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If you’ve become aware of the importance of gut health, you may be just as curious as we are about how people are achieving it. Optimal gut health has been attributed to many things. Adding probiotics, taking yoga classes, and eating certain foods are all conventional approaches to treating the gut with care.
However, with common trends that seem to work for so many, microbial makeups in each person are fundamentally diverse. Therefore, what’s right for one person’s gut is not necessarily the same for another. How can we determine a common factor with all these variances? A piece of information from a study conducted for gut health might be able to help.
The One Gut Health Commonality
A study published by the American Society for Microbiology demonstrated that among 11,000 people studied, one common factor was shared among those with the healthiest guts. Of the people surveyed, the individuals with the most diverse compositions were the healthiest, and each of these people was eating more than 30 different types of plants in a week.
How You Can Follow This
While it might seem complicated to achieve consuming this amount of plants in a week, it’s not as tough as you might assume. Much of our whole food sources come from plants, trees, crops, leaves, and roots. The trick is in making sure that you’re not consuming mostly additives, but instead raw or whole foods.
Making sure that you mix up which foods you’re eating, in general, helps achieve diversity of gut bacteria. Head over to our GR8 foods section for some GR8NESS curated guides on superfoods like garlic, bananas, turmeric, and more. Superfoods are essential for reducing the risk of disease, maintaining overall health, and absorbing beneficial nutrients. You’ll also see tips for adding fermented foods for a diverse diet. Try kimchi, kefir, kombucha, miso, or yogurt for a gut power-play.
If you’re thinking of giving the plant variety concept a try, here are some foods that stem from plants you can add to your diet today. Though, also you may find—the list goes on.
Veggies: Cucumber, eggplant, cabbage, tomato, carrot, sweet potato, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, kale, radishes, mushroom, and peas.
Fruits: Melon, plum, watermelon, blackberries, blueberries, squash, coconut, avocado, lemon, pepper, and pear.
Other: Oats, cacao, cilantro, and chia seeds.
Know What Works for You
While this study promotes the idea that all people can benefit from consuming this amount of plants per week, there’s not enough research to conclude that this is true for all people. That said, adjusting any habits about your diet or gut should be made with care. Make informed decisions and speak with your physician before making changes to your diet.
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