Health Challenge - Eat 30 Plants Per Week
Did you know that one of the best things we can do for our digestion is to eat a variety of foods? 🍎🥦🍑🥬 Our gut bacteria love variety - especially when it comes to plant-based foods. When the good bacteria in our guts thrive, so do we. Good digestion is key to good overall health, so it’s something we should all prioritize as much as we can.
How can you ensure you are eating enough variety to keep your gut happy? 😊
I recommend building up to eating 30 different types of plant-based foods each week. This can include fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, whole grains, sea weeds, and soy products (tofu and tempeh). Choose fruits and veggies to ensure you are getting a variety of colours - green spinach, red bell peppers, purple plums, orange carrots, blue blueberries, pink watermelon, etc. 🍉🫐🍆🫑
Thirty plant-based foods per week may sound intimidating, especially if you tend to eat the same foods on repeat. To make things more difficult, the cost of food has been on the rise.
I recommend buying fruits & veggies at farmer’s markets and eating seasonally to cut costs. Frozen fruits and veggies tend to be cheaper and they last longer. Canned fruits, veggies, beans and lentils are very cost-effective as well.
So, what can eating 30 plants per week look like? 🍅🍒🍇🥑
🍳 Breakfasts: blueberries & raspberries with Greek yogurt, sautéed spinach and bell peppers in scrambled eggs, banana and peanut butter in smoothie, oatmeal with apple slices and almonds
🥗 Lunches: chickpea salad sandwich with celery, butternut squash soup, greek salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, roasted eggplant sandwich with mozzarella
🥘 Dinners: curried lentil stew with kale, black bean and sweet potato tacos, salmon with roasted asparagus and zucchini, beef stir fry with broccoli and Brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower pasta with chicken
🥜 Snacks: chocolate hummus with strawberries, blackberries and cottage cheese, beet hummus with whole grain crackers, watermelon with feta cheese, cherries with pecans, carrot sticks with hummus
Courtney Rae Jones is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. She is also a Culinary Nutrition Expert having completed her certification in alternative & specialized diets through the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. She specializes in digestive health and balancing women’s reproductive hormones. Check out Courtney’s website at www.crjnutrition.com.