Off The Shelf #31: Gut Shot
Read time: 4 minutes. Can you eat 30 plants in a week?
TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) version:
🧠 Your gut is directly linked to your brain, so this isn’t just a physical thing: poor gut health can result in bad sleep, anxiety and depression.
🔬 It is maintained by trillions of different bugs (microbes), doing different jobs. The more diverse this community, the stronger it will be, and your gut health will improve.
🌱 To get this diversity, the experts recommend eating 30 different plants per week. This is alot easier than it sounds and you’ll feel the benefits quickly.
It’s starting to dawn on people - me included - that gut health is important. Online search activity is trending upwards, and there’s no shortage of shiny books from radiant, photogenic gut health gurus.
But is this just another fad? Shouldn’t I just keep plouging on with calories in/calories out? Let us get on with our 5-a-day and be done with it?
Well, let’s look at why gut health is important.
This article lays it out nicely: the gut (the 9 metre digestive tract that runs all the way through the torso) plays a key role in a person’s overall wellbeing. It’s thought of as a second brain: indeed, it’s linked physically to the brain, with billions of chemical messages (neurotransmitters) in transit between them. Ever felt butterflies when feeling anxious? That’s your gut and your brain communicating. So if your gut’s in bad shape, your brain’s finding out about it, and it’s going to affect you mentally as well as physically.
The gut is maintained by trillions of gut microbes. Some are good, some are bad.
They form a community, known as the gut microbiota, which is like an organ - it weighs in at around the size of your brain.
The way the microbioata functions determines your gut health.
Good microbes aid digestion, absorb nutrients, produce vitamins and build immunity. They also help with hormone production: 95% of seratonin, your ‘happiness hormone’, and 50% of dopamin is produced in your gut. So these microbes can have a clear impact on mood and emotions.
Bad microbes can undo this good work. An imbalance can cause all sorts of issues, from headaches and heartburn, to digestive issues, to poor sleep patterns and even depression. The good news is that we have some control over this through our diets, because our microbes feed from what we eat.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to go full nutritionist on you. If you want a wealth of credible scientific research in an easy-to-digest form, Zoe provides it. I’m going to skip to the conclusion: for a healthier gut, your diet needs to be diverse, colourful and filled with plants, since these are packed with the nutrients that your gut microbes love.
There are a number of experts on the gut health scene who offer relatable and accessible education on this. One of them is Doctor Tim Spector, the brains behind Zoe. He appeared last week in an excellent episode of the Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, which I recommend if this subject piques your interest. Never mind that Bartlett, despite claiming that the interview was changing the way he thinks about dieting, failed to remove the advert for ultra-processed Huel, which interrupts half-way through. Sponsorship trumps all though, eh?
Another is Dr Megan Rossi, the Gut Health Doctor. She’s a passionate advocate for the diversity diet - the idea that variety and diversity is key to building a more resilient gut, rather than calorie counting or restricting your favourite foods.
It makes sense to me when you think of the gut as a system. The more diverse the constituents, the more resilient the system is going to be: this is true across all walks of life - sports teams, businesses, investment portfolios, societies. Why should the gut be any different? Having lots of different microbes, specialising in different things, all working together, is going to help build resilience. And these microbes can be determined by us in what we eat.
Clearly, some common sense will also be required: Rossi’s approach isn’t about cutting stuff out, but it’s not about gorging on junk food, either. Moderation is still going to be required.
The diversity diet, which is laid out in full detail in Rossi’s book Eat More, Live Well, is built around eating at least 30 different plants.
Every week.
It sounds insane, but there’s more to plants than just lettuce, fruits and vegetables. Nuts and seeds play a big part, as do grains and beans. Herbs count. Even olive oil. Once I saw that I wouldn’t have to limit drizzling olive oil onto everything, I was in. And it’s actually not that hard to hit 30. Little hacks help: sprinkling seeds onto servings, giving your pasta dish a drizzling of extra virgin olive oil, finishing off your roast potatoes by tossing with herbs: all of this helps to get your plant count up. I’m not afraid to admit I started a spreadsheet.
I found the effects of diversifying my diet weren’t so much physical – although I did notice less bloating than usual. But the mental effects were significant: I felt more energised, craved less sugar, and had more focus. What really stunned me was how quickly the transformation happened: I started to notice results within a couple of days.
If you’re not in the mood for a full regime change, here are some tips to boost your plant intake for a healthier gut. It’s not a zero-sum game, so even one or two tweaks might have a huge impact:
Vary your diet (“eat the rainbow”) to build diversity.
Eat more fruit and veg. (Yawn)
Add nuts and seeds. Keep a jar or a packet next to your cooker, and sprinkle them onto meals when you’re serving up. You’ll hardly notice them but the benefits are significant.
Start liking legumes (think chickpeas and lentils). Supplement meat dishes with legumes - so for example, use half lentis and half mince in your spag bol.
Embrace whole grains (oats, bulgur, quinoa). Rather than reaching for the rice every time you have a curry, try something different.
There are a number of rabbit holes associated with gut health - far too many to mention here. Start with Zoe and you’ll see what I mean. I know not everyone reading is a plant-based fanatic (neither am I), but hopefully I’ve highlighted a fresh perspective, and provided some food for thought.
Have you tried the diversity diet? Is this just a fad? Let me know by replying directly to this email, or leaving a comment.
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Data as of 8 January 2023. Just to keep my senior politician readership out of hot water on Sunday morning TV. Price of milk represented by the average price of comparable 2-pint bottles at 5 major retailers in the United Kingdom (Tesco, Aldi, Sainsbury’s Waitrose and Marks & Spencer). Index is equally weighted and based on online prices. Methodology is purely proprietary and utterly unscientific. For actual price data that might be remotely useful for economic analysis, try the Office for National Statistics.
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Another excellent article. In Japan your target is 10 a day - though spices (even black pepper) count too. So 70 a week!
Excellent article Liam thank you and very clear. Sugar is also the biggest killer and most difficult to give up. Tried doing it for week to see how my body reacted. Seem to have more energy and not so difficult to give up even though there are loads of sugary stuff within my eyesight.