New Year’s Goal: Eat More Plants
From our partner dietitian Amy Slabaugh, RDN
Still looking for a fun goal or challenge for yourself this new year? Try the goal of eating more plants (great for health and better for our planet). Some recent research shows that those who ate 30 (or more) different types of plants each week had a more diverse microbiome. A diverse microbiome is great for gut health, and as we are continuing to learn, our microbiomes have far reaching ties to our overall health (including inflammatory diseases and mental health). With the goal of 30 different types of plants per week diversity is the key. Repeat your favorite plant foods all you’d like, but for the count, only include plants which you haven’t already eaten that week. And remember that all plants count; fruits and veggies of course, but also grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, herbs and spices.
Make a game out of it: Challenge yourself or your friends/family. Set a baseline the first week - notice how many different plant types you eat. Then, challenge yourself to eat more each week until you get to 30 (or higher!). Or challenge a friend to see who can eat the most different types.
Enjoy connecting with your food: The act of slowing down enough to notice which items you are eating and recognizing them as plants can be a great way to be more intentional with your eating and thinking about where your food comes from.
Getting to 30: While 30 different plant types per week is a nice goal, any increase you can make is a great step toward improving your health. Plus, getting to 30 different plants per week might not be as hard as it sounds. Chef Peter’s Grilled Romesco Chicken with Polenta and Broccoli has 12 plants in it. Add in the Couscous Salad and you have another 16 different plants right there!
If you have fun with this game feel free to reach out and let me know your top number or which plants you were eating that you hadn’t thought about before. And if you would like help figuring out how to build a plant based diet or how to eat to improve your health I’d love to hear from you as well.