We go to stands, stores, and wholesalers that sell organic fruit or cut fruit when they are cutting or sorting it in the morning. We take a stack of plastic cups and scoop seeds and discarded ones into them, stacking a 2/3ds full cup on top of others, This ends in a tower of free seeds. Melons, cukes, radishes, carrot and turnip tops, celery stems and discarded potatoes and herbs are the best. If we stay out of their way and drop off a couple of muffins or a few eggs, they are happy to help us. Great places for free organic seeds which grow great. Fruit and vegetable wholesalers are good dumpsters to dive into, much of it is fine to eat :)
I learned so much from you today with this video. Thanks for quality content that anyone can use to improve their health, their budget, and the feeling that everything we choose to do, will benefit us, which builds confidence in ourselves to make it through this difficult time.
I watched a RUclips video with Tim Spector suggesting we eat 30 different plants a week not a month. I have tried to achieve this over the last two weeks and it really isn 't as difficult as it sounds.
I’ve had to downsize drastically and don’t have room for composting but I have room for a few pots. I have started vermicultre I.e. worm farm it’s fascinating I highly recommend it 👍
I'd really recommend checking out Tim Spector if you don't already know him. Lots of him on RUclips and the Zoe podcast is so interesting. He's one of the leading scientists doing stuff on the gut biome. This is exactly what he talks about.
Thanks for the reminder! When you list all the minor seeds & herbs as well as the obvious & main items I hadn't realised just what a variety I was eating I live in a flat and so I don't have a garden, so the only fruit & veg I eat are those that I buy, but I try to shop around to find the best buys and make up a variety However, I used to do sprouting seeds in a jar on my windowsill, but when I'd used up the last lot I stopped; I think I'll start doing that again
Hi Tess great link to the broadcast. I am a volunteer with the twins study that this research is based on. Any twins can volunteer. It is based at St Thomas's hospital in London. I am on a budget but increase the variety of foods I eat by freezing any veg extra veg and using later. So, a week that I don't buy broccoli, I can still use some from for frozen. Another way is to buy items that already contain a large mix of grains or seeds, or make my own mixes or each serving already contains a good selection of grains seeds or nuts.
Interesting topic but I'm afraid that the programme said 30 plant items per week not month. (17 minutes in) it's still do-able but needs a bit more thought and planning
I downloaded the BBC sound app and it's free. The program on December 4th was very informative. Thank you. Your right, when you use herbs, seeds, nuts to include vegetables. It's easy to get the 30. I thought about what I eat on a plant based diet and it fits right in. One thing I need to do is not get into a rut and only eat the same foods all the time but switch it up more. Good thing I love stir frys. Thank you for the information.
I am in the US and we can listen to any BBC radio programme, most are available for at least a month. PS Mary's test kitchen, Peaceful Cuisine are great vegan channels, Sauce Stace specializes in vegan "meat" recipes.
I just checked the ingredients on brownsauce. I was surprised! It contains lots of foods I don't normally eat but that are actually great....mine has dates, cloves, molasses, tomato, tamarind, ginger, chilli, nutmeg, garlic.
I also keep and use scrap paper and envelopes for lists etc. I try to put between 10 and 12 veggies in soups, five to eight in salads and sandwiches. If we have a sandwich without salad veggies, I add them on the side. I love snacking on radishes, carrot, celery and cabbage. I soak cucumber slices in apple cider vinegar for me and malt vinegar for my husband as a snack with benefits. I quickly counted at least 40 different plant types, its probably more when you count occasional fruit like berries.
Well done Tess. I need to sort out my seeds. I also get them at Wilko . So much cheaper than other shops and they all taste the same ! Hope you all are well. I had a scare - I'm now pre diabetic so I've cut out eating chocolate chrisps and biscuits. Been going to a healthy eating meeting and have lost 8 lbs ! Was hard the first week but weight loss has helped. I dread to think of what I've spent on chocolate over the years ! Could go on a world cruise with it ! Ha ! Wil sort out my seeds this afternoon and get some planted . 👍😁👍
Isn't it 30 different fruit/veg per week rather than month? I really like Tim Spector and this approach. Dr Megan Rossi also uses the same number. What I found interesting was the herbs/spices and even coffee counts, but only as a 1/4 portion rather than 1 portion. But by the time you think of all the different things you eat - like you say, it can be quite achievable on a budget. Things like beans/pulses and herbs can be easily bought or grown. I love to think what I can grow to increase our exposure and especially when its foods you can't buy easily in our supermarkets.
I was thinking the same, it's definitely per week not month. I've been preaching this message for everyone because everyone seems stuck on 5 a day which is no longer relevant!
I have sown my chillies couple weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised how well they germinated this year. I have to sow broad beans again as the autumn ones got eaten and damaged by the weather. I hope the weather is kind to all of us this year so we all get a great harvest. Petra (Tony's wife)
Thanks for the video Tess. I'm already making a list in my head LOL. It's not hard to get up to 30 and an easy way to eat lots of different plants in one meal is to add them to pasta sauce or soup but also using mixed stir fry veggies. My mum used to have a huge planter in her garden with different kinds of lettuce and go pick some just before she plated up the rest of her food, couldn't be fresher and lots of variety!
I follow Tim spector of the Zoe app and was pleased to learn that I've been eating a minimum of 30 plants a month. More like 8 per day! I have to follow low Fodmap via Monash University so some of the veg are out for me. Wheat, alliums, and cruciferous vegetables. I've had to become very inventive with cooking!
I listened Tess and made a promise to myself to use my iplayer more. Just out of interest, I added up the different plant items in my meal. I had made vegetable pasties served with stir fried cabbage and spring onions sprinkled with dill. I counted 12 different things. I was surprised because when I first thought about it, I would say I would fail because I only eat home produced seasonal veg, but I was wrong which is encouraging!!
Tess, using your link, without a subscription, (I am in Texas in the US), I was able to listen to the December 4, 2022, Food Programme, Nutrition's Dark Matter: The New Science of Eating. I had no knowledge of this access to BBC programs. What a bonus for listening to you today. They did say 30 different plants per week (not month), and it is not hard to do, using everything you mentioned. Thank you so very much. Best wishes, and prayers for you, the UK, and all of the world, during this hard time.
I’ve been buying spinach instead of lettuce. It’s far more nutritious and half the cost and lettuce has nothing really nutritional to add. I will keep doing this until my own spinach grows. I also add dandelion leaves, kale, or arugula (perennial) when they appear. Add nuts, seeds, red pepper, grated beet - coloured explosion of goodness! Thanks for information! Take care.🐇
I’m in Australia and found the programme easily. Thanks so much for the info and podcast suggestion. I have a bunch food-related content to devour, now! As an person that eats mostly plant-based, I will be making a list of the different plant foods I eat, later. I suspect it will be quite a long list. Great topic, Tess!
Very interesting Tess. I am going to do a similar list to identify how much variety we are getting from our meals each month. Thank you for this inspiration.
That is how I get my family to eat kale & zucchini, dried & powdered or in bits. Makes sense to eat a variety of foods for different vitamins & minerals, etc.
Thank you for this information about how to add variety to our diet. We have a lot of shade, so right now I am just concentrating on having a little garlic/herb/salad bed on the sunny strip beside our back sunroom. I never thought of using clamshell containers for mini greenhouses! We just got a composter off a free group on Facebook in the fall, so we might only have enough for this strip of land, but that's a start. I hope I didn't cause offense by my Dickensian novel comment yesterday. Just an outsider looking in, but I can empathize with the average person in Britain dealing with powers that exist that seem to delight in widening the gap between the rich and not so rich. It seems to be a mentality worldwide. Right now we are worried about cutbacks in services that are managed provincially here in Canada. There is talk about privatization of clinics in Ontario, which means we might have a gap between health care for rich and poor. I love this channel Tess, and have learned a lot from your videos.
Ok, I have done it. It sounded daunting but we actually do eat more than 30 types regularly without knowing it. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown onions, red onions, cucumber, scallions, garlic, red capsicum, green capsicum,.zucchini, tomatoes, mixed lettuce leaves, Vietnamese mint, rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, oregano, peas, snow peas, ginger, corn, Brussel sprouts, turnip,savoy cabbage, Chinese cabbage, bok chop, pistachio nuts, peanut butter,rhubarb, apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, mandarins, lemon, black berries.
My ground beef-veg soup that I eat almost daily contains 13 veg. It would be more if I added kale and spinach but I can’t eat those. I’ll start to incorporate zucchini (corvettes) and will probably find more! (When I was a kid, we went around the table, each of us naming an ingredient in mom’s vegetable soup. She cheated by adding one bean so only she would know.)
thanks for info. you mentioned putting kale powder in different dishes. do you make powder of other veggies family doesn't care for? great way to get nutrients from vegetables don't like.
It's a really great way of 'sneaking' in some extra veg 😊. I dehydrate anything I have a glut of, but do like to use it to add extra veg that wouldn't otherwise be eaten.
We go to stands, stores, and wholesalers that sell organic fruit or cut fruit when they are cutting or sorting it in the morning. We take a stack of plastic cups and scoop seeds and discarded ones into them, stacking a 2/3ds full cup on top of others, This ends in a tower of free seeds. Melons, cukes, radishes, carrot and turnip tops, celery stems and discarded potatoes and herbs are the best. If we stay out of their way and drop off a couple of muffins or a few eggs, they are happy to help us. Great places for free organic seeds which grow great. Fruit and vegetable wholesalers are good dumpsters to dive into, much of it is fine to eat :)
I learned so much from you today with this video. Thanks for quality content that anyone can use to improve their health, their budget, and the feeling that everything we choose to do, will benefit us, which builds confidence in ourselves to make it through this difficult time.
Thank you, Tess. I heard Rangan Chatterjee a few years ago. He said to eat a rainbow every day and eat your way through the alphabet every month!
I watched something on utube with Tim Spector. He said the same as you, except it was 30 per week! Hope I’ve remembered that correctly. X
I watched a RUclips video with Tim Spector suggesting we eat 30 different plants a week not a month. I have tried to achieve this over the last two weeks and it really isn 't as difficult as it sounds.
I remember my mum always wrote on envelopes,something so small gave me a lovely flashback to my childhood. Thanks Tess
Wonderful!
I’ve had to downsize drastically and don’t have room for composting but I have room for a few pots. I have started vermicultre I.e. worm farm it’s fascinating I highly recommend it 👍
Oooh, I've always fancied a worm farm. I bet it's loads of fun!
You’re looking well so glad to see your smile. Thanks for the time you put in your videos.
I'd really recommend checking out Tim Spector if you don't already know him. Lots of him on RUclips and the Zoe podcast is so interesting. He's one of the leading scientists doing stuff on the gut biome. This is exactly what he talks about.
somehow it really tickled my fancy that you wrote on a used envelop. I do the same
😁😁😁
Thanks for the reminder!
When you list all the minor seeds & herbs as well as the obvious & main items I hadn't realised just what a variety I was eating
I live in a flat and so I don't have a garden, so the only fruit & veg I eat are those that I buy, but I try to shop around to find the best buys and make up a variety
However, I used to do sprouting seeds in a jar on my windowsill, but when I'd used up the last lot I stopped; I think I'll start doing that again
Hi Tess great link to the broadcast. I am a volunteer with the twins study that this research is based on. Any twins can volunteer. It is based at St Thomas's hospital in London. I am on a budget but increase the variety of foods I eat by freezing any veg extra veg and using later. So, a week that I don't buy broccoli, I can still use some from for frozen. Another way is to buy items that already contain a large mix of grains or seeds, or make my own mixes or each serving already contains a good selection of grains seeds or nuts.
Interesting topic but I'm afraid that the programme said 30 plant items per week not month. (17 minutes in) it's still do-able but needs a bit more thought and planning
Hi Tess cut up clean Yoghurt cartons into strips and write on them with indelible pens to mark out and put them into the growing boxes.Pauline Essex
I downloaded the BBC sound app and it's free. The program on December 4th was very informative. Thank you. Your right, when you use herbs, seeds, nuts to include vegetables. It's easy to get the 30. I thought about what I eat on a plant based diet and it fits right in. One thing I need to do is not get into a rut and only eat the same foods all the time but switch it up more. Good thing I love stir frys. Thank you for the information.
I am in the US and we can listen to any BBC radio programme, most are available for at least a month. PS Mary's test kitchen, Peaceful Cuisine are great vegan channels, Sauce Stace specializes in vegan "meat" recipes.
I just checked the ingredients on brownsauce. I was surprised! It contains lots of foods I don't normally eat but that are actually great....mine has dates, cloves, molasses, tomato, tamarind, ginger, chilli, nutmeg, garlic.
I also keep and use scrap paper and envelopes for lists etc. I try to put between 10 and 12 veggies in soups, five to eight in salads and sandwiches. If we have a sandwich without salad veggies, I add them on the side. I love snacking on radishes, carrot, celery and cabbage. I soak cucumber slices in apple cider vinegar for me and malt vinegar for my husband as a snack with benefits. I quickly counted at least 40 different plant types, its probably more when you count occasional fruit like berries.
Have you tried sprouting seeds? All you need is the right seeds and a jar.
Yes, I love sprouting seeds 😃
Yes, fascinating thank you Tess. I will listen to it.🤔😊
Awe my mum had that orange tub you are using for seeds, I recognised it instantly ❤
Well done Tess. I need to sort out my seeds. I also get them at Wilko . So much cheaper than other shops and they all taste the same ! Hope you all are well. I had a scare - I'm now pre diabetic so I've cut out eating chocolate chrisps and biscuits. Been going to a healthy eating meeting and have lost 8 lbs ! Was hard the first week but weight loss has helped. I dread to think of what I've spent on chocolate over the years ! Could go on a world cruise with it ! Ha ! Wil sort out my seeds this afternoon and get some planted . 👍😁👍
Loved this.I do very much the same with the growing, I won’t use manure because of parasites and antibiotics .xx🐝🐝
Zoe have a podcast about this on RUclips
Isn't it 30 different fruit/veg per week rather than month? I really like Tim Spector and this approach. Dr Megan Rossi also uses the same number. What I found interesting was the herbs/spices and even coffee counts, but only as a 1/4 portion rather than 1 portion. But by the time you think of all the different things you eat - like you say, it can be quite achievable on a budget. Things like beans/pulses and herbs can be easily bought or grown. I love to think what I can grow to increase our exposure and especially when its foods you can't buy easily in our supermarkets.
I was thinking the same, it's definitely per week not month. I've been preaching this message for everyone because everyone seems stuck on 5 a day which is no longer relevant!
I have sown my chillies couple weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised how well they germinated this year. I have to sow broad beans again as the autumn ones got eaten and damaged by the weather. I hope the weather is kind to all of us this year so we all get a great harvest. Petra (Tony's wife)
Fingers crossed for good harvests 😁
Hi Tess, this is really encouraging, very much doable. Lots of love. 🌹
Thanks for the video Tess. I'm already making a list in my head LOL. It's not hard to get up to 30 and an easy way to eat lots of different plants in one meal is to add them to pasta sauce or soup but also using mixed stir fry veggies. My mum used to have a huge planter in her garden with different kinds of lettuce and go pick some just before she plated up the rest of her food, couldn't be fresher and lots of variety!
I follow Tim spector of the Zoe app and was pleased to learn that I've been eating a minimum of 30 plants a month. More like 8 per day! I have to follow low Fodmap via Monash University so some of the veg are out for me. Wheat, alliums, and cruciferous vegetables. I've had to become very inventive with cooking!
I listened Tess and made a promise to myself to use my iplayer more.
Just out of interest, I added up the different plant items in my meal. I had made vegetable pasties served with stir fried cabbage and spring onions sprinkled with dill. I counted 12 different things. I was surprised because when I first thought about it, I would say I would fail because I only eat home produced seasonal veg, but I was wrong which is encouraging!!
Tess, using your link, without a subscription, (I am in Texas in the US), I was able to listen to the December 4, 2022, Food Programme, Nutrition's Dark Matter: The New Science of Eating. I had no knowledge of this access to BBC programs. What a bonus for listening to you today. They did say 30 different plants per week (not month), and it is not hard to do, using everything you mentioned. Thank you so very much. Best wishes, and prayers for you, the UK, and all of the world, during this hard time.
Great video, thank you! I do believe it might be 30 a week? That’s a bit more tricky than per month, but doable I’m sure.
Yep... it's 30 per WEEK Tim Spector recommends!
Great video thanks Tess. I didn’t think anyone could listen to BBC outside UK as they don’t pay the license fee. Thanks for everything you do xxx
Good points! I love the BBC, too!
Hi Tess, I am in NZ and was able to listen to the food program through your link. Thank you, it was fascinating.
Sounds like really good advice.
I’ve been buying spinach instead of lettuce. It’s far more nutritious and half the cost and lettuce has nothing really nutritional to add. I will keep doing this until my own spinach grows. I also add dandelion leaves, kale, or arugula (perennial) when they appear. Add nuts, seeds, red pepper, grated beet - coloured explosion of goodness! Thanks for information! Take care.🐇
Your link worked in the USA. I was able to load the app on my phone. I haven't tested it yet.
Thanks for the useful information.🐺🐺🐺
I’m in Australia and found the programme easily. Thanks so much for the info and podcast suggestion. I have a bunch food-related content to devour, now! As an person that eats mostly plant-based, I will be making a list of the different plant foods I eat, later. I suspect it will be quite a long list. Great topic, Tess!
Very interesting Tess. I am going to do a similar list to identify how much variety we are getting from our meals each month. Thank you for this inspiration.
Apparently you should not put onion skins inyour compost.
Great tip! And thanks for illustrating that it doesn't have to be through expensive/fancy foods
That is how I get my family to eat kale & zucchini, dried & powdered or in bits. Makes sense to eat a variety of foods for different vitamins & minerals, etc.
Hope everything is OK. Its a bit quiet without you x
We're ok, thanks Elaine. New video out tomorrow x
Great reminder !
👍👍👍
Thank you for this information about how to add variety to our diet. We have a lot of shade, so right now I am just concentrating on having a little garlic/herb/salad bed on the sunny strip beside our back sunroom. I never thought of using clamshell containers for mini greenhouses! We just got a composter off a free group on Facebook in the fall, so we might only have enough for this strip of land, but that's a start.
I hope I didn't cause offense by my Dickensian novel comment yesterday. Just an outsider looking in, but I can empathize with the average person in Britain dealing with powers that exist that seem to delight in widening the gap between the rich and not so rich. It seems to be a mentality worldwide. Right now we are worried about cutbacks in services that are managed provincially here in Canada. There is talk about privatization of clinics in Ontario, which means we might have a gap between health care for rich and poor.
I love this channel Tess, and have learned a lot from your videos.
Ok, I have done it. It sounded daunting but we actually do eat more than 30 types regularly without knowing it. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown onions, red onions, cucumber, scallions, garlic, red capsicum, green capsicum,.zucchini, tomatoes, mixed lettuce leaves, Vietnamese mint, rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, oregano, peas, snow peas, ginger, corn, Brussel sprouts, turnip,savoy cabbage, Chinese cabbage, bok chop, pistachio nuts, peanut butter,rhubarb, apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, mandarins, lemon, black berries.
If you have a selection of frozen fruits and veg you can increase that variety (along will the fresh) without having to eat it all in one week!
My ground beef-veg soup that I eat almost daily contains 13 veg. It would be more if I added kale and spinach but I can’t eat those. I’ll start to incorporate zucchini (corvettes) and will probably find more! (When I was a kid, we went around the table, each of us naming an ingredient in mom’s vegetable soup. She cheated by adding one bean so only she would know.)
Hi Tess I have a large bag of dehydrated broccoli do you think I could make a green powder from that. Heather
Yes, absolutely
Thanks I’ll have a go. Heather
thanks for info. you mentioned putting kale powder in different dishes. do you make powder of other veggies family doesn't care for? great way to get nutrients from vegetables don't like.
It's a really great way of 'sneaking' in some extra veg 😊. I dehydrate anything I have a glut of, but do like to use it to add extra veg that wouldn't otherwise be eaten.
I'm not much into fruits or vegetables so I doubt if I even eat 30 a month certainly not 30 a week