How to eat 30 plants this week | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Prof. Tim Spector

Thirty plants this week, think you could do it? It might sound a lot, but it’s easier than you think. Fruit, veg, nuts, seeds, even coffee all count as plants.

Legendary chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall joins us to share tips on eating more plants. Hugh’s new book ‘How to Eat 30 Plants a Week’ explores the wild world of legumes, grains, herbs and beyond. He explains that getting your thirty plants each week can be simple, fun and delicious.

Joining Hugh is Tim Spector - professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and ZOE’s scientific co-founder. Tim explains why our gut microbiome loves plants, highlighting the importance of polyphenols, healthy fats and fiber.

You’ll finish this episode inspired, empowered and likely... hungry.

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Timecodes

00:00 Thirty plants every week?

01:57 Quickfire questions

05:04 What happens when we digest plants?

08:43 Why are plants so different?

11:28 Why eating the rainbow is important 

18:42 Why 30 plants?

22:13 How much fiber should you eat a day?

25:53 The science that proves the power of plants

32:00 How to get more plants in your diet

34:45 How to get more plants on-the-go

38:36 Plant-based cooking made simple

46:45 Are dried and frozen plants just as nutritious?

47:51 How does cooking affect plants

48:56 What to do with your leftovers

49:44 Do mushrooms count as plants?

51:06 How important is organic food? 

55:40 Hugh’s showstopper dish

57:16 Surprise taste-test from Hugh’s garden

Books

• Hugh’s book How To Eat 30 Plants a Week
• Tim’s book Food For Life

Free resources from ZOE:

• Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition 
• Gut Guide - for a healthier microbiome in weeks
• MenoScale Calculator - learn about your symptoms

Mentioned in today's episode

• American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research (2018), published in mSystems from American Society of Microbiology
• Could you eat 30 plant-based foods a week? (2021), published by World Cancer Research Fund
• Adults Meeting Fruit and Vegetable Intake Recommendations — United States (2019), published by Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
• Why 5 A Day? (2022), published by NHS
• Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption to reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases (2023), published by WHO
• Fruit and vegetable consumption and incident breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies (2021) published by British Journal of Cancer
• Consumption of Plant Seeds and Cardiovascular Health: Epidemiological and Clinical Trial Evidence (2013), published by Circulation

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Episode transcripts are available here.