Why Variety Matters

Our gut microbiomes play an important role in nearly every aspect of our physical and cognitive health. The microbiome impacts everything from our weight, to our triglyceride levels, to our mood and the clarity of our thinking.

Research has shown that having a richly and diversely populated microbiome is associated with improved immune function,
increased neuroplasticity, heightened cognitive ability,
and reduced risk for heart disease, diabetes, depression, and dementia.

By contrast, a sparsely populated or imbalanced microbiome is considered to be Dysbiotic and is associated with conditions as far reaching as obesity, increased risk of stroke, and heightened rates of mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia and ADHD. The Standard American Diet (SAD) of high saturated fat, high sugar, and highly refined and processed foods devoid of fiber often leads to dysbiosis and a proliferation of harmful gut bugs, which in turn compromises both our mental and physical health.

Luckily, our microbiome composition can change significantly in just a few days. Nothing is set in stone, and we have the power to positively impact our microbe populations. In a recent study published in Nature, researchers found that “the bacteria that lives in peoples’ guts is surprisingly responsive to change in diet…Within days we saw not just a variation in the abundance of different kinds of bacteria, but in the kinds of genes they were expressing.”

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-guts-microbiome-changes-diet/
www.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24336217/

One of the most effective ways to positively influence your microbiome composition is to add plant variety to your diet. The American Gut Project analyzed the stool samples from over 11,000 human subjects, mostly from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. The researchers found that individuals who ate 30 or more different plant species a week had more diversely and richly populated microbiomes. Plant foods include not only produce, but also legumes, nuts, seeds, spices, herbs, whole grains, and fermented foods. Ideally, approximately 80 to 90% of our diets should come from whole plant food sources, no matter if you are a meat eater or fully plant-based. It is the adding in of a wide variety of unrefined plant foods that is the cornerstone of optimal health and microbiome vitality.

Variety matters because each of our trillions of gut bugs
has a different food preference. Some like resistant starch,
others prefer fat, others thrive on soluble fiber.
In addition, each whole plant food has a slightly different vitamin,
amino acid, and antioxidant profile.
Eating variety ensures that we are getting all the nutrients we need,
while at the same time feeding a wide array of healthy gut microbes.

Take potatoes, for instance. I could just chose one form of potato to eat each week, as indeed I used to. I always reached for russet potatoes and I rarely branched out. Now, I eat both white and sweet potatoes on a weekly basis. By why stop with only one form of sweet potato when we can enjoy not only the typical red garnets, but also gorgeous purple sweet potatoes with their stunning violet interiors and cake-like Japanese Murasaki sweet potatoes with their creamy white centers? These varieties all have different antioxidant, fiber, and phytonutrient profiles, and they feed different gut bugs, helping to sustain diverse microbiome populations.

The same is true for fermented foods. Each fermented food seeds our gut with beneficial microbe species, but the specific type of gut microbes vary widely depending on the probiotic food you consume. A single cup of sauerkraut contains over 10 million CFUs (colony forming units) of helpful lactobacillus. Yogurt with live cultures is packed with beneficial bifidobacteria. Miso contains primarily helpful Aspergillus oryzae fungus. You get the idea. Not only should we be adding in fermented foods daily, but for optimal gut diversity and richness, we should be adding in a variety of probiotic foods each week.

The same is true with any whole food plant category. Instead of just reaching for spinach, we could also opt for kale, chard, or watercress. Instead of always eating oatmeal, we could also toss in a bit of quinoa, puffed amaranth, or millet. Instead of always buying button mushrooms, we could try shiitake, oyster, or enoki.

Clearly, there are food deserts where variety is scarce, and huge swathes of our nation’s people do not have access to a wide array of healthy food choices. This larger systemic problem of nutrient starvation for our poorest communities is a leading cause of our obesity, diabetes, and heart disease health crises. Not everyone has the freedom and great privilege to choose food variety.

If you are blessed enough to have resources and access to a wide array of whole plant foods, I encourage you to acknowledge this great privilege, and then to consider if you would like to take advantage of it in order to improve your physical and cognitive health.

Focusing on variety is a relatively easy change to make that will have big dividends, both immediately and in the future.

Right now, you are laying the tracks for your health trajectory.
The actions you engage in consistently now
will predict your health status in the decades to come.
Choosing to consume a wide variety of whole plant foods
is an easy way to optimize your chances of a healthy future.
Choosing variety isn’t difficult.
It just takes a little mindfulness and practice.

🌱Wishing you a day filled with variety and abundance.

For more information, please see:
www.link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-4099-8_20
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7306068/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835969/