not too much' bit is quite hard!

I hear you!

Actually, one thing I changed a few years ago that has been so good for us - in so many ways. I realised I'd slipped into this thing where vegetables were present, but very much as a token side. None of us wanted to become vegetarians and while I do try to eat vegetarian a couple of times a week - it can be hard to really create a meal that is quick, easy, tasty and suitably substantial for DH and DS.

But realising we were way too heavy on meat, I started shifting the ratio of meat to vegetables. And it's been amazing. I am so much happier with the amount of meat we eat, it's so much easier to get abroader variety of vegetables and plant based food, and we definitely all feel good on it.

Classic example - if I did bangers and mash, for me, DH and DS (DH has a very physical job and DS is almost 6ft, 14, growing, and insanely active) I'd need to assume probably 3-4 sausages each for DS and DH, and 2 for me. And they'd still want a massive portion of mash too. On Sunday I did an absolutely huge portion of sausage based sauce with Gnocchi - the sauce included spinach, peas, tomatoes and then a bunch of the "smaller" things - garlic, chilli, lemon, fennel seeds. I used 6 sausages and, quite frankly, it was too many. Usually when I make this dish I use no more than 4 because the other 2 in the packet are prepared separately for DD who wasnt home so I just tossed them in as I'd had to defrost the entire pack.

Similarly, we do a mince stir fry thing regularly. If I leave DH adn DS to prepare any sort of mince-based dish, I have to assume that between them they're eating 400-500g of mince! If I do it, I can fill them up on half of that each!

Carrot and swede mash can be nice, with an onion gravy.

I'm a vegetarian but admire the Italian way of cooking, where usually they will just add little bits of meat to flavour a dish, and vegetables share equal billing.

I wouldn't count herbs or spices as the amount is too small. Think of a portion of fruit or veg, a portion that size of spices would be both gross and impossible to consume.

You specifically do count all types of plants - including herbs and spices - in this approach to diet; you're not supposed to be trying to eating fruit or veg sized portions of everything.

@crackofdoom yes - I routinely add carrots or butternut to mash, when I do very occassionally make it these days. I also do my best to introduce alternatives - I LOVE butterbean mash for example. But Ds, who is broadly a very flexible eater, has sensory issues and can't stand it. Ditto - he'll eat chickpeas as part of a bigger meal, but couldn't cope with them as a standalone.

@DiscoBob you absolutely do count them, even if it's not as a full one. because it' snot about fibre. It's about allowing your body to get a much wider range of healthy bacteria etc.

We count everything even if it isn’t even a teaspoon over the week - just make sure we getting as much variety as we can and that healthy and lots of micro nutrients as well as an interesting and high fibre diet

so 5 to 8 fruit and veg for fibre and then lots of variety

85% + is also a fermented food

wine - yes ish, but any amount of alchohol is now known to be bad. They think the studies that found it good forgot to take into account the socialising aspect. Blue zone diets include wine but they’ll drink a small glass over several hours while socialising

Coffee and tea, herbal and fruit tea, herbs and spices, cereal, seeds and nuts (muesli is great!), rice, salad, vegetables and fruit… it’s incredibly easy to get well past 30 in an average week.

Ok, fair enough. I guess you count every little bit of everything then. I assumed it wouldn't be enough to warrant any benefit.

Spices come from plants so yes they count.

Herbs and spices count as a quarter point according to the gut health doctor. But I would use judgement - eg if I make a tabbouleh salad with loads of parsley? I'd count it as a point.

What?

I didn't even know we'd moved from 5 a day

I opened this thinking it would be about someone's addiction to buying plants

Yeah, I do the same. I generally use a full little supermarket plant per week of each fresh herb so I count it atm because it's kind of taking the place of other leafy veg and lettuce i can't have just now. I'm really not concerned with serving size either as it's only a rough guide for me. Normally I'd have way more vegetable variety over the space of a week.

I also totally forgot about things like sauerkraut, kimchi and quick pickled onions or cucumbers. We always have one or the other available to add to our meals.

Well whilst we are on a thread about fruit and veg. I wish to inform you all that I learnt last week that blackberries and raspberries are not actually berries. And cucumbers, pumpkins and tomatoes are in fact berries. 🤯

Thanks all. I have learned a fair bit on this. I limit UPF and try to cook from scratch in the main and eat whole foods, not sure I hit the 30 magic number but I’m not doing badly.

Very true! That's the bit I struggle with too.

I add a mushroom powder to my coffee and feel my digestion has changed for the better with that.
I also make teas from loose herbs and combine them for their benefits. Eg nettle for inflammation, elderflower for hay fever/sinusitis, linden or lemon balm as a mood booster and so on, so there is a variety there. I pick them myself where I can so they're organic and grown in soil that isn't a monoculture so as rich in minerals as they should be.
I also have about six months worth of dried wild garlic that I managed to collect that gets chucked into most things, you can do the same with nettle.