Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need. Ayurvedic Proberb
What is easy to do, is also easy not to do. There are many ways we can make small changes in our lives. I was watching a podcast by Dr. Tim Spector about eating thirty different plant-based foods per week as a goal. Bread, rice, and pasta don’t count but seeds, nuts, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and even spices and herbs count as ¼ of a plant, but each one only counts once per week. The idea is the more varied our diet the more varied our gut buddies will be and the healthier our gut health the healthier we are. Some experts say all health begins in the gut.
It can sound daunting to eat thirty different plants in one week especially if our diet is not varied. This is where stir-fries, soups, and salads really get our numbers up.
Health is our first wealth and without health, we really won’t appreciate everything else in our lives to the fullest. Throwing a bag of frozen mixed berries and some frozen mixed vegetables in the shopping cart is an easy and economical way to add to our numbers. One of the things I don’t want to end up doing is adding to my food waste. Salad kits are another way of adding to our numbers without breaking the bank.
I thought it would be harder than it is to get thirty plants in my diet, and now I have an excuse to have a bowl of popcorn, but I only get to count one bowl, and then only if I haven’t had corn on the cob. There is also now an incentive to scout out exotic fruits and vegetables, look up new recipes, and get more inspired in the kitchen.
It is easy to do, but also easy not to do. It is easy to have a day when I haven’t added one new plant to my list. Too many days like that and on day seven I am cramming everything into a soup or salad.
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Hippocrates
Is this a fad or a better way of eating? Kombucha is part of my diet and is supposed to be good for gut health and I have been making it since 2019. No one else in the house drinks it and I make a batch a week.
Dr. Tim Spector from the British Gut Project is pushing for 30 plants a week. He says the wider diversity of fiber-packed plants we eat, the happier and more diverse our gut microbiome will be. I like the idea of someone telling me to eat more and more variety instead of less and less. There was an idea that we should eat five plants a day – but some of us would eat the same five plants and that would not give our gut much diversity.
Our gut microbes do many things for us:
They train our immune cells.
Increase our resilience to infection.
Strengthen our gut barrier.
Communicate with our brain.
Balance our blood sugar, lower blood fats, and help prevent many diseases.
It makes sense we are what we eat and it is one of the areas in our life where we have control. Small changes can pay big dividends in our lives. It’s our life and it is up to us to make the best of it. What if a more varied and colorful diet is part of the answer to better health, does it start when we choose what food to put in the cart at the supermarket?
The beauty of food as medicine is that the choice to heal and promote health can begin as soon as the next meal. Unknown
Medicine is not healthcare. Food is healthcare. Medicine is sick care. Unknown
The food you eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison. Ann Wigmore
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
