I didn't think I ate even close to 30 different plants a week, but I just tallied everything from the last week and it was 33! Feeling proud because earlier this year I had a severe depressive episode where I went weeks without a fresh fruit or vegetable.
Something you can do when you feel a depressive episode coming on is prep veggies ahead of time. Also, there's no shame in buying frozen or prepped produce if you don't have the energy to do it yourself. Coleslaw kits can be used for way more than coleslaw: add them to a stir-fry or quick pickle them (in vinegar or lemon or just a pickle brine that you already know you like). Shredded carrots and bagged spinach/kale can be thrown into ramen, zoodles can be eaten cooked or raw, riced cauliflower is delicious (and it's super messy to make yourself so I almost always get frozen)
I juiced 3 large beets, 2 bunches kale,1 whole ginger, 3 garlic, 5 tomatoes, 2 whole celery, 2 cucumbers and 2 jalapeno peppers. Kept the fiber and it was all able to fit in my pot LOL. Mixed and cooked it down added taco seasonings and other spices to it and used it as filling for tacos and burritos. Was very good and so was the juice.
This is what I find really inspiring. Not just talking about healthy wholefoods as single items, but about cooking healthy dishes with a curated group of wholefoods to get maximum enjoyment out of them. And I've found Hugh to be one of the most inspirational people in this regard, right from the early River Cottage days.
I make a salad of spring mix, spinach,tomatoes,cauliflower,broccoli,red pepper,purple cabbage,celery,carrots. I make enough for about three days. Of course I can add beans,herbs,and spices. This plan gets me easily toward my 30 plants.
I love this, have been including nuts, seeds, herbs and growing our own salads, vegetables, berries & fruit.. (good old allotment) Find it fairly easy to get past 30 in a week. Our parents were given a lot more home grown foods, our grandchildren are learning how to grow and enjoy them. The gut microbiome is so very important and it starts early with breast milk and fresh food weaning.
I started out with the goal of eating the bare minimum of 5-7 per day. After time, I started having more variety and adding in more color variety. Last night, my partner and I sat down to watch this video while having our evening meal, and we counted up about 16-17 different plants. (He had nibbled on a sliced pear while was finishing up cooking, so had one mor e to his tally.) It's a lot easier than I originally thought it would be, especially when you're counting just the number of plants and not necessarily "1 cup here, 2 teaspoons there." We've loved Hugh since River Cottage days. We have dabbled with vegetarian and vegan diets and have many meals that are meat-free and several that are fully animal product-free. This simple change has helped my arthritis, my depression, and my blood pressure. We're continuing to focus on what we CAN have, but what we're cutting back on. Thank you so much for this great series!
I love they specify plants here and not just fruit/veg, too. Oats, nuts, lentils, beans etc. Grains like rice and quinoa. Potatoes are plants. Hummus is plants as they said. I think so many of us are stuck in a "fruit and veg only" mindset too. Once I got out of that I realised we definitely have a mostly plant diet in my home and it really isn't as hard as we initially assume. I started trying when I had my first kiddo at 21 and didn't want to rely on the almost-pure surgar-packed baby foods. Glad I did, they all have allergies and texture problems (pregnant with baby 4 now) and they love their veggies so much.
for anyone struggling to find sources for plant-centred recipes I find vegan youtubers are such a fantastic source since you know every ingredient is going to be a different plant anyway
What i love about Hugh is how he has, over decades now, perfected the art of patronising the nation. He really deserves an award. Maybe a huge Compost heap in his honour.
I have recently come across Hugh thanks to Zoe. He brings so much to the table and Tim’s input is invaluable. Thank you all for bringing such important and interesting topics and guests to the rest of us. I love this channel ❤
I eat 30 plants a week but love to learn more. I make 1 meat meal then follow with a vegan meal. Alternating keeps me making good meals everyone loves.
We have been transitioning to a much more plant-centric diet over the last 3-4 years, and as a home cook I can honestly say that not only is it not difficult, it's also tremendous fun! There are many excellent and inspirational food content creators on TH-cam who share ideas for amazing salads, curries, stir fries, pasta dishes... you name it. There's something for every palate, from every food culture under the sun. I'd encourage everyone who wants to eat more plants to get adventurous, try something new, it's fantastic! A lump of meat with some boiled vegetables and potatoes on the side is so far from what tickles my taste buds these days, it's astonishing, and yet like many people of my generation that's what I grew up with. I would urge everyone to think outside the box, not only to get healthier but also to enjoy a much more exciting way to eat!
I remain a vegan for more than health reasons. My ethics are a key factor. I am educating myself on angiogenesis and the work of Dr. William Li. Your information is very interesting and I have shared the link with several friends. Thank you.
I follow a whole food plant based diet and when I started to count the plants I eat to see if I was eating thirty different ones I found I was usually eating thirty different plants in a day. So I am comfortable in knowing I am getting enough without counting now.
What I like to do with my family is ask and remember what their favorite veg is and everyone gets what they like and can try something else aswell. This way, the more family input, the more plants on the plate. It makes it easy to fill the variety and the plate.
Many years ago, an Indian friend of mine who was a rotund irascible rascal, a very clever man, he always brought food to work, he was so happy and loving that it made me stand back and take a good look at myself. The sort of man that isn't like you but you need in your head. We talked about food amongst other things, mainly about food. He shared some of his food with me, I shared mine with him. His wife usually cooked his food, I always cooked mine because my ex was a culinary master-fuck-class in tasteful cluelessness. We got to talk and discovered a love of food and different tastes. He once brought into work a vegetable dish that was so bitter that he said that he knew I wouldn't like it but I had to taste it. It was a lip shrinking experience, but I now understand that something that is so bitter can be so useful to the body. This was my original point of the post, bitterness is not always bad.
Okay, I can't belive three Brits (?) are having this talk and me, a German, has to ask: Does tea count? Like, if I make myself a cuppa, is that plant I have consumed?
@Does tea count: According to videos title "How to eat 30 plants a week": Yes of course, if you *eat* the tea like: 1. cook, 2. cool, 3. dry, 4. eat. Ask yourself how much plant mass need and can be consumed like this if you dilute the plant mass with water to tea (or any other drinks) ...
Bitter taste: It is so interesting to listen the experts talk about it. In my Chinese bring up culture: food taste bitter, means it is good for our health, specially most of Chinese herb tea/medicine is bitter.
Yeah, vegetables taste bitter and children hate it because it's so healthy for us, our body is telling us to stay away from them because of the lectins, indigestible massive amounts of fiber which irritates the colon, and the not very bioavailable nutrients + lack of nutrients etc, yet it's healthy for us? man...I guess not everybody has the same awareness and IQ (?) :)
Great interview, thank you all. A quick note on the skin of onions. As I was watching the video, I was peeling the outer skin off some red baby onions. I found some black fungal spores under the first or second layer of the onion skin. It looked like fine black powder. I removed it but thought that had I taken today's advice of eating the skin, I may have missed the spores. So, check the underside of onion skin before eating them.
I tracked plant consumption for a couple weeks without changing any eating habits just to see how I would do. I found I ended up hitting 30 different plants every 4/5 days. I am satisfied.
At first, I was like “wow, 30?! I don’t even know if I do that…” but then he said that spices and herbs count in this number. Now I would be shocked if most people don’t eat at least 30 plants a week lol
It is easy to get 30 plants a week into a diet without a lot of expense. Adding an extra veg to your meal, greens in your soup or sauce, and toppings like nuts/seeds, herbs or green onions as a topping - well, they add up quickly.
What advice do you have for a single person who may eat on a single recipe for 5 days? It can be overwhelming to make several recipes because my small freezer space only has so much room.
A good selection of fresh fruit & dried fruit along with a Hugh type trail mix will help along with spicy seasonings. It adds up really quickly. Frozen fruit can be a better option than fresh so you can defrost a small portion at a time. Soups are another way to pack in masses of veg,herbs,beans & spices. Easy to get a dozen or so varieties in one soup. Most soups will portion up & freeze well in bags if you make a batch or keep in the fridge for several days.
I’m in this position. I often eat oatmeal with berries and seeds/nuts for breakfast. Lunches are salads. I love trying to make beautiful salads, different each day so that I don’t;t feel like i eat the same thing every day. Eggs, and/or avocado toast with micro greens, sprinklings of seeds and herbs. Vegetable soup for hot meals. Roasted vegetable - toss frozen veg with olive oil and garlic, sprinkle with cheese. Every day I eat fruits, nuts and seeds. Grow my own small garden and eat fresh veg and strawberries as I’m working in the yard. If I can’t keep up eating the fresh strawberries or tomatoes I dehydrate any fruits so that they don’t get bad.
For 1 person, have a bean and grain mix...I use 31 varieties. Soak overnight. Pressure cook with vegetables and spices in a programmable pressure cooker. 3qt is enough for 1 person. Food can sit in cooker for 24h after cooking if undisturbed (sterilized and hermetically sealed). Eat it whenever works, but treat it like other food once you open the cooker. Add in ferments which don't take too much space in fridge. Add in fresh vegetables. Broccoli sprouts can be grown without a fridge...sequence them so you have the correct amount ready each day. 1 tbsp/day in a jar is about right for 1 person. Depending on temperatures that means a sequence if 4-7 jars at various stages with 1 reaching maturity each day. If possible, a garden allows foraging of a meal's worth of fresh vegetables each day...no fridge and fresher food. If you leave cooked food unopened to cool overnight, you develop resistant starch to further help microbiome. 24h to soak, 24h cooking and cooling. Does require forethought, but you can get to a fridge just for ferments...car portables work.
Thank you for your inspiring video. I've been vegan 34 years but i keep slipping into old habits of processed foods, especially chips and alcohol. I recently started doing OMAD every other day, just to get my weight and health back on track. This is temporary and i will go back to OMAD for a while. Then OMAD with a couple of healthy snacks a day. At least that is my plan. It is easy while I'm on a break. But when i go back to my horrible job i will be tested not to fall into old habits. For now, I do so look forward to my well thought out meal every other day that includes as much health and variety on my plate as i can manage. Food tastes incredible when it is looked forward to and appreciated.
For those cravings, non-soluble fibre fills your stomach and send a satiation signal to your brain. E.g. chopped raw broccoli and cabbage takes time to digest, if you mix with some coconut flakes and avocado you'll be full. When stressed drink water instead, it will force you to go to the WC more often (peeing helps you relax and cleans up the blood) and avoid eating (easy to mindless overeat).Stay sharp!
@@andanssas why not use salt? I have heard it helps stay hydrated. I have Celtic salt for hydration and I love black salt. I also like soy sauce which is pretty salty. But I do use lots of herbs and spices too. Especially turmeric, pepper, mixed herbs and garlic.
@@veganandlovingit listen to "Help Your Body Heal Ep. 2 - Salt And Sweat" from _Goobie and Doobie_ (a neurosurgeon) and "How-To: Type 1 Diabetes PERFECT Control (4.4 HbA1c)" from _Dr Abs_ at 30min. mark. Summary: sodium alone increases health/cardiovascular risks, 1:16 ratio (sodium X potassium) is preferable and most salts have the inverse ratio or worse.
@@veganandlovingit most salts have high sodium which increases cardiovascular and other health risks. A neurosurgeon ( _Goobie Doobie_ ) made a recent "Salt and Sweat" video explaining that the sodium to potassium ratio should ideally be around 1 to 16 for "optimum health", nowadays is reversed or worse in most places (perhaps some indigenous people may still get that ratio) 🙃 _Dr. Greger_ suggests _salicornia_ (a plant that tastes salty) or potassium chloride if you still crave the salty taste. My previous comment was not posted, sorry if you're getting double.
As an Indian who eats non vegetarian food once a week, excluding egg, I was surprised that most people in US eat non vegetarian food all through the week, including breakfast
I am so happy that this information is coming through as I have stomach problems and have turned to a plant based diet to heal my gut as much as possible but it is ongoing but the more I have been eating more plants only for over 10 years but do eat cheese and eggs have helped me broaden my tastes with bitter flavours. Find fennel and Endives very healing for me. Plants are so complex as are herbs and spices and I know I have so much more to discover and learn. I think this information is so important to share.
I have always liked egg on toast, but since joining Zoe, I enjoy it so much more, swopping to sourdough added flavour, swopping butter for hummus and then adding mashed avocado layer in more flavour and texture, swopping salt for sauerkraut and then swiping the oil I cook the eggs in to good quality extra virgin olive oil all made a difference, (I pour the left over oil on top!) then my daily 30 scoop goes on top, I have it a couple of times a week to shake up my usual berry and yoghurt and I always look forward to it.
@@African_Adoptee did you consider the comment could be hurtful even if that was not the intent? If the comment was about a visible disability, my race, gender or sexuality, everyone would agree a comment about it was not ok. But because people cannot see my neurodivergence or Dyslexia it’s ok to comment on it? The comment was unnecessary my reply was.
Keep in mind that some people have allergies. For example the solanacea which includes potatoes, eggplant and tomatoes. Some cannot eat garlic etc etc. And it's not necessarily bowel results. It can be joint pains or other responses. No two people are the same.
I was inspired to make a roasted veg lunch/dinner from your great podcast - WOW! it was soooo good! I put a total of one heaping teaspoon of coriander seed/basil/oregano, pepper etc - Heated the cut up veg on broil then turned the stove off when they were a cmbit singed. Whoa!!!!! I cut up more fir tomorrow's lunch at work - I'll pop in the oven just before I go to work and pack it hot. Thanks for the inspiration.
I plucked a red chili pepper from the wife’s garden and placed it on the griddle along side two beef patties, two egg, and five slices of bacon. This pepper provides the perfect amount of flavor and heat for my lunch!
Although this video is my first introduction to your channel, I immediately subscribed because this information resonated deeply with me. I appreciate the balanced perspective, even though I’m vegan for health and ethical reasons. Thanks to everyone trying to make sense of our immensely diverse ways of being our best selves for our own benefit and for others. Thank you for sharing! ❤
I haven't yet watched this. I will say that we need specific enzymes to digest fiber. People who have sparved them out can't handle fiber well. They have to take baby steps to establish their gut flora. I know from my own experience. I hope this important fact is covered in this discussion!
If you count in herbs and spices it is really easy to get to 30 plants a week. The Indian spice mixes I use contain 8, 9, 10 different spices, there is a fair bit of overlap between the mixes, but when you use a couple of mixes you're already half way. Add few stir fry mixes with 3-7 different veggies and multigrain/seeds bread and you're already over 30. If I exclude the spices it is a lot harder to get to 30 unless I produce a lot of waste and/or move towards ultra-processed foods with long shelf-lives. Not sure why the disdain for breakfast cereals. I guess there is a lot of variety among them and some are ultra-processed, but the muesli I tend to buy contains no additives (at least not mentioned on the label, but I guess they may still be part of the ingredients), just whole grains, dried fruit and nuts.
This is my favorite of all the videos re: microbiome. And in May I started tracking my plant diversity intake (including spices): with a combo of salads & soups, sometimes I was hitting close to 25 per day!
My diet nowadays (which is maybe 95% plant based) includes a wide variety of plants (and mushrooms) - I'm pretty sure I easily meet the 30 plants a week. I feel heathier than I have in at least a couple of decades.
For everyone out there that want to change your mental health habits and keep living correctly I would recommend reading book called The 21 former doctor secrets by rachel morgan, she is talking behind industry
In the 1950's when my mother and I, walking through the neighbourhood,would cut newly emerging dandelion greens in the spring, the workers from the nearby factory passing by would shout obscenities and racial slurs for foraging spring greens. Typically in the 50's in Canada, it was only the anglo-saxon men who did so. I should mention that my mother was a very beautiful, blonde, glamorous woman, so it wasn't her appearance but the 'foreign food' gathering that provoked the detractors. Today I laugh when people now 'discover' peasant foods, the newest trends.
Funny the slurs. Weirdest moment was having similar slurs hurled, but not using the correct racial slurs. Wondered about correlations between intelligence and racism.
Dear Hugh, coffee is bitter and we like it ! Artichoke, chicory, aubergine... Bitter is most interesting of salty, sweet, sour, my opinion and taste. Bravo, very progressive company. A Greek friend, Nikephoros.
I was a bit sceptical about Hugh joining this team and worried he may be jumping on the band wagon. I am so relieved to see that he is still his authentic self. He brings so much to this brand, they are lucky to have him on board. His knowledge on plants and flavours is immense. it was so interesting to watch him and Tim have this discussion. Sorry I doubted you Hugh!
I would find this very do-able, except that I'm only cooking for one person. So a tin of beans is really an ingredient in three different meals, yet still counts as one plant. If I buy a zucchini, that gets used over at least a couple, depending on its size. Whenever I cook, there are usually 1 or 2 portions of the meal left over for future lunches. That's great for efficiency, and I do believe it's healthy. But it does cut down on the sheer number of different plants I can eat in any given time frame. Instead, I try to vary my fare from week to week. Beetroot one week? Well, it's sweet potato the next week. And maybe turnips the following week. So instead of utilizing the same 30 plants every week, I might get way more that 30 spread out over 3-4 weeks. I'm wondering if that is just as good from a gut biome perspective? It seems more evolutionarily sound, since our hunter gatherer ancestors would eat as much of a thing as they could get, when it was in season and available. I think they had a huge variety over a year, but maybe not so much within just a week? Is there something magic about a week's time? Also, I believe studies on tribes still living hunter gatherer lifestyles showed that their gut biomes changed from season to season as they varied what they ate. Is there any science showing whether a changing (but still healthy) biome is better for us than a stable healthy one?
Hi there, have you considered getting a freezer ? I used to get so much use of it when I was living alone. It does take up some space but it was 100% worth it in my opinion. ❤
I have the same question on microbiome stability. Haven't found any research yet. Am running a trial of 50 plants/day for high diversity and stability. Feels great so far, but N of 1 is too small of a cohort, and double blind placebo control is functionally impossible for 1 person. Also depends on the microbes in your gut. So am trying to introduce as many strains as possible and let them form the optimal community themselves with the consistent high diversity prebiotics.. Weird how no one else asks this question.
I started eating 30+ plants a week a few months ago. I was already doing pretty good. The first week I decided to try this, I'd already meal planned and shopped, and I got to about 22 without making any changes. Now that I put actual effort into it, it's really easy to get to 30+. Instead of getting a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples and eating 1 or 2 a day all week long, I started getting 1 peach, 1 plum, 1 pear, 1 banana, etc and so I'm eating a variety of fruits. Mixed nuts are an easy way to get 5. The bagged salad kits usually have about 5 different plants, if not more. I started making roasted veggie puree to freeze and use in soup, chili, etc. Not only is it 6 or 7 different plants, but it also takes the flavor of whatever I'm making to a whole new level. I also use a lot of beans and lentils and stuff like that. The soup I made today had like....11 or 12 plants, I think? On taco/burrito night, I used to just make the seasoned ground beef and then set out the veggies on the side for the family to eat, but I was the only one really eating them. So I started dicing them up real tiny and mixing them into the ground beef and they don't even realize it's only like 40% beef and 60% plant foods. That's usually 7-9 plant foods and it's become one of their favorite dinners. When I make banana bread or zucchini bread, I can usually get 5 or 6 different plants in there, not counting the flour. I don't count seasonings unless they are in sufficient quantities that I think they count. Like garlic, sure I count it. I use a ton of it. But a sprinkling of oregano or chili powder I don't count. I also don't count refined foods like oils, white rice, and white flour. I find this a much more enjoyable challenge than trying to count grams of fiber. It's not the only thing I'm doing to improve my health, but I think it's heavily contributed to my almost 30 lb weight loss in the last 4.5 months. Only 30 more lbs to go!
I think 30 is an arbitrary level based on a study of various levels. They had to pick some intervals. No reason 31 or 142 shouldn't be better. And I haven't found studies on whether variety at every meal would better promote microbiome health...not starving various microbe classes between days by having 30 a week. So, with some prep, I'm eating 50 plants a day with 15m a day of cooking time. Above 50 it's becoming onerous and incrementally more expensive to go higher. With a more mature perennial garden, could get to 60/day. Maybe get to better than Hadza microbiome health. They eat much more fibre than the West, but don't have access to the potential variety.
You probably have IBS because you aren't used to eating 30 plants. I'm allowed to say this because I had chronic for a decade and the FODMAP diet f'd me up
I had IBS. Vegan 5 years now and I rarely have any problems. I sometimes eat 30 plants in one day. My main trigger was nuts, which I can eat without issue now. I can't even remember when things changed tbh.
Interesting, I had IBS but since I've started eating mostly plant based I no longer have any issues. My main trigger seems to be anything deep fried, so now whenever I indulge I spend the next day paying for it. I slowly increased my plant intake and decreased processed/fried foods, and soon enough my daily IBS attacks were gone.
I don't have time to spend hours cooking but i do eat very little process food and definitely eat more than 30 plants a week (more aroud 45). I think that one reason people do not eat a lot of vegetables is because they often need a minimal preparation while a processed granola bars, you can open it and it is ready to eat. So one thing i do, typically on sunday, i cut raw vegetables to be ready to eat on Sunday. Typically, they are all gone by Wednesday. My kids enjoy snacking on them, so do I. We don't even use dip most of the time because i am too lazy. Of course, i have lots of differents seeds and nuts. I like to try different combinations of salads for lunch and for dinner, i think that there is no reason to reinvent the wheel at each meal, a lot of different culture traditionnaly cook with many plants: indian, japanese, mexican. We also enjoy the méditerranean type of diet. I also do a fiew traditional french meal like poule au pot, pot au feu, saucisses au chou and of course, all veggies benefits goes in the water but i always use the brot in the next day for a butternut soup (with coconut milk and a bit of muscovado). I also enjoy fermented vegetables that i either do my self or buy: if the ingredients are cabbage and salt, you know that it is a real sourcrout and not just cabbage in vinegar. I am currently fermenting red cabbage. Fermented vegetables make excellent side dish. On sunday, i often do a tray of roasted vegetables as well. If i am buying bread, i try for it to be multiseeds drom a bakery and not just wheat. In my view, if you have the time to boil water to cook pasta, you definitely have the time to make a healty homemade sauce meanwhile. It is just a question of habits and it can be also quite therapeutic
Can you guys do a video on getting children more interest in healthy foods. Ours are pretty good but overall most aren't anymore. Thank you all for the video. I have done alot of research on nutrition and health. You did well in my opinion. Keep up the amazing work.
I love the quick fire questions - LOL Bitter is tasty, spinach, romaine - I've developed a palate for it - makes my belly bugs happy. Appreciating this discussion - presently working on microbiome, finding very hungry at breakfast, at about 10 am. , less hungry at night... should be pretty easy to reach 30 this week
Loved this talk. Hope that his comment that chefs could concentrate on presenting vegetables as a main rather than an on the side dish. I would like to be able to go out for meals and eat like I wish to eat but my friends can eat how they like which is meat/fish with a couple of veg! ie Zoe way. I'm up to late 40s per week now. Done Zoe for 12 months now eating Zoe way.
Many experts say seniors often do not consume adequate amounts of protein. As a 70-year-old woman with osteopenia, I'm trying to avoid developing osteoporosis, and inadequate protein intake is linked to osteoporosis. I easily consume at least 30 plants per week. Since I am not a heavy eater, I feel the need to eat at least some animal protein almost every day.
Eat tofu. Eat fish once a week. I go to Japanese restaurant, and order Shio Saba (small mackerel, one side only). It is an oily fish. Order it as a dinner set with brown rice, miso soup, and at least 3 side dishes.
Tofu and several tins of beans every week. And then the odd handfuls of nuts and seeds for snacks. Hummus , peanut paste, and I think the vegan meat alternatives are probably high in protein if you don't mind somewhat processed foods. Beans are really good, in summer I eat almost daily a tin of chick peas with a little lemon juice, and some spices sprinkled in. Sometimes I mix them into a big salad. I don't cook them, just straight out the can. I prefer Edgell when they are not cooked, but for cooking I just buy the cheaper brands. Good luck.
@@janellison5011 if you ever fry it (a lot of people area avoiding oil these days, but I think olive oil is fine in moderation) the secret is to put some cornflour and spices (garlic, turmeric, herbs etc) into a freezer bag then add cubes of tofu and shake it to cover. I was putting plain tofu into my stir fry for years before I discovered this, so annoyed, it is yum.
Bitter herbs were eaten before meals because it helped stimulate digestion in our gut and that is part of where the before dinner salad came from. Also, lettuce was a hybrid from plants such as dandelion that are the bitter herbs that were eaten. Soup has a lot of other helpful components in it for the gut, for one thing eating warmed foods or room temperature foods are better for your gut then cold on a digestive perspective according to Chinese medicine.
Mushrooms- in some future podcast please explain if White Mushrooms can be safely steamed in a microwave to reduce Agaritine toxin to a safe level. Other methods using heat seem to imply many of the nutrients are eliminated, but a lot of the toxins remain. I like mushrooms, but prefer steaming along with other vegetables as it is quicker. Put another way what is safest way to eliminate the Agaritine toxin-most of it anyway, but retain bulk of the nutrients?
I borrowed Hugh's latest book from the library and found it really interesting. There are a couple of the recopies I've copied and kept. I counted up all the plants for a couple of days of my normal diet and was quite surprised to find that I'd already eaten more than 30 plants - albeit some in very small quantities, but they would be repeated through the week. There are 10 plants in my normal breakfast alone.I do eat meat, probably over the year an average of once or maybe twice a week. I enjoy it and am lucky enough to be able to afford top quality British organically produced meat, mostly from the farm. But most of what I eat is vegetarian, and that also is because I enjoy it.
Could someone please explain how/when in the evolutionary history of our species we developed the requirement to eat dozens of different plants in order to be healthy?
I'm no expert but I would suggest that perhaps it's because often small amounts of a wide variety of plants was the only food that was available so those whose digestions adapted to cope with them did better and so were more likely to reproduce.
We did not. We evolve to survive on any food, having babies from 14, and 90% of the population die before 50. Optimized food intake could longer our lifespan.
I'd be interested in the difference between cooking methods. Raw, stewed, roasted..... And if the same plant could offer different benefits in each mode.
Look into fermenting foods, it brings out the most nutritious benefits + the bonus of live probiotics. Also I don’t think you want to eat raw broccoli… bad microbes can hide in healthy foods too
I take BP tabs daily, first thing. 🎉My go to brekky was Ordanic Greestyle Yoghurt (home made) Prunes and Pumpkin seeds. Was having heart palpitations. Recently found this can happen if you take Nlood these tablets and Potassium rich foods together. Finding it difficult to work it out now.
Was your tradition diet truly meat centric. Peas, barley turnips herbs. Some meat very occasionally. I was raised with 1 meat meal Sundays. The rest of the week was leftovers and soups etc.
@@elainebradley8213 we had (and have) leftovers and soups, but with leftover meat too. i.e. omnivore. I'm not too sure I fully understood your point. Please forgive me.
My diet, growing up, had meat as a central ingredient in most main meals, although probably smaller portions than were used to now. However, we also had a lot of vegetables (5+, many home grown), especially with roasts and in casseroles, which probably had butter beans and lentils too. And plenty of fruit + mushrooms and nuts. But, yes, meals were meat-centric, with not just meat itself, but also stock from bones etc. @@elainebradley8213
@Above-The-Clouds “Our traditional omnivore diet” used to feature very little meat almost anywhere in the world. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a plant based diet: if well executed, it can be very healthy, it’s good for the planet and the animals.
It always intrigued me how quickly grown ups forget what it was like trying new foods as a child with developing taste buds, never ending sensitive chewing issues from loose, new and realigning teeth, and the natural tendency of children seeking nutrition their bodies need and are capable of chewing prior to ingesting. Take ketchup for example. Parents tend to become exasperated that a child insists on ketchup with every meal. Perhaps a child’s body is yearning the vinegar content to help balance their PH or to assist in digesting fats. Or simply the tomato content to feed the good gut bacteria. Or to get the mouth’s enzymes activated to help digest the other food on the plate. Or the clove, allspice and other spices it contains is the only time a young child is offered essential spices. Nothing wrong with tomato ketchup. Especially homemade. 😊
We in south East Asia know how good bitter goud and Neem is for us. Actually every part of Neem tree is good. Nice to see the western world is trying to come on th same page as us, Good luck
I stopped eating plants altogether and eat a carnivore diet of meat, fish, eggs and full fat dairy for the last few years. I lost weight, joint pains, gout, skin tags all disappeared my blood pressure dropped and now have more energy and feel healthier.
@@TheKathept Big food companies, pharmaceuticals are conditioning the public into believing that eating plants is healthy? Actually the opposite is true. Do some research into carnivore and Keto diets I have had my health dramatically improved since I started. Here is one link but there is lots online th-cam.com/users/livesFXJ_U_hF9A?si=y1226vY4HLoLZw8K
Plants about did me in. Not sure I will eat them ever again. Will apply Jonathan’s information about plants to my decision making. Jonathan on Iceberg lettuce? Spot on.
Everything in moderation, even plants. Too much of a good thing could also be bad for you. For example, leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard, and collards are very nutritious, but eating too much of them can cause kidney stones because your body might not be able to handle the oxalates that a diet high in these greens bring. Variety is another key. Different plants have different nutrient profiles. Variety helps you get a better balance of nutrients...not too much of some nutrients while not getting enough of others.
Tim said that every 5g of fibre reduces someone's "overall risk of mortality by 14%," which is one-seventh rather than the one-sixth as Tim said. Given that one day per week equates to one-seventh, does that mean I can eat whatever I like on every Sunday with no risk of dying?
Tried a Vegan diet, felt tired all the time. Find a regime that suits you, we are all different. 5 days a week I eat fillet steak for breakfast with eggs, broccoli, avocado, or other veg, 2 days line caught fish. Lunch berries, nuts, seeds, full fat yoghurt, very light supper (if I bother) mackerel or sardines with sauerkraut/Kimchi or a sweet potato. Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Supper like a pauper. Great energy levels throughout the day.
There’s no such thing as a vegan diet. You can eat a healthy whole food plant exclusive diet. If you do it well and eat enough (!), you get the nutrients and the energy you need. Also, it’s much healthier in the long run than a diet focusing on animal products. There’s huge consensus in the scientific community about this.
@@jeanallen7468 I imagine they're referring to the fact Veganism is a way of living to eliminate animal suffering in any way it manifests as much as it is meaningfully possible. Veganism includes a fully plant-based diet, but it is a much wider moral and ethical movement beyond that. Most vegans (myself included) would still probably refer to their diet as vegan though, as it's a simpler communicative tool than getting into the nuances of diet versus lifestyle etc. :)
This is a great podcast but it’s a shame that it is interrupted by so many ads. Having watched many other podcasts, the ads have not been so many. I understand as this podcast is free that monetising by way of advertising is probably necessary but this one has far too many, I found them really really annoying. All of them skipped, but still annoying. Think you need to re-think the amount of breaks, Zoe.
I loved Tim’s book and Hugh’s recipe for courgette chilli is my favourite, love the big handfuls of Coriander leaves and Flat leaf parsley. I’ve had a vegan diet for a long time, as I’ve been traumatised watching what we do to animals. I personally want no part of that, maybe if things change to such a degree we will respect animals during every part of their lives, I may ne tempted back if that was the case 🌈🌈💕
I cannot eat like that. I've had an ileostomy so cannot eat much in the way of fruit and vegetables. My stoma is overactive so fibre is completely out. What advice can you give me and others with similar problems.
What I’m wondering is: what kind of microbiome does a person like me have, following all the healthy fruit, nuts, vegetables and herbs guidelines, but at the same time regularly flushing my system with inordinately large amounts of bad carbs and fats (ie sweets, cookies etc) because of my eating disorder. Really curious what that results in…
All interesting...but I started Zoe due to digestive problems. Nothing was said about the possible impact on a gut that is not used to eating all those plant's. I worry that i might spend all my time in the loo.
I have always missed seeing the tops, in the store, on say, celery, or carrot tops. Oh, what a great stew we could make with those wonderful mushrooms. Love this video.
Please extend Zoe to Italy. Although Italy is renown for its Mediterranean diet, supermarkets here nevertheless brim with processed foods like they do in the UK and the U.S.
It's quite interesting seeing two supposed experts in nutrition suggest cooking with BUTTER of all things. When I was studying in pre-med the first thing they taught us in epidemiology 101 was that butter is the leading cause of disease, and not by an insignificant amount.
I don't like BBQ food, i consider it burnt food, and the taste is, in my opinion, horrible. I do love me greens. I haven't tried soaking nuts, i will do that. Very interesting talk.
I didn't think I ate even close to 30 different plants a week, but I just tallied everything from the last week and it was 33! Feeling proud because earlier this year I had a severe depressive episode where I went weeks without a fresh fruit or vegetable.
Something you can do when you feel a depressive episode coming on is prep veggies ahead of time. Also, there's no shame in buying frozen or prepped produce if you don't have the energy to do it yourself. Coleslaw kits can be used for way more than coleslaw: add them to a stir-fry or quick pickle them (in vinegar or lemon or just a pickle brine that you already know you like). Shredded carrots and bagged spinach/kale can be thrown into ramen, zoodles can be eaten cooked or raw, riced cauliflower is delicious (and it's super messy to make yourself so I almost always get frozen)
Maybe that's why I've been on a prolonged high even when what used to get me down I couldn't give a toss about now?
I juiced 3 large beets, 2 bunches kale,1 whole ginger, 3 garlic, 5 tomatoes, 2 whole celery, 2 cucumbers and 2 jalapeno peppers. Kept the fiber and it was all able to fit in my pot LOL. Mixed and cooked it down added taco seasonings and other spices to it and used it as filling for tacos and burritos. Was very good and so was the juice.
You destroyed the fiber when you juiced it. Mash them instead. Mashing is akin to what our teeth do. Fiber substrate is preserved.
u used so many wonderful veggies by juicing them.
Sounds delicious and Very healthy 😋😋
I would not juice them either, such wonderful ingredients
Juice is ok but eating them whole is a lot better so you can include them in your daily 2000 calories and be satiated rather than eating more food
This is what I find really inspiring. Not just talking about healthy wholefoods as single items, but about cooking healthy dishes with a curated group of wholefoods to get maximum enjoyment out of them. And I've found Hugh to be one of the most inspirational people in this regard, right from the early River Cottage days.
Yes I've found Hugh to be one of the most inspirational people in this regard, right from the early River Cottage days. Big tks for you.
I make a salad of spring mix, spinach,tomatoes,cauliflower,broccoli,red pepper,purple cabbage,celery,carrots. I make enough for about three days. Of course I can add beans,herbs,and spices. This plan gets me easily toward my 30 plants.
I love this, have been including nuts, seeds, herbs and growing our own salads, vegetables, berries & fruit..
(good old allotment)
Find it fairly easy to get past 30 in a week.
Our parents were given a lot more home grown foods, our grandchildren are learning how to grow and enjoy them. The gut microbiome is so very important and it starts early with breast milk and fresh food weaning.
I started out with the goal of eating the bare minimum of 5-7 per day. After time, I started having more variety and adding in more color variety.
Last night, my partner and I sat down to watch this video while having our evening meal, and we counted up about 16-17 different plants. (He had nibbled on a sliced pear while was finishing up cooking, so had one mor e to his tally.) It's a lot easier than I originally thought it would be, especially when you're counting just the number of plants and not necessarily "1 cup here, 2 teaspoons there."
We've loved Hugh since River Cottage days. We have dabbled with vegetarian and vegan diets and have many meals that are meat-free and several that are fully animal product-free.
This simple change has helped my arthritis, my depression, and my blood pressure.
We're continuing to focus on what we CAN have, but what we're cutting back on. Thank you so much for this great series!
I love they specify plants here and not just fruit/veg, too. Oats, nuts, lentils, beans etc. Grains like rice and quinoa. Potatoes are plants. Hummus is plants as they said. I think so many of us are stuck in a "fruit and veg only" mindset too. Once I got out of that I realised we definitely have a mostly plant diet in my home and it really isn't as hard as we initially assume.
I started trying when I had my first kiddo at 21 and didn't want to rely on the almost-pure surgar-packed baby foods. Glad I did, they all have allergies and texture problems (pregnant with baby 4 now) and they love their veggies so much.
for anyone struggling to find sources for plant-centred recipes I find vegan youtubers are such a fantastic source since you know every ingredient is going to be a different plant anyway
Agreed. Pickuplimes makes really lovely and approachable vegan recipes. And Koreanvegan is excellent for vegan Korean food.
What i love about Hugh is how he has, over decades now, perfected the art of patronising the nation. He really deserves an award. Maybe a huge Compost heap in his honour.
I have recently come across Hugh thanks to Zoe. He brings so much to the table and Tim’s input is invaluable. Thank you all for bringing such important and interesting topics and guests to the rest of us. I love this channel ❤
I eat 30 plants a week but love to learn more. I make 1 meat meal then follow with a vegan meal. Alternating keeps me making good meals everyone loves.
We have been transitioning to a much more plant-centric diet over the last 3-4 years, and as a home cook I can honestly say that not only is it not difficult, it's also tremendous fun! There are many excellent and inspirational food content creators on TH-cam who share ideas for amazing salads, curries, stir fries, pasta dishes... you name it. There's something for every palate, from every food culture under the sun. I'd encourage everyone who wants to eat more plants to get adventurous, try something new, it's fantastic! A lump of meat with some boiled vegetables and potatoes on the side is so far from what tickles my taste buds these days, it's astonishing, and yet like many people of my generation that's what I grew up with. I would urge everyone to think outside the box, not only to get healthier but also to enjoy a much more exciting way to eat!
I remain a vegan for more than health reasons. My ethics are a key factor. I am educating myself on angiogenesis and the work of Dr. William Li. Your information is very interesting and I have shared the link with several friends. Thank you.
I follow a whole food plant based diet and when I started to count the plants I eat to see if I was eating thirty different ones I found I was usually eating thirty different plants in a day. So I am comfortable in knowing I am getting enough without counting now.
I'm sure I eat 30 in one day sometimes too. Vegan (mostly WF) 5 years now.
What I like to do with my family is ask and remember what their favorite veg is and everyone gets what they like and can try something else aswell. This way, the more family input, the more plants on the plate. It makes it easy to fill the variety and the plate.
I’m so glad to see Jonathan back! He does an Amazing job interviewing and asking questions 👍👍
I always love hearing Hugh and have followed his recipes and programmes since early River Cottage
Many years ago, an Indian friend of mine who was a rotund irascible rascal, a very clever man, he always brought food to work, he was so happy and loving that it made me stand back and take a good look at myself. The sort of man that isn't like you but you need in your head. We talked about food amongst other things, mainly about food. He shared some of his food with me, I shared mine with him. His wife usually cooked his food, I always cooked mine because my ex was a culinary master-fuck-class in tasteful cluelessness. We got to talk and discovered a love of food and different tastes. He once brought into work a vegetable dish that was so bitter that he said that he knew I wouldn't like it but I had to taste it. It was a lip shrinking experience, but I now understand that something that is so bitter can be so useful to the body. This was my original point of the post, bitterness is not always bad.
you're rubbish
I think I just hurt myself laughing at “culinary master-fuck-class in culinary tastelessness.” Thank you. I needed that!
I like the way you write. We’d be good friends IRL.
Okay, I can't belive three Brits (?) are having this talk and me, a German, has to ask: Does tea count? Like, if I make myself a cuppa, is that plant I have consumed?
@Does tea count: According to videos title "How to eat 30 plants a week": Yes of course, if you *eat* the tea like: 1. cook, 2. cool, 3. dry, 4. eat. Ask yourself how much plant mass need and can be consumed like this if you dilute the plant mass with water to tea (or any other drinks) ...
Ich würde sagen ja, Tee ist wohl eine ähnliche Kategorie wie Chiliflocken, Samen und Nüsse
Coffee is so I guess so @yutubl
Bitter taste: It is so interesting to listen the experts talk about it. In my Chinese bring up culture: food taste bitter, means it is good for our health, specially most of Chinese herb tea/medicine is bitter.
Yeah, vegetables taste bitter and children hate it because it's so healthy for us, our body is telling us to stay away from them because of the lectins, indigestible massive amounts of fiber which irritates the colon, and the not very bioavailable nutrients + lack of nutrients etc, yet it's healthy for us? man...I guess not everybody has the same awareness and IQ (?) :)
Great interview, thank you all. A quick note on the skin of onions. As I was watching the video, I was peeling the outer skin off some red baby onions. I found some black fungal spores under the first or second layer of the onion skin. It looked like fine black powder. I removed it but thought that had I taken today's advice of eating the skin, I may have missed the spores. So, check the underside of onion skin before eating them.
you will now live forever
Brilliant. This will keep me going as a vegetable gardener as well as a cook. Thank you.
I tracked plant consumption for a couple weeks without changing any eating habits just to see how I would do. I found I ended up hitting 30 different plants every 4/5 days. I am satisfied.
At first, I was like “wow, 30?! I don’t even know if I do that…” but then he said that spices and herbs count in this number. Now I would be shocked if most people don’t eat at least 30 plants a week lol
It is easy to get 30 plants a week into a diet without a lot of expense. Adding an extra veg to your meal, greens in your soup or sauce, and toppings like nuts/seeds, herbs or green onions as a topping - well, they add up quickly.
What about all the wild greens that grow 'like weeds' in lots of gardens-miner's lettuce, dandelion, chickweed... Make it affordable and seasonal.
I love how the chef’s eating is grounded in that one magical day when they moved into a new home and discovered a garden.
What advice do you have for a single person who may eat on a single recipe for 5 days? It can be overwhelming to make several recipes because my small freezer space only has so much room.
A good selection of fresh fruit & dried fruit along with a Hugh type trail mix will help along with spicy seasonings. It adds up really quickly. Frozen fruit can be a better option than fresh so you can defrost a small portion at a time. Soups are another way to pack in masses of veg,herbs,beans & spices. Easy to get a dozen or so varieties in one soup. Most soups will portion up & freeze well in bags if you make a batch or keep in the fridge for several days.
I’m in this position. I often eat oatmeal with berries and seeds/nuts for breakfast. Lunches are salads. I love trying to make beautiful salads, different each day so that I don’t;t feel like i eat the same thing every day. Eggs, and/or avocado toast with micro greens, sprinklings of seeds and herbs. Vegetable soup for hot meals. Roasted vegetable - toss frozen veg with olive oil and garlic, sprinkle with cheese. Every day I eat fruits, nuts and seeds. Grow my own small garden and eat fresh veg and strawberries as I’m working in the yard. If I can’t keep up eating the fresh strawberries or tomatoes I dehydrate any fruits so that they don’t get bad.
For 1 person, have a bean and grain mix...I use 31 varieties. Soak overnight. Pressure cook with vegetables and spices in a programmable pressure cooker. 3qt is enough for 1 person.
Food can sit in cooker for 24h after cooking if undisturbed (sterilized and hermetically sealed). Eat it whenever works, but treat it like other food once you open the cooker. Add in ferments which don't take too much space in fridge. Add in fresh vegetables.
Broccoli sprouts can be grown without a fridge...sequence them so you have the correct amount ready each day. 1 tbsp/day in a jar is about right for 1 person. Depending on temperatures that means a sequence if 4-7 jars at various stages with 1 reaching maturity each day.
If possible, a garden allows foraging of a meal's worth of fresh vegetables each day...no fridge and fresher food.
If you leave cooked food unopened to cool overnight, you develop resistant starch to further help microbiome. 24h to soak, 24h cooking and cooling. Does require forethought, but you can get to a fridge just for ferments...car portables work.
Thank you for your inspiring video. I've been vegan 34 years but i keep slipping into old habits of processed foods, especially chips and alcohol. I recently started doing OMAD every other day, just to get my weight and health back on track. This is temporary and i will go back to OMAD for a while. Then OMAD with a couple of healthy snacks a day. At least that is my plan. It is easy while I'm on a break. But when i go back to my horrible job i will be tested not to fall into old habits. For now, I do so look forward to my well thought out meal every other day that includes as much health and variety on my plate as i can manage. Food tastes incredible when it is looked forward to and appreciated.
For those cravings, non-soluble fibre fills your stomach and send a satiation signal to your brain. E.g. chopped raw broccoli and cabbage takes time to digest, if you mix with some coconut flakes and avocado you'll be full. When stressed drink water instead, it will force you to go to the WC more often (peeing helps you relax and cleans up the blood) and avoid eating (easy to mindless overeat).Stay sharp!
Oh and instead of salt use lemon and/or powdered chilli pepper and oregano for seasoning, all the best.
@@andanssas why not use salt? I have heard it helps stay hydrated. I have Celtic salt for hydration and I love black salt. I also like soy sauce which is pretty salty. But I do use lots of herbs and spices too. Especially turmeric, pepper, mixed herbs and garlic.
@@veganandlovingit listen to "Help Your Body Heal Ep. 2 - Salt And Sweat" from _Goobie and Doobie_ (a neurosurgeon) and "How-To: Type 1 Diabetes PERFECT Control (4.4 HbA1c)" from _Dr Abs_ at 30min. mark. Summary: sodium alone increases health/cardiovascular risks, 1:16 ratio (sodium X potassium) is preferable and most salts have the inverse ratio or worse.
@@veganandlovingit most salts have high sodium which increases cardiovascular and other health risks. A neurosurgeon ( _Goobie Doobie_ ) made a recent "Salt and Sweat" video explaining that the sodium to potassium ratio should ideally be around 1 to 16 for "optimum health", nowadays is reversed or worse in most places (perhaps some indigenous people may still get that ratio) 🙃 _Dr. Greger_ suggests _salicornia_ (a plant that tastes salty) or potassium chloride if you still crave the salty taste. My previous comment was not posted, sorry if you're getting double.
I loved this episode. Thank you all, but especially Hugh. So good to have new ideas of how to cook common foods differently. Off to the kitchen now!
As an Indian who eats non vegetarian food once a week, excluding egg, I was surprised that most people in US eat non vegetarian food all through the week, including breakfast
I am so happy that this information is coming through as I have stomach problems and have turned to a plant based diet to heal my gut as much as possible but it is ongoing but the more I have been eating more plants only for over 10 years but do eat cheese and eggs have helped me broaden my tastes with bitter flavours. Find fennel and Endives very healing for me. Plants are so complex as are herbs and spices and I know I have so much more to discover and learn. I think this information is so important to share.
I have always liked egg on toast, but since joining Zoe, I enjoy it so much more, swopping to sourdough added flavour, swopping butter for hummus and then adding mashed avocado layer in more flavour and texture, swopping salt for sauerkraut and then swiping the oil I cook the eggs in to good quality extra virgin olive oil all made a difference, (I pour the left over oil on top!) then my daily 30 scoop goes on top, I have it a couple of times a week to shake up my usual berry and yoghurt and I always look forward to it.
Just keep track of your cholesterol with the egg, oil & avacado. 💓
Sounds like you eat a lot of gut friendly foods!
"Swapping" not "swopping"
@@lin90210 I am Autistic and dyslexic by birth, your needless intolerance, however, is a choice.
@@ModelkitStuff Did you consider the possibility that the person leaving the correct spelling comment was simply trying to be helpful not hurtful?
@@African_Adoptee did you consider the comment could be hurtful even if that was not the intent? If the comment was about a visible disability, my race, gender or sexuality, everyone would agree a comment about it was not ok. But because people cannot see my neurodivergence or Dyslexia it’s ok to comment on it? The comment was unnecessary my reply was.
Keep in mind that some people have allergies. For example the solanacea which includes potatoes, eggplant and tomatoes. Some cannot eat garlic etc etc. And it's not necessarily bowel results. It can be joint pains or other responses. No two people are the same.
there are soooo many plants
I was inspired to make a roasted veg lunch/dinner from your great podcast - WOW! it was soooo good! I put a total of one heaping teaspoon of coriander seed/basil/oregano, pepper etc - Heated the cut up veg on broil then turned the stove off when they were a cmbit singed. Whoa!!!!!
I cut up more fir tomorrow's lunch at work - I'll pop in the oven just before I go to work and pack it hot.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks for encouraging us to keep thinking about how we can improve our health through diet and make it delicious too
As the saying goes..Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much..
Who says that?
I plucked a red chili pepper from the wife’s garden and placed it on the griddle along side two beef patties, two egg, and five slices of bacon. This pepper provides the perfect amount of flavor and heat for my lunch!
@@Zenmasterzzzit's a Michael Pollan quote
@@Zenmasterzzz Michael Pollan-In Defense of Food
Mostly plants is basically saying mostly sugar, poor quality or non bio-available nutrients, and indigestible fibre. I’ll pass.
I love Hugh’s enthusiasm
I'm really inspired to try making pesto with different veg. It sounds gorgeous.
Although this video is my first introduction to your channel, I immediately subscribed because this information resonated deeply with me. I appreciate the balanced perspective, even though I’m vegan for health and ethical reasons. Thanks to everyone trying to make sense of our immensely diverse ways of being our best selves for our own benefit and for others. Thank you for sharing! ❤
I love plant food so much and it's never boring how I prepare it. Love to be inventive 😋
I haven't yet watched this. I will say that we need specific enzymes to digest fiber. People who have sparved them out can't handle fiber well. They have to take baby steps to establish their gut flora. I know from my own experience. I hope this important fact is covered in this discussion!
If you count in herbs and spices it is really easy to get to 30 plants a week. The Indian spice mixes I use contain 8, 9, 10 different spices, there is a fair bit of overlap between the mixes, but when you use a couple of mixes you're already half way. Add few stir fry mixes with 3-7 different veggies and multigrain/seeds bread and you're already over 30. If I exclude the spices it is a lot harder to get to 30 unless I produce a lot of waste and/or move towards ultra-processed foods with long shelf-lives.
Not sure why the disdain for breakfast cereals. I guess there is a lot of variety among them and some are ultra-processed, but the muesli I tend to buy contains no additives (at least not mentioned on the label, but I guess they may still be part of the ingredients), just whole grains, dried fruit and nuts.
Amazing podcast! 👏
You basically answered all of my questions, even those I didn't know I needed an answer for yet😅
Big thanks from Italy
This is my favorite of all the videos re: microbiome. And in May I started tracking my plant diversity intake (including spices): with a combo of salads & soups, sometimes I was hitting close to 25 per day!
My diet nowadays (which is maybe 95% plant based) includes a wide variety of plants (and mushrooms) - I'm pretty sure I easily meet the 30 plants a week. I feel heathier than I have in at least a couple of decades.
For everyone out there that want to change your mental health habits and keep living correctly I would recommend reading book called The 21 former doctor secrets by rachel morgan, she is talking behind industry
Can’t get her book anywhere!
@@isobellickes8543 I can't find it either. Is there a web page or some kind of link to the info?
Thank you
In the 1950's when my mother and I, walking through the neighbourhood,would cut newly emerging dandelion greens in the spring, the workers from the nearby factory passing by would shout obscenities and racial slurs for foraging spring greens. Typically in the 50's in Canada, it was only the anglo-saxon men who did so. I should mention that my mother was a very beautiful, blonde, glamorous woman, so it wasn't her appearance but the 'foreign food' gathering that provoked the detractors. Today I laugh when people now 'discover' peasant foods, the newest trends.
Funny the slurs. Weirdest moment was having similar slurs hurled, but not using the correct racial slurs. Wondered about correlations between intelligence and racism.
Dear Hugh, coffee is bitter and we like it ! Artichoke, chicory, aubergine... Bitter is most interesting of salty,
sweet, sour, my opinion and taste. Bravo, very progressive company. A Greek friend, Nikephoros.
I put herbs in my cooking and drink a different herbal tea per day. Thats how ive been increasing my plants these days
I was a bit sceptical about Hugh joining this team and worried he may be jumping on the band wagon. I am so relieved to see that he is still his authentic self. He brings so much to this brand, they are lucky to have him on board. His knowledge on plants and flavours is immense. it was so interesting to watch him and Tim have this discussion. Sorry I doubted you Hugh!
I would find this very do-able, except that I'm only cooking for one person. So a tin of beans is really an ingredient in three different meals, yet still counts as one plant. If I buy a zucchini, that gets used over at least a couple, depending on its size. Whenever I cook, there are usually 1 or 2 portions of the meal left over for future lunches. That's great for efficiency, and I do believe it's healthy. But it does cut down on the sheer number of different plants I can eat in any given time frame. Instead, I try to vary my fare from week to week. Beetroot one week? Well, it's sweet potato the next week. And maybe turnips the following week. So instead of utilizing the same 30 plants every week, I might get way more that 30 spread out over 3-4 weeks. I'm wondering if that is just as good from a gut biome perspective? It seems more evolutionarily sound, since our hunter gatherer ancestors would eat as much of a thing as they could get, when it was in season and available. I think they had a huge variety over a year, but maybe not so much within just a week? Is there something magic about a week's time? Also, I believe studies on tribes still living hunter gatherer lifestyles showed that their gut biomes changed from season to season as they varied what they ate. Is there any science showing whether a changing (but still healthy) biome is better for us than a stable healthy one?
Hi there, have you considered getting a freezer ? I used to get so much use of it when I was living alone. It does take up some space but it was 100% worth it in my opinion. ❤
I have the same question on microbiome stability. Haven't found any research yet. Am running a trial of 50 plants/day for high diversity and stability.
Feels great so far, but N of 1 is too small of a cohort, and double blind placebo control is functionally impossible for 1 person.
Also depends on the microbes in your gut. So am trying to introduce as many strains as possible and let them form the optimal community themselves with the consistent high diversity prebiotics..
Weird how no one else asks this question.
I worry about oxalates as well as pesticides. Eating 30 organic vegetables a week plus organic fruits … every week adds up.
I started eating 30+ plants a week a few months ago. I was already doing pretty good. The first week I decided to try this, I'd already meal planned and shopped, and I got to about 22 without making any changes. Now that I put actual effort into it, it's really easy to get to 30+. Instead of getting a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples and eating 1 or 2 a day all week long, I started getting 1 peach, 1 plum, 1 pear, 1 banana, etc and so I'm eating a variety of fruits. Mixed nuts are an easy way to get 5. The bagged salad kits usually have about 5 different plants, if not more. I started making roasted veggie puree to freeze and use in soup, chili, etc. Not only is it 6 or 7 different plants, but it also takes the flavor of whatever I'm making to a whole new level. I also use a lot of beans and lentils and stuff like that. The soup I made today had like....11 or 12 plants, I think? On taco/burrito night, I used to just make the seasoned ground beef and then set out the veggies on the side for the family to eat, but I was the only one really eating them. So I started dicing them up real tiny and mixing them into the ground beef and they don't even realize it's only like 40% beef and 60% plant foods. That's usually 7-9 plant foods and it's become one of their favorite dinners. When I make banana bread or zucchini bread, I can usually get 5 or 6 different plants in there, not counting the flour. I don't count seasonings unless they are in sufficient quantities that I think they count. Like garlic, sure I count it. I use a ton of it. But a sprinkling of oregano or chili powder I don't count. I also don't count refined foods like oils, white rice, and white flour. I find this a much more enjoyable challenge than trying to count grams of fiber. It's not the only thing I'm doing to improve my health, but I think it's heavily contributed to my almost 30 lb weight loss in the last 4.5 months. Only 30 more lbs to go!
I think 30 is an arbitrary level based on a study of various levels. They had to pick some intervals. No reason 31 or 142 shouldn't be better. And I haven't found studies on whether variety at every meal would better promote microbiome health...not starving various microbe classes between days by having 30 a week.
So, with some prep, I'm eating 50 plants a day with 15m a day of cooking time. Above 50 it's becoming onerous and incrementally more expensive to go higher. With a more mature perennial garden, could get to 60/day.
Maybe get to better than Hadza microbiome health. They eat much more fibre than the West, but don't have access to the potential variety.
Eating snap peas as you pick them from the vine is one of gardening’s biggest pleasure
It's harder to eat 30 plants when have IBS. So I wonder if the associative study actually tested for people who had IBS?
You have IBS because you eat garbage food. So maybe stop. Lol.
You probably have IBS because you aren't used to eating 30 plants. I'm allowed to say this because I had chronic for a decade and the FODMAP diet f'd me up
*chronic ibs
I had IBS. Vegan 5 years now and I rarely have any problems. I sometimes eat 30 plants in one day. My main trigger was nuts, which I can eat without issue now. I can't even remember when things changed tbh.
Interesting, I had IBS but since I've started eating mostly plant based I no longer have any issues. My main trigger seems to be anything deep fried, so now whenever I indulge I spend the next day paying for it. I slowly increased my plant intake and decreased processed/fried foods, and soon enough my daily IBS attacks were gone.
I don't have time to spend hours cooking but i do eat very little process food and definitely eat more than 30 plants a week (more aroud 45). I think that one reason people do not eat a lot of vegetables is because they often need a minimal preparation while a processed granola bars, you can open it and it is ready to eat. So one thing i do, typically on sunday, i cut raw vegetables to be ready to eat on Sunday. Typically, they are all gone by Wednesday. My kids enjoy snacking on them, so do I. We don't even use dip most of the time because i am too lazy. Of course, i have lots of differents seeds and nuts. I like to try different combinations of salads for lunch and for dinner, i think that there is no reason to reinvent the wheel at each meal, a lot of different culture traditionnaly cook with many plants: indian, japanese, mexican. We also enjoy the méditerranean type of diet. I also do a fiew traditional french meal like poule au pot, pot au feu, saucisses au chou and of course, all veggies benefits goes in the water but i always use the brot in the next day for a butternut soup (with coconut milk and a bit of muscovado). I also enjoy fermented vegetables that i either do my self or buy: if the ingredients are cabbage and salt, you know that it is a real sourcrout and not just cabbage in vinegar. I am currently fermenting red cabbage. Fermented vegetables make excellent side dish. On sunday, i often do a tray of roasted vegetables as well. If i am buying bread, i try for it to be multiseeds drom a bakery and not just wheat. In my view, if you have the time to boil water to cook pasta, you definitely have the time to make a healty homemade sauce meanwhile. It is just a question of habits and it can be also quite therapeutic
What a wonderful podcast really encouraging to eat a greater diversity of fruit and veg
Can you guys do a video on getting children more interest in healthy foods. Ours are pretty good but overall most aren't anymore. Thank you all for the video. I have done alot of research on nutrition and health. You did well in my opinion. Keep up the amazing work.
I love the quick fire questions - LOL Bitter is tasty, spinach, romaine - I've developed a palate for it - makes my belly bugs happy. Appreciating this discussion - presently working on microbiome, finding very hungry at breakfast, at about 10 am. , less hungry at night... should be pretty easy to reach 30 this week
Spinach and romaine are bitter???
Loved this talk. Hope that his comment that chefs could concentrate on presenting vegetables as a main rather than an on the side dish. I would like to be able to go out for meals and eat like I wish to eat but my friends can eat how they like which is meat/fish with a couple of veg! ie Zoe way. I'm up to late 40s per week now. Done Zoe for 12 months now eating Zoe way.
Many experts say seniors often do not consume adequate amounts of protein. As a 70-year-old woman with osteopenia, I'm trying to avoid developing osteoporosis, and inadequate protein intake is linked to osteoporosis. I easily consume at least 30 plants per week. Since I am not a heavy eater, I feel the need to eat at least some animal protein almost every day.
Eat tofu. Eat fish once a week. I go to Japanese restaurant, and order Shio Saba (small mackerel, one side only). It is an oily fish. Order it as a dinner set with brown rice, miso soup, and at least 3 side dishes.
Tofu and several tins of beans every week. And then the odd handfuls of nuts and seeds for snacks. Hummus , peanut paste, and I think the vegan meat alternatives are probably high in protein if you don't mind somewhat processed foods. Beans are really good, in summer I eat almost daily a tin of chick peas with a little lemon juice, and some spices sprinkled in. Sometimes I mix them into a big salad. I don't cook them, just straight out the can. I prefer Edgell when they are not cooked, but for cooking I just buy the cheaper brands. Good luck.
Thanks for the suggestions. I think adding tofu to smoothies would work for me
@@Arugula100
@@veganandlovingitThank you for the suggestions. I do eat a variety of nuts daily. I will add tofu to my smoothies.
@@janellison5011 if you ever fry it (a lot of people area avoiding oil these days, but I think olive oil is fine in moderation) the secret is to put some cornflour and spices (garlic, turmeric, herbs etc) into a freezer bag then add cubes of tofu and shake it to cover. I was putting plain tofu into my stir fry for years before I discovered this, so annoyed, it is yum.
Bitter herbs were eaten before meals because it helped stimulate digestion in our gut and that is part of where the before dinner salad came from. Also, lettuce was a hybrid from plants such as dandelion that are the bitter herbs that were eaten. Soup has a lot of other helpful components in it for the gut, for one thing eating warmed foods or room temperature foods are better for your gut then cold on a digestive perspective according to Chinese medicine.
Mushrooms- in some future podcast please explain if White Mushrooms can be safely steamed in a microwave to reduce Agaritine toxin to a safe level. Other methods using heat seem to imply many of the nutrients are eliminated, but a lot of the toxins remain. I like mushrooms, but prefer steaming along with other vegetables as it is quicker. Put another way what is safest way to eliminate the Agaritine toxin-most of it anyway, but retain bulk of the nutrients?
Please extend Zoe membership, surveys and sales through to New Zealand
And Australia too pls
@@vickilahtinen7254AND Canada - also being left out
Imma start counting my actual intake. I always assumed im getting more than 30, but now i want some harder data! ❤👍luv ya for it.
I borrowed Hugh's latest book from the library and found it really interesting. There are a couple of the recopies I've copied and kept. I counted up all the plants for a couple of days of my normal diet and was quite surprised to find that I'd already eaten more than 30 plants - albeit some in very small quantities, but they would be repeated through the week. There are 10 plants in my normal breakfast alone.I do eat meat, probably over the year an average of once or maybe twice a week. I enjoy it and am lucky enough to be able to afford top quality British organically produced meat, mostly from the farm. But most of what I eat is vegetarian, and that also is because I enjoy it.
Could someone please explain how/when in the evolutionary history of our species we developed the requirement to eat dozens of different plants in order to be healthy?
I'm no expert but I would suggest that perhaps it's because often small amounts of a wide variety of plants was the only food that was available so those whose digestions adapted to cope with them did better and so were more likely to reproduce.
We did not. We evolve to survive on any food, having babies from 14, and 90% of the population die before 50. Optimized food intake could longer our lifespan.
I'd be interested in the difference between cooking methods. Raw, stewed, roasted..... And if the same plant could offer different benefits in each mode.
I have heard that yes. I don't recall the details but apparently, it is good to eat brocoli raw and cooked.
Look into fermenting foods, it brings out the most nutritious benefits + the bonus of live probiotics. Also I don’t think you want to eat raw broccoli… bad microbes can hide in healthy foods too
Research broccoli sprouts and heat treatment to increase sulphoraphane, tomatoes cooked for lycopene
So happy I came across this I have been doing eat the rainbow challenge. This is very inspirational and so knowledgeable very excited.
My 9 year old granddaughter was making a recipe from Hugh’s new book yesterday: Creamy Lemony Courgettes!😋
I take BP tabs daily, first thing. 🎉My go to brekky was Ordanic Greestyle Yoghurt (home made) Prunes and Pumpkin seeds. Was having heart palpitations. Recently found this can happen if you take Nlood these tablets and Potassium rich foods together. Finding it difficult to work it out now.
Thank God someone on a Zoe podcast is in favour of our traditional omnivore diet and not majoring on the plant based options.
Was your tradition diet truly meat centric. Peas, barley turnips herbs. Some meat very occasionally. I was raised with 1 meat meal Sundays. The rest of the week was leftovers and soups etc.
@@elainebradley8213 we had (and have) leftovers and soups, but with leftover meat too. i.e. omnivore. I'm not too sure I fully understood your point. Please forgive me.
My diet, growing up, had meat as a central ingredient in most main meals, although probably smaller portions than were used to now. However, we also had a lot of vegetables (5+, many home grown), especially with roasts and in casseroles, which probably had butter beans and lentils too. And plenty of fruit + mushrooms and nuts. But, yes, meals were meat-centric, with not just meat itself, but also stock from bones etc.
@@elainebradley8213
@Above-The-Clouds “Our traditional omnivore diet” used to feature very little meat almost anywhere in the world. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a plant based diet: if well executed, it can be very healthy, it’s good for the planet and the animals.
It always intrigued me how quickly grown ups forget what it was like trying new foods as a child with developing taste buds, never ending sensitive chewing issues from loose, new and realigning teeth, and the natural tendency of children seeking nutrition their bodies need and are capable of chewing prior to ingesting. Take ketchup for example. Parents tend to become exasperated that a child insists on ketchup with every meal. Perhaps a child’s body is yearning the vinegar content to help balance their PH or to assist in digesting fats. Or simply the tomato content to feed the good gut bacteria. Or to get the mouth’s enzymes activated to help digest the other food on the plate. Or the clove, allspice and other spices it contains is the only time a young child is offered essential spices.
Nothing wrong with tomato ketchup. Especially homemade. 😊
We in south East Asia know how good bitter goud and Neem is for us. Actually every part of Neem tree is good. Nice to see the western world is trying to come on th same page as us, Good luck
I stopped eating plants altogether and eat a carnivore diet of meat, fish, eggs and full fat dairy for the last few years. I lost weight, joint pains, gout, skin tags all disappeared my blood pressure dropped and now have more energy and feel healthier.
I tried that and had to give it up after 2 months. I had no appetite en felt horrible. Went to eating plants and felt great.
Yeah, right..
@@TheKathept Big food companies, pharmaceuticals are conditioning the public into believing that eating plants is healthy? Actually the opposite is true. Do some research into carnivore and Keto diets I have had my health dramatically improved since I started. Here is one link but there is lots online th-cam.com/users/livesFXJ_U_hF9A?si=y1226vY4HLoLZw8K
@@TheKathept Many people do become very healthy on a carnivore diet. I feel an omnivore diet is best
Same here, 2 years in and never felt better
Plants about did me in. Not sure I will eat them ever again.
Will apply Jonathan’s information about plants to my decision making.
Jonathan on Iceberg lettuce? Spot on.
What do you mean they “did you in”
Everything in moderation, even plants. Too much of a good thing could also be bad for you. For example, leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard, and collards are very nutritious, but eating too much of them can cause kidney stones because your body might not be able to handle the oxalates that a diet high in these greens bring. Variety is another key. Different plants have different nutrient profiles. Variety helps you get a better balance of nutrients...not too much of some nutrients while not getting enough of others.
Yes, probably why variety is good.
Tim said that every 5g of fibre reduces someone's "overall risk of mortality by 14%," which is one-seventh rather than the one-sixth as Tim said. Given that one day per week equates to one-seventh, does that mean I can eat whatever I like on every Sunday with no risk of dying?
No, that's the day to supersize your 'cheat meal' at Burger King or McDonalds : )))))))
I love watching Hugh on this channel, tfs x
Tried a Vegan diet, felt tired all the time. Find a regime that suits you, we are all different. 5 days a week I eat fillet steak for breakfast with eggs, broccoli, avocado, or other veg, 2 days line caught fish. Lunch berries, nuts, seeds, full fat yoghurt, very light supper (if I bother) mackerel or sardines with sauerkraut/Kimchi or a sweet potato. Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Supper like a pauper. Great energy levels throughout the day.
There’s no such thing as a vegan diet. You can eat a healthy whole food plant exclusive diet. If you do it well and eat enough (!), you get the nutrients and the energy you need. Also, it’s much healthier in the long run than a diet focusing on animal products. There’s huge consensus in the scientific community about this.
Please explain ‘there is no such thing as a vegan diet’. Never tried it but curious to know what you mean. Thanks!
@@CaroAbebe Actually, this 'consensus' is changing
@@jeanallen7468 I imagine they're referring to the fact Veganism is a way of living to eliminate animal suffering in any way it manifests as much as it is meaningfully possible. Veganism includes a fully plant-based diet, but it is a much wider moral and ethical movement beyond that.
Most vegans (myself included) would still probably refer to their diet as vegan though, as it's a simpler communicative tool than getting into the nuances of diet versus lifestyle etc. :)
I am really trying hard to move in the right direction, but have ARFID so this is a huge struggle for me and a very long journey
This is a great podcast but it’s a shame that it is interrupted by so many ads. Having watched many other podcasts, the ads have not been so many. I understand as this podcast is free that monetising by way of advertising is probably necessary but this one has far too many, I found them really really annoying. All of them skipped, but still annoying. Think you need to re-think the amount of breaks, Zoe.
And I mean 3rd party ads, not the zoe own ones!
Surprised they don’t mention sprouted seeds. I sprout broccoli and alfalfa all the time and they are very nutritious
Looks like the price of that 30 plants book was jacked up, likely because of this video. I will wait for it to go back down before I buy it.
Kasha, toasted buckwheat, would be great to add to the trail mix for a bit of extra crunch.
Watercress is my favourite
I loved Tim’s book and Hugh’s recipe for courgette chilli is my favourite, love the big handfuls of Coriander leaves and Flat leaf parsley. I’ve had a vegan diet for a long time, as I’ve been traumatised watching what we do to animals. I personally want no part of that, maybe if things change to such a degree we will respect animals during every part of their lives, I may ne tempted back if that was the case 🌈🌈💕
I cannot eat like that. I've had an ileostomy so cannot eat much in the way of fruit and vegetables. My stoma is overactive so fibre is completely out. What advice can you give me and others with similar problems.
Are freeze dried powders ok? Also, I find I can eat more of a variety when I whip up into a smoothie. Any issue there? Thanks for an informative vid
Just downloaded Hugh's book.
Thank you so very much! Love your work.❤
Minibsweet peppers are awesome on the grill!
What I’m wondering is: what kind of microbiome does a person like me have, following all the healthy fruit, nuts, vegetables and herbs guidelines, but at the same time regularly flushing my system with inordinately large amounts of bad carbs and fats (ie sweets, cookies etc) because of my eating disorder. Really curious what that results in…
All interesting...but I started Zoe due to digestive problems. Nothing was said about the possible impact on a gut that is not used to eating all those plant's. I worry that i might spend all my time in the loo.
Yep sh it ting and fa rt ing like a horse😊😊😊😊
I have always missed seeing the tops, in the store, on say, celery, or carrot tops. Oh, what a great stew we could make with those wonderful mushrooms. Love this video.
Can you eat carrot tops safely .
Please extend Zoe to Italy. Although Italy is renown for its Mediterranean diet, supermarkets here nevertheless brim with processed foods like they do in the UK and the U.S.
It's quite interesting seeing two supposed experts in nutrition suggest cooking with BUTTER of all things. When I was studying in pre-med the first thing they taught us in epidemiology 101 was that butter is the leading cause of disease, and not by an insignificant amount.
I don't like BBQ food, i consider it burnt food, and the taste is, in my opinion, horrible.
I do love me greens.
I haven't tried soaking nuts, i will do that.
Very interesting talk.
I eat 30 plants per day. If you eat at home, I'm not sure why this would be difficult unless you live in a food desert.
I think most people don't realise this number includes herbs, spices, the variety in trail mix for example.
@@veganandlovingit I don't count herbs and spices, only plants with calories. I do count onions and garlic.
30 different plants is actually very easy. Do all plants count? How about sugar?