30 Plant Challenge
This challenge is over, but you can always celebrate the power of positive eating with Life Alive's 30 Plant Challenge, created to boost your gut health by eating 30 plants per week.
The challenge was inspired by one of the largest microbiome studies conducted by the American Gut Project, which shows that eating at least 30 whole, diverse plants per week can have a positive impact on your gut microbiome.
There are 40 trillion microbes residing in our gut, each performing a unique function and each craving different plant nutrition to thrive. Thus, diversifying our plant intake enriches our gut bacteria, and a healthy gut can support everything from blood sugar regulation to digestion, immunity, mood and much more.
Challenge Details:
Pick a week in any month to eat at least 30 different plants.
Track every different vegetable, fruit, whole grain, legume, nut and seed as 1 point. Herbs and spices count as ¼ point each.
Follow along @lifealivecafe for educational resources, trivia and most importantly, a healthy gut microbiome!
Tips & Tricks:
Coffee and tea count as ¼ point.
Different colors = a different plant. Pass those green, yellow and red bell peppers, please!
Plants must be in their whole, fibrous form—juice doesn’t count here. Many of the gut-enhancing benefits of plants comes from fiber, which juices don’t have.
To keep score, we've created this helpful tracker to log your weekly plant count.
Get Started
Many of our dishes are loaded with fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices.
Here's some of our favorites:
Avocado Greens: 19 pts
Mexicali Tostada: 18¾ pts
Buddha Bowl: 16¼ pts
Market Mediterranean: 16¼ pts
Miso Tofu Ramen: 15½ pts
Shiitake Udon 14 pts
Adventurer 13½ pts
Chili Garlic Noodles 13 pts
