Plants for the Omnivore
Do you have to give up animal products to improve your gut microbiome and positively impact your health? Nope, you do not.
Research from the American Gut Project, the largest microbiome study to date, suggests that it is the ADDING IN of plants, rather than the removal of animal products, that is the key to gut health. The American Gut project looked at samples from over 11,000 subjects from 42 countries. They discovered that individuals who ate 30 or more different plants a week had a more diverse mix of gut microbes regardless of the diet they prescribed to (omnivore, vegetarian, vegan).
Adding diversity to your gut microbiome can happen whether you are a meat eater or entirely plant-based. It is not my goal to take the meat off your plate. My mission is simply to get you to up your plant game.
How can you get in 30 plants a week if you aren’t plant based? Here are a few ideas:
Add a variety nuts and seeds to your cereal with milk in the morning.
Top your meals with fresh herbs, like parsley, cilantro, basil, and dill.
In addition to russet and Yukon gold potatoes, add in baby reds, fingerlings, and sweet potatoes like red garnet, Hannah, and some of the amazing purple varieties.
If you typically cook white rice, try brown, wild, forbidden black rice, or even farro, barley, or wheat berries.
Sneak beans into your salads, soups, and sauces. If you have meat tacos, also add in black beans. If you make a salad, top it with garbanzos. If you make hummus, use more than one bean variety. Add red lentils to nearly any soup.
Reach for at least one new vegetable and one new fruit at the store each week.
Make one meal a day a huge salad with as many different veggies as you can pack in. If you’d like to top it with wild-caught salmon, feel free.
Make a soup (like the Thai green curry below) that is full of plant foods. Then, use meat sparingly as a flavor booster (as is done here with chicken).
You don’t need to give up the foods you love. The goal is to augment your diet with delicious whole plant foods. Your gut bugs will thank you, your meals will be even more delicious, and your health will flourish.
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