Gut Health: The # 1 Thing You Can Do for Your Gut Microbiome
If you’ve ever felt sluggish, experienced bloating, or struggled with digestion, you know how much gut health affects your daily life. The truth is, your gut is the foundation of your overall well-being, and a thriving microbiome, filled with beneficial bacteria that support various bodily functions, is key to maintaining balance. So, what’s the secret to improving it? It’s simpler than you think—your gut craves diversity, and that starts with plants.
In this article, we’ll uncover why a variety of plant-based foods is essential for nourishing your gut, boosting microbiome diversity, and unlocking better digestion and energy. Plus, we’ll share practical tips on how to easily incorporate more plant-based variety into your meals.
It’s time to embrace the power of plants and give your gut the boost it deserves!
Gut Health at the Root of All Health
Gut health is crucial because it serves as the cornerstone of our overall well-being, influencing everything from digestion and immune function to mood and hormone balance. And the health of our gut microbiome is at the root of it all.
Many of us, especially in the US, have been taught that sanitizing and disinfecting everything makes us healthier. However, the truth is that the bacteria and other microorganisms in and on our bodies are essential to our health.
We want our gut microbiome to be balanced, with many more beneficial bacteria than harmful ones that can wreak havoc in our bodies. But how do we get more good bacteria?
I’m all for probiotics (in my past life, I used to design and produce them) and fermented foods, but adding these beneficial microbes won’t help if you’re not FEEDING them. This is why I got into nutrition in the first place!
The importance of your diet for your microbiome health cannot be overstated. And one key thing you can do to significantly impact your gut microbiome for the better is:
Eat MORE VARIETY of plants.
photo credit: Madison Inouye
Variety = Diversity
If you’re a literature nerd like me, you’ll notice that all the studies linking gut health to disease states talk about a decrease in DIVERSITY. What is diversity, you ask?
In ecology, diversity refers to the variety of different species and strains, and their genes, in a given ecosystem. It’s about having a rich mix of different organisms all working together. This diversity is important because it helps ecosystems like the gut function smoothly, makes them more resilient to changes and disruptions, and supports a wider range of beneficial processes. In short, more diversity generally means a healthier and more balanced environment. And this is definitely true in our gut.
So how does eating more plants help with diversity?
Prebiotics and fibers are the beneficial gut healthy foods that help feed our gut bacteria. All the potential microbes in our microbiome prefer different things, so eating a variety of plants selects for a much more diverse set of microbes and genes, able to withstand many more stressors and perform more complex processes beneficial to our health.
And if we don't use them, so to speak, we may lose them.
A 2016 study out of Stanford showed in animal models how decreased fiber intake in mouse diets over four generations led to unrecoverable losses in the microbial diversity of their microbiomes.
And the collective microbiome of the US appears to be heading in that direction. This becomes even more important when we remember that microbiomes are passed down to babies during vaginal birth, meaning this can have generational consequences for our collective health.
Research suggests that we should aim for 30+ plants a week.
A study of over 10,000 people showed that those who consumed more than 30 plants a week had higher diversity and more beneficial gut bacteria and metabolites than those who ate fewer than 10 plants per week.
That may sound overwhelming until you start to remember what actually constitutes a plant. Spices like pepper and cinnamon are plants. Herbs are plants. Grains, nuts, seeds, beans, coffee, and chocolate are plants, too! And although not technically plants, mushrooms provide diverse food source for our microbes and can be included in this count as well.
Once you look, they are everywhere.
So how can you eat more plants?
Here are some easy ways to include more plants in your diet:
Go to your farmers market
Farmers' markets always have a rotation of fresh produce that is in season and ever-changing (don’t miss out on shishito peppers that are only available for one week!). Buying the bulk of your produce from the farmers' market guarantees that you will be getting a greater diversity of plants throughout the year.
photo credit: Mark Dalton
Related: Why it matters how your food was grown
Sign up for a CSA
Take it one step further than the farmers' market and sign up for a CSA—a box of farm-fresh goods paid in advance to support your local farms. With a CSA, you are kind of forced to try new plants—in a good way! My absolute favorite green came from a CSA that I would have otherwise never known about or thought to purchase—BRUSSEL SPROUT GREENS. I'm not talking about the little cabbage-looking veggies but the leaves that grow on the plant. These are so delicious, a bit sweet and nutty, with a good chew but not too tough. They are delicious sautéed or braised. Now I squeal with delight every time I see them at my local market each spring.
Find unconventional sources
photo credit: Anna Tarazevich
Add spices to each dish. Peruse the bulk section and try small amounts of different spices or grains until you find some new favorites. Drinking herbal teas regularly can also really increase your plant count. Many have five or more plants added right in the blend.
Eat the colors of the rainbow
photo credit: Polina Kovaleva
Aim to eat as many colors a day as possible. This visual cue makes it much easier to track the plants you're eating. Does your lunchtime plate look a little bland? Add a mixed green salad with sliced tomatoes. Roast yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, and bell peppers for a super colorful side dish. Adding a variety of colors is important because all those pigments reflect diverse phytochemicals that have antioxidant properties and stimulate a diverse set of microbes.
Go for blends
When in doubt, go for blends. In recipes, replace individual spices with blends (e.g., pumpkin pie spice vs. just cinnamon, Italian seasoning vs. just oregano). Buy tricolored quinoa or other mixed grain blends, opt for mixed nuts instead of a single kind, and go for frozen mixed berries instead of just your go-to strawberries or blueberries.
You can also go one step further and grow your own edible plants. A salad garden is an excellent place to start. I've found lettuces to be the easiest to grow, as they are less affected by pests compared to other crops I've tried. Try a mixed lettuce blend (I love High Mowing’s lettuce blend) and you’ll have fresh veggies for salads with greater diversity. That’ll cover about five of your plants for the week right there!
This is a great way to get your kids to eat veggies too (as demonstrated by my son, who won't eat greens off his plate but will mow down a whole arugula plant straight from the bed).
It Can Be Simple
So there you have it. It really is that simple—Eat. More. Plants.
I always try to focus first on what can be added in instead of what should be taken away, and if you can regularly incorporate 30+ plants a week into your diet, look out world! You're going to be unstoppable.
photo credit: Polina Tankilevitch
If you’ve tried but are still struggling with how to incorporate more plants into your diet, I’m here to meet you where you are and help you get there together!
Book a 15-minute complimentary consult with me here, and you'll be on your way in no time.
