30 plants a week checklist, with a worked UK week

Thirty different plants a week works out at four or five new ones a day, and one bag of frozen mixed veg is usually four of them. Variety is what counts, not quantity, and frozen, tinned and dried count the same as fresh. Below are the rules, a full week from ordinary UK shelves, and the cheap shortcuts.

What are the rules for counting 30 plants a week?

There are eight, and none of them is complicated.

1. One plant, one point, once a week. Two apples is one point, not two.
2. The same plant in a different form is still one point. Wholemeal bread and wholemeal pasta are both wheat. Tofu and edamame are both soya.
3. Different plants count separately, and under the usual convention different coloured varieties do too, so red and green peppers can be two points.
4. Fresh, frozen, tinned and dried all count the same.
5. Refined plants don’t count. White rice, white bread and shop bought fruit juice are out.
6. Herbs, spices, tea, coffee, garlic and extra virgin olive oil count a quarter of a point each, so four of them make one point. Vegetable stock counts a half.
7. Animal foods don’t count, and that includes honey, because bees make it.
8. Nobody official set these rules. They are a convention from The Gut Health Doctor and ZOE, built on one observational study from 2018, and they are not NHS guidance. The recommendation in England is still 5 A Day.

The reasoning behind rules 2, 5 and 7, food by food, is in does rice count as a plant point.

What should I buy to get to 30 plants?

A handful of things that sit in an ordinary British trolley. One bag of frozen mixed vegetables. One bag of frozen mixed berries. A bag of mixed seeds. Tins of chopped tomatoes, chickpeas and baked beans. A carton or tin of lentil soup. A tub of hummus. Oats, wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta and brown rice. A bag of spinach. Then whatever fruit and veg is cheap that week.

Nothing on that list comes from a health food shop and nothing needs a recipe. For keeping the bill down, see the cheapest way to eat 30 plants.

What does a 30 plant week look like?

Like this. It is an example week rather than anyone’s diary, and it reaches thirty by Saturday.

On top of that sit the quarter pointers that went in almost unnoticed: garlic, oregano, black pepper, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, extra virgin olive oil, coffee and tea. Nine of those is another two and a quarter points.

Look at what is doing the work. Monday delivers eight points, five of them from porridge and a spoon of seeds. Thursday delivers six, four from one scoop of frozen berries.

What are the cheapest ways to get more plant points?

The freezer, the tin cupboard and the spice rack.

A bag of frozen mixed veg. Usually four plants in one bag, carrot, pea, sweetcorn and green bean, and it sits in the freezer for months. Tip it into anything.

Frozen mixed berries. A four berry bag is four points on one bowl of porridge, and nothing goes off at the back of the fridge.

Tinned pulses. Chickpeas, lentils, butter beans, kidney beans, baked beans. Drained and rinsed, each tin is one point and keeps for a year.

A mixed seed pack. Sunflower, pumpkin and linseed in one bag is three points for one spoonful, on porridge, yoghurt, soup or a salad.

The spice rack you already own. Every jar is a quarter of a point. Four jars into one pot of chilli is a whole point for no extra shopping.

Wholemeal instead of white. Same shop, same shelf, same price bracket, and it turns a food that doesn’t count into one that does.

A tub of hummus. Chickpea and sesame, two points, with no preparation at all.

How quickly should I build up to 30 plants?

Slowly. Going at fibre too fast is the quickest way to bloating and wind, and a gradual change gives your gut time to adjust. More fibre, more bloating goes into why.

Start by counting what you already eat for one week without changing anything, so you know your real number. Then add two or three new plants each week. If you start at ten, a sensible first target is twelve or thirteen, not thirty. It gets easier once you are buying differently rather than trying harder.

For scale, UK adults are advised to get around 30g of fibre a day, and the British Dietetic Association puts the average UK adult at 18g. Counting plants is a way of walking towards that figure without weighing a thing.

Is there a 30 plants a week checklist I can fill in?

Yes, and it is free. The Thirty Plants Checklist is a fillable PDF, so you can tap and type into it on a phone without printing anything, or print it if you prefer paper. Tick each plant once and the week counts itself. If you are not sure whether plants, bloating or energy is the place to start, the which book quiz sorts that out.

One thing matters more than the count. If you have bleeding from your bottom, unexplained weight loss, a change in your bowel habit lasting three weeks or more, difficulty swallowing or a lump in your tummy, book a GP appointment rather than changing your diet. If you become seriously unwell, call NHS 111.