Counting my sources of fibre ....

rebrascora

rebrascora

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
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I think it might have been Tim Spectre from the Zoe Project who suggested that the more different sources of fibre we can include each day in our diet was beneficial for our gut flora and I have a feeling that 30 was mentioned but I can't remember if that was per day or in a week. Anyway, I was thinking about this and how easy or difficult it might be to achieve and have been looking at my food more closely today and just doing a bit of totting up.
Here is my list for today so far....

Breakfast was creamy Greek style yoghurt with berries and seeds and sprinkle of nutty granola and a dusting of cinnamon..... so I have fibre from....
1. Raspberries
2. Blueberries
3, 4, 5 and 6 Mixed seeds...Sunflower, Pumpkin, Hemp and Linseed
7, 8 ,9 10 and 11 Oats, Almond, Brazil, Cashew and Hazelnuts from the Granola
12. Cinnamon

Lunch is a bowl of homemade chicken broth which contains
13. Leeks
14. Carrots
15. Swede
16. Celery
17, 18, 19 and 20 are from Broth mix being Barley, Peas, Split Yellow Peas and Red Lentils
21 and 22 I added a teaspoon each of Chia Seeds and Psyllium Husk to thicken it (and add extra fibre)
23. Freshly Ground Black Pepper

So.... it looks like I only have 7 different ones to find before bed to hit the 30. Not sure what I am having for my evening meal yet but might have to put my thinking hat on. Maybe not as challenging as I thought to hit 30 in the day.
If I hadn't fished the bay leaves back out of the broth I could have counted those too but didn't fancy trying to chew my way through them! 🙄
 
I am not sure if it was the same thing or not because I heard this second hand from my parents and they were definitely not referring to fibre.
They talked about eating at least 30 different plant based items to balance gut flora. So that could be the obvious fruit, veg and seeds but also herbs and spices. So, even if you only added a pinch of chilli powder, it counted as an additional plant based item. Or, if you had a cup of coffee, that was coffee beans and a cup of tea was tea leaves and, if you had a chai you could count each of the different spices included. Earl Grey would count as two because you have the tea and the bergamot.

I wouldn't say I eat as many as 30 different plant based items every day but I rarely have any veg without herbs and spices and quaff different herbal infusions throughout the day.

I wonder if grapes are counted with wine and all the botanicals are counted individually with gin :confused:
 
Maybe I got it wrong and I didn't need to rule out coffee and tea and my bay leaves, none of which add fibre. I am conscious that my ground black pepper is just a tiny amount of fibre from that source so it feels like a bit of a cheat and obviously not much from my cinnamon although my dusting of it on my yoghurt has become progressively heavier as the months and years go by.

Anyway, I have now grazed on a few black olives and a couple of handfuls of peanuts, so I am now up to 25 and another 5 tonight shouldn't be too difficult to achieve by the look of it.
 
Is that the Whole 30 thing or whatever it’s called? About eating 30 or more plants a week/day like @helli says? I think a few people promote that and it’s a good way to eat more plants and to get variety into your diet.

Years ago I think I read that we’re supposed to have 30g of fibre a day. Could that be where the ‘30’ has come from? Either way, eating 30 types of plants and eating plenty of fibre are both good things (unless people have a medical reason or advice not to).
 
I remember reading about it and it was the 30 different a week. I found it difficult but it does include seeds and spices and I think tea and coffee.
@rebrascora that is very impressive feasting. My problem is I live on my own and need a new freezer. Once I have a new freezer I will bulk cook soup etc.

When I heard about the Zoe 30 I watched a video of hugh Fearnley Whittingstall cooking. ( before i knew i was diabetic)He does of course have talent, lots of space and an amazing garden.
Here is one of the videos. If you go to the Zoe channel all his contributions are good but he does do a dried fruit pudding which is probably not type 2 friendly

 
Whenever I ate apples I always ate the whole thing - except the stalk.
I lived in a house with an orchard as a child - pears and gooseberries were also entirely consumed, and I think raspberries and various colours of currant were available, but they were inside the fruit nets so not so accessible.
Maybe that accounts for my slightly unusual ability to digest things, carbs in particular.
 
I don't count the plants I eat each day but, when I cook from scratch, I realise how much I use.
The cookies I baked yesterday contain four different plants wheat, sugar, vanilla and strawberries. Even only I added chocolate chips for another.
And the bread I baked contained 8 different seeds plus flour.
While that is not a huge amount, it is more than some may think from "just carbs".
I wonder how many plants are included in the equivalent packets of cookies and sliced bread.
 
@helli maybe that is why I am considering 30 different sources of fibre from fruit and vegetables etc rather than just plant based foods. Using sugar on the list as a plant based food, which it is of course, seems more of a cheat than my ground black pepper. Anyway, sugar definitely isn't making it onto menu, nor flour.

To finish off, my evening meal was home made ratatouille topped with mozzarella and I already had 25 on my list before that, so.....

26. Aubergine
27. Courgette
28, Red Pepper
29. Red and Brown Onions which can be classed as 2 separate items I believe, but don't need to as I have enough to get to 30.
30. Garlic
31. Tomatoes


There were also mixed herbs and a glug of port but don't think I obtained any fibre from that. 🙄 I also put the remaining black olives that were left in the jar in it but I already counted them as a snack after lunch and you can't count the same thing twice.

So I achieved my 30 in a day instead of a week. I have leftovers, which will struggle to last
beyond tomorrow as I have really enjoyed all my food today, so will be very keen to eat them tomorrow too. The ratatouille in particular was just heavenly even if I say so myself (and I forgot to add my usual glug of balsamic to it) I have eaten nearly half of it because I kept going back for seconds and then thirds. I really have no "off switch" when I enjoy something.
 
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