30 plant-based foods a week, so hard

[ILookAtTheFloor]

I'm really struggling with getting 30 plant based foods a week as per Tim Spector's advice on gut health.

I've counted last week and I can only get to 17! It's hard as I tend to batch cook for both ease and budget.

How can I get more in? I already include lentils, wholegrain rice, quinoa etc. Any tips welcome! Anyone else trying it?

Do you really think that this man is sticking to those crazy rules himself?

@UnexpectedItemInShaggingArea

He's a cofounder of ZOE. He's definitely selling it.

As the sensible advice goes: eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables. Of course variety is good but to get het up about hitting 30 different ones a week, every week is too much.

I dunno, he's definitely not like that Moseley chap imo. I'm Sure he does follow the advice himself - but also sure that he takes it as advice rather than a strict regimen to get 'het up' about.

Personally I don't find it crazy or difficult. Once you take herbs and spices into account. I grow stuff in my garden that you can't buy in the supermarket and almost all my meals are plant based.

Thanks to everyone for their ideas on here.

Am I overly anxious? Probably! Haha. Secondary infertility is definitely addling my brain.

My main concern now is expense! I have lots of ideas including stocking up on seeds, I'll go to Aldi but I foresee it's going to be an expensive week for shopping!

Regarding Buddha bowls, does anyone know if its safe to put cooked rice in the fridge for 4 days? As in, cooked on Sunday and I eat it on Thursday? I'm thinking about my batch prep of work lunches.

Now Following Megan Rossi on Instagram, EXACTLY what I've been looking for, thanks all who recommended her.

@bestbefore

Could you use frozen spinach to add to pasta when you boil it? Even with a jar of sauce you're adding veg? It comes in cubes. Or frozen sweet corn to add to the last couple of mins of cooking time?

I love frozen spinach and I chuck it in to everything!

It’s definitely NOT safe to keep cooked rice for 4 days. It’s one day max and even then only if it’s been cooled down rapidly.

www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/

Remember that variety includes the variations on the cheap foods like red onions, leeks, red cabbage, swede, parsnips. Use freezer space to save half for use in a couple of weeks.

Trying to get 30 different types of veg a week may not be congruent with eating local, seasonal veg which is also a 'good thing'.

[quote Crazzzycat]It’s definitely NOT safe to keep cooked rice for 4 days. It’s one day max and even then only if it’s been cooled down rapidly.

www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/[/quote]
I'm not going to re heat it though? Eat it cold in the Buddha bowl.

@ILookAtTheFloor, I don’t think that’s going to make any difference. It’s this bit that’s the issue 👇

Uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, bacteria that can cause food poisoning. The spores can survive when rice is cooked.

Fridges don’t kill bacteria, just slow down growth. So If the spores survive the cooking process and the rice is kept in the fridge for 4 days, the rice will be riddled with it. Food poisoning from cooked rice can be really nasty.

Would bulgur wheat be an alternative? You don’t actually need to cook that. Just add boiling water and leave it to stand for 30 minutes. It’s also much better for you nutritionally than white rice. Lots of fibre, minerals etc. You can get it in large supermarkets, Holland & Barrett’s etc.

Different toast toppings for breakfast? Eg cherry tomatoes fried with tiny amount of oil, garlic, herbs and balsamic vinegar? Mushrooms or butterbeans served likewise? Flax seeds or sesame seeds sprinkled on top?

Could you use your freezer so that if you make something like soup, you can freeze the surplus and have it a different week?

There's a great recipe in the Bosh cookbook for Easy Peasy pasta - I've sometimes switched the veg around a bit, depending on what I have to hand - I've added sweet potatoes and mushrooms. It's much nicer - and presumably healthier - than anything you'll get in a jar. I presume it would freeze okay, but I haven't actually tried. Serve the finished dish with extra veg - e.g broccoli and/or peas.

www.bosh.tv/recipes/easy-peasy-pasta

Just checked - there are nine different veg in the Bosh recipe. Onions, garlic, basil, tomatoes, courgettes, olives, sweet peppers, capers, spinach. You could add a couple of extras of your own and serve veg on the side taking you into double figures for one meal.

None of this encourages a healthy attitude to food. Seriously, eating to fulfil a 30 different plants a week quota is not a good way to think about things.

Ditch the quota entirely and just try to eat a variety of different plants.

Right, I'll look at bulger wheat instead. I would've used the quinoa and wild rice mixed pouch thingys that you put in the microwave. I guess i could do that on the day as I'm doing that at the moment with my salmon lunches.

have a smoothie in the morning that includes various frozen fruit and veg (frozen spinach) ginger etc - you can easily mix this up a bit

lunch - any kind of soup with extra veg in it - just blend it in

Aldi have different ground seeds that you sprinkle on things - not expensive. I buy whole almonds and walnuts from there too. I agree with not getting too wound up about the 30 thing - eating greens every day is really good for you but is eating kale then chard then cabbage so much better than buying one cheap cabbage and eating a bit each day? Probably not.

This all sounds very worthy - but I'm with @UnexpectedItemInShaggingArea, it's bordering on the orthorexic. Our ancestors probably had very healthy guts before industrialisation came in, I'm not sure they were eating 30 different plant based foods a week though, not in our northern climate.

Aim for what you can in terms of a variety of plant based foods, but please don't get too anxious about hitting the magic '30'. Make sure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need. Not having a sweet tooth is great, sugar is the worst 'food' that we consume.

Good luck!

(BTW, I cook up a load of rice that lasts me for 3 days and I've never poisoned myself in 40 years of doing so)

I've neve managed to poison myself with leftover rice either. I cover it up while it's cooling. Keep covered in fridge.

Hi op i I'm follow theguthealthdoctor and theguthealthmd on Instagram. I did her (free) course a few months ago and read the gut health mds book fiber fulled. Both advocate 30 different plant points per week.

I haven't read the full thread so ppl might have already suggested things like: eating different types/colours of a particular fruit/veg eg a jazz apple and a gala apple count as two different plant points. I make a big pot of veggie chilli with 3 different kinds of beans. I make curry with spinach, chickpeas and sweet potato. I make soup with various veg and include barley, lentils, chickpeas. Also make a paleo granola with different nuts and seeds that keeps in the cupboard for two weeks. I make overnight oats for breakfast with frozen fruit and flaxseed/chia seeds. My treat breakfast might be sourdough toast with egg, avocado and tomatoes. I buy frozen fruit for smoothies. Also include sauerkraut in salads. Make protein balls and homemade flapjacks.

I find it all so interesting and I def think it makes a huge difference to my health (and TMI, bowel movements). Yes it is a lot of work but I started gradually and built it up even by adding one new item a week to my grocery shop.

I try not to think about cutting things out of my diet but what I can include to increase variety and plants. I find I'm so full up I barely think about eating junk foods now.

Oh once a week I treat myself to a fancy salad from a local salad bar that has ingredients I don't buy at home too

Interesting idea. Your freezer is definitely your friend if you're using small quantities - you can buy bags of frozen berries and veg and of course freeze any surplus from fresh produce. Then it's easy to add say a handful of berries to milk-free overnight oats or bircher muesli. Soups are a really good way of getting variety in too. Let's see, how was this week...

Rice would be definite no after 4 days in the fridge but you could try rice noodles or couscous, both of which only need a few minutes in boiling water. My go to work lunch used to be a pot with ready to wok noodles, frozen veg, 2tsp miso paste, dried seaweed and frozen gyoza - take out of freezer into fridge overnight, pour boiling water on at lunch and microwave for 4 minutes. Supermarket packaged pre-cooked grain pouches might work too though the cost and waste always puts me off!

Let me see, how has the week been.

Breakfasts
Toast (wheat) with peanut butter or some sort of jam (Blackberry, Apple, Apricot)
Banana milkshake
Grape nuts with mango / grapes/ nectarine

Lunches
Avocado, tomato and mozzarella salad
Miso soup with edamame, spinach seaweed, spring onions
Omelette with mediterranean veg mix (aubergine, courgette)
Leek, celeriac and sweet potato soup

Evening meals
Curry with tofu, onion, carrot, peas, coconut milk
Pizza - sweetcorn, peppers, artichoke hearts, side salad of cucumber and lettuce
Potato beetroot ,carrots , runner beans as accompaniment to other evening meals

Snack/pudding
Blackcurrant compote with rice pudding
Orange
Apple
Nuts
Strawberry ice cream/ lemon sorbet

I make that 42...

Our ancestors probably had very healthy guts before industrialisation came in, I'm not sure they were eating 30 different plant based foods a week though, not in our northern climate.

I can't speak for the doctor the OP is following but the one who's book I read (Megan Rossi) isn't trying to recreate our ancestors diet. It's based on research into increasing the diversity of your gut bacteria which leads to improving health in other areas of the body. I really like her approach which is not to ban or restrict "bad foods" but to increase the variety of heathy foods. Over time you naturally end up eating a healthier diet.

I don't think it's that different from the 5 a day (or 5 + 2 if you're Aussie) recommendation the government has been recommending for years. It just has a focuses on variety rather than portions. There's a link to an example of the 30 below

www.theguthealthdoctor.com/how-to-get-your-gut-loving-30-plant-points-a-week/

To be fair, he just says aim for it. He doesn't suggest rigid counting as far as I can see, and he says it's not about quantity, it's variety. So a handful of mixed seeds on your porridge counts as does a large baked potato. We've been interested in this too after a friend suffered long covid digestive effects but we're not basing our diet on it - we're just adding up occasionally out of curiosity. I think it's relatively easy if you eat rice, wheat, potatoes, oats, mixed salads, nuts, pulses and lots of spices and herbs. Olive oil would count as would garlic.

Sorry, the 'he' in my post was Tim Spector.

I have bought frozen British raspberries and blackberries as well as seasonal fruit. We are trying new seasonal vegetables like jerusalem artichokes. But even if you just eat different types of cabbage, red, Savoy, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, swede, turnip, carrots, parsnips, celeriac (which I don't eat in fact as I hate it), onions, you've got loads of seasonal vegetables. Add in a few pulses (chickpeas, different beans, lentils) which are in your store cupboard and tinned tomatoes etc, plus frozen spinach, peas, sweetcorn and maybe nut butters etc there's a wide variety.