I’m going to try to keep a list this week

Well I’m finding that 30 a week is easy, I’m obviously already eating a wide variety of plants but I think I knew that. I just thought I would see how I measured up.
I was concerned that to achieve that goal I would run the risk of wasting vegetables but that doesn’t seem to be the case. So many more items are counted that I had thought.

Gundy I checked the Zoe website. I am not a cheat. Coffee and tea are counted.

I don’t think I want to go the whole way and join up to Zoe Shirley it sounds like a lot of commitment and is quite pricey. It would be interesting to hear from those who have though.

I couldn’t count breakfast this morning because it was the same as yesterday’s.
🤔

That makes it sound rather a fad than sensible!

DD investigated it but balked at the cost.

I would imagine that anyone eating a varied diet is - and always has been - eating 30 different plant based items a week without even knowing it. I have clocked up 25 in two days eating to the menu plan I made a week ago and making no effort to add extra items.

When you start talking about 30 a day, that is just silly. It amazes me how humankind spread out of Africa and now numbers 8 billion without having all the immense amount of nutritional information we now have. Did they count their 30 a week, or go low carb, and yet we have procreated and multiplied to the current population, so they must have done something right.

Callistemon213

^I couldn’t count breakfast this morning because it was the same as yesterday’s.^
🤔

That makes it sound rather a fad than sensible!

You could maybe, if yesterday was the end of last week and today was the start of a new week.

As a challenge I did once prepare a buddah bowl meal with thirty different vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices. It was delicious, although the two hoyrs it took to prepare was a faff.

A portion of fruit & veg for the 5-a-day is quite big - I think tea & coffee are mainly useful for their fluid content rather than a source of vitamins / fibre as they're infusions. A portion is a large banana, two tangerines, 3 heaped tablespoons of frozen peas. I always understood it's all about the proportion of your diet that's fruit / pulse / vegetable although variety is good, surely it's secondary. If I ate 10 portions a day I wouldn't eat anything else as I don't eat that much any more - & we do need our fatty acids & B12 & calcium as well so that wouldn't work for me.Still, doing a list for a month to see if you get 30 is quite fun I suppose.

Actually Callistemon I think it makes it seem less of a fad. It shows that you don’t need to change your diet if you are already eating a wide variety of plants.

I didn’t realise that ZOE sell a supplement that you sprinkle onto your meals that gives you 30 different foodstuffs. It’s not cheap but I was tempted to give it a go but then read that, as with most things it could possibly make IBS worse. When I first started taking prebiotic inulin I had an awful stomach ache ( I probably didn’t introduce it slowly enough but it made me realise it must be doing something).

I expect to hit 30 plant foods tomorrow, only 5 days into the week. No hassle, no changes to normal diet.

Well there are some strange misunderstandings on this thread as to what the Zoe recommendations are.
I'm sure sugar - one of the biggest causes of ill health ever - was suggested as a joke. I'm just waiting for someone to suggest cannabis as one of the 30.......
If anyone is interested, here's a link to a video done for Zoe by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall which is very enlightening. I can recommend the seed crackers (which my DH refers to as Trill crackers) www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlHmbx4Pu1g

Calipso I think you are right. Gut health has been an interesting topic for me for a while now and I think I can say that Tim Spector has got quite a lot of expertise in that field. His latest book was quite a heavy read but I plowed through it a chapter at a time.
The sugar came as a bit of a surprise to me too but the poster who suggested it had a point. It does come from a plant😂

Monica so will I . Then I can carry on my usual diet without thinking about it and not having to count anything because I know that I am eating a wide variety of plants without any hassle.

I’m afraid I find books difficult to get through so I listen to the ZOE podcasts.

Monica so will I . Then I can carry on my usual diet without thinking about it and not having to count anything because I know that I am eating a wide variety of plants without any hassle. PamelaJ1

That is exactly my reaction.

Done it. Over 30 now with 3 days to go.
So end of my challenge.
Not much of a challenge actually - it was so easy that I expect that most of us are doing it without really being aware.

I will hit target Friday lunch time - and well exceed it, with 2 days to go.

It was a doddle - and using a meal plan drawn up last week before this question of 30 a week came up.

I’ve found it harder than others, it’s the IBS triggering foods that restrict me because I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, but not the variety to get up to 30, or I’m suffering for it. I’m going to target having more herbs and spices to get me up to 30 by Monday. It’s been a good exercise for me though.

I have come to the conclusion that this '30 a week' idea is just a publicity stunt, as anyone with a half decent to good diet is probably going to be consuming 30 different plants a week, given that it includes, tea, sugar, coffee etc.

After 5 days I am up to nearly 50 and added 9 today just by putting a tin of mixed beans into a vegetarian chilli. The can contained 9 different types of bean.

The only people who may not be meeting this standard are those with bad diets, who will not take any notice of anything like this and those whose diet is restricted because of allergies and/or diet restricting illnesses.

I don’t think it is a publicity stunt Monica just the continued effort of a few knowledgeable people to get us to think about what we eat. We found it easy but some may struggle then up their variety of foods.
Remember when Jamie Oliver tried to get children to eat healthily? Their parents pushed ‘bad’ food through the school railings.
Some people think we are what we eat, some don’t.
Anyway I’m glad that I had a go and even happier that it was so easy.
BTW I think you beat me.

No competition, it was just that a vegtable chilli required a tin of mixed beans and the mix was 9 different beans!