HELLO 30 A WEEK
Forget five a day…
If you’re used to counting your five portions of fruit and veg every day, it could be time to consider adjusting your habits. Research suggests variety is key – and quite a lot of variety at that. Sue Quinn unpeels the truth
We’re all familiar with the five-a-day rule. It refers, of course, to the number of recommended 80g servings of fruit and vegetables you should consume daily for optimum health. But growing numbers of nutritional experts now believe there’s a better target to aim for when it comes to eating enough of the good stuff.
They’re recommending we try to eat 30 different plant foods each week in order to keep our gut microbiome in tip-top shape. That’s the complex system of trillions of microbes in our gut that profoundly influence our physical and mental health.
The magic number 30 stems from a 2018 study by the American Gut Project (initiated by scientists at the University of California San Diego), which also involved participants from Australia, the UK and 42 other countries.