how to eat more diverse plants
eating plant-based can be one of the most nourishing things you do for your body—especially if you’re taking in the diversity of plants. this post is going to set you up on the right path so you can reap all the benefits of eating a plant-powered diverse diet!
Plant-based diversity is one of my core Glow Life Beliefs & because it’s so important to me, I thought I would make a whole post showing you how you can eat a more diverse plant-based diet.
WHY DOES EATING A DIVERSE PLANT-BASED DIET MATTER?
It might (not) come as a shocker to you, but it all links back to your gut. I’m sure you’re hearing more and more about the microbiome, and for good reason; it’s the powerhouse that helps us with mood regulation (the majority of our serotonin is made here), our digestion + what we assimilate from our food (aka how many nutrients we get out of what we eat), and when your microbiome is in good standings, it helps keep the bad microbes at bay—and plants are your ally for ALL of this!
But how do plants help specifically?
When we eat a lot of diverse plants (this really is the key—eating kale everyday won’t help you, unfortunately), your gut microbes feed off the ONE thing that you can ONLY get from plant-based sources: FIBER!
Your gut microbes love fiber and when you consume a lot of it from all kinds of plants, you increase the diversity of the microbes in your gut because each microbe feasts on different foods/fibers and in response, they produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA). These are responsible for a whole host of things that happen in our body (like the things mentioned above: assimilating nutrients from our food, to maintaining a good balance of bacteria in the gut, keeping our immune system boosted), but most importantly, we need to understand that when we take care of them, they take care of us.
Since microbes rely on fiber as their fuel and fiber only comes from plants, and we need many different sources of fiber coming into our bodies so our microbes thrive, then it makes perfect sense that we need to eat as many different plants as we can on a week-to-week basis.
So now that we completely understand the importance of plant-based diversity in the diet, let’s dive into some ways to make this happen!
🌱HOW TO EAT MORE DIVERSE PLANTS🌱
We’ll take it in steps with the ultimate goal to leave here feeling like you are ready to tackle eating the diverse plant kingdom!
STEP ONE: AWARENESS
When I first started exploring eating a more diverse plant-based diet, I became suuuuper aware while out shopping, meal prepping, snacking, etc. I started to really explore what other fruits & vegetables were out there that I might have ignored/overlooked in the past & what more I could be eating together in the same sitting. So next time you’re shopping, instead of going right for your regulars, take a quick look at what’s beside/around them and thinking about how to use more plants in a meal!
This is probably the most important part of the process. It’s got to be a mind IN routine aka you want to tap into doing this so you’re being super mindful of how you go about it. Plus, it’ll be SO fun to see what you’ve been missing this whole time!
Get on track!
Now is also probably a good time to start tracking how many different plants you’re already eating in a given week and once you have a better idea of your current diversity, then you’ll want to continue on! To help in keeping track, I’ve included a plant tracker for you to download! This way you can keep tally & make it super easy! (You might be surprised to learn that you’re already doing awesome!)
STEP 2: CHALLENGE YOURSELF
This has been & continues to be my favourite part about eating with plant-based diversity in mind: challenging myself each and every week with new plants.
So, now that you’ve scanned the grocery store/market to see what else is there that you might have been missing & keeping a plant tally in your tracker, now’s the time to actually start incorporating a few new things!
And the best way to do it is to challenge yourself with the…
THE GLOW LIFE PLANT CHALLENGE:
Add one new* fruit or vegetable into your diet each & every week.
*= new can mean something you’ve never eaten before (captain obvious, right? 😆) OR it can mean something you haven’t eaten in a few weeks (because our gut microbes are always constantly adapting and changing that even in a few weeks time is a world of a difference to them!).
This challenge is something I personally do every.single.week. You better believe that I head to the farmer’s market each Saturday with this intention at the forefront!
MY FAVE WAYS TO FIND NEW PLANTS:
shopping seasonally/locally: this way you’re not only getting the freshest of the freshest, but you’re learning what’s growing in that season + your area!
example: I did this a month back with sunchokes. I had NEVER gotten them before, but they were at my fave local organic produce booth, so I took it as an awesome opportunity to put this challenge to use (and don’t worry we’ll talk next about what the heck to do with your new produce items!)
purchasing produce combo specials: so this is totally something that’s available at my farmer’s market, again at same fave produce stand, they do produce combos for $15 and you don’t get to choose what’s in them (hence why they’re priced so fairly), so you most definitely will get something in there that’s new/you haven’t used in a while. I find this is a fun layer added to the challenge😉
shopping around: aka not always going to the same stores! Maybe if you only grocery shop at one store right now, you try out another one just to see if they offer anything different!
Sidenote: I know I’m generalizing to just fruits & vegetables counting as plants, but take a look at the list below to see all the different ways you can add new plants into your diet each week:
Wondering how to prepare your new plant item?!
I understand that getting the new plant item is easier than preparing something you’ve never cooked with and/or eaten before so here’s a helping hand…
Head here and type your new plant item (ex: sunchokes) into the search bar in the top right hand corner and it will populate all the plant-based recipes in the database that use that ingredient. Brilliant, right?!?
And finally, the last step…
STEP 3: KEEP IT SIMPLE
Plants don’t need to be complicated. They are full of vital nutrients & flavours that often they can be prepared in the simplest ways, while still tasting delicious.
If ever you’re feeling overwhelmed, just come back to this idea. It’s actually my motto for the summer: simple, yet delicious meals. Which is why I shared my recipe for pesto pasta (could basil be your new plant one week?) and muhammara sauce (which is a delicious combo of roasted red peppers & walnuts—2 new plants for the tracker!), so check those out and make your motto about simplicity, too!
I also highly recommend you check the back index in cookbooks to search for the plant ingredient you’re looking to prepare—I share my fave vegan cookbook collection here if you need some inspiration to pull from!
I hope these tips have helped! And I can’t wait to see all about your diverse plant-based diets!!
xo char
IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF YOUR MEALS COMPLETELY THEN…
Sakara has a Signature Nutrition Program which is nutritionally-designed + chef-crafted organic meals delivered to your door, ready-to-eat. These are FULL of diverse plants, so that you can just enjoy & remove the guesswork!
Take a peek at next week’s menu here!
They have several meal delivery options (2, 3 or 5 days + either 2 or 3 meals/day) & make you feel so nurtured on so many levels! (And you’ll also get a sample from their wellness products to go along with it!)
A special note: If you’re brand new to Sakara, when you sign up for the meals, you can use my special discount code to save 20% off that first order! Just click below & at checkout use code: GLOWWITHCHARSAKARA!
(And if you’re curious to learn more about Sakara as a company (they have more goodness on top of the meal service!) + why I partnered with them, head here!)
