A Philosophy on Plant Points and Gut Health
You may have noticed that all of my recipes include a box sharing the number of Plant Points. Plant Points count the number of plants you eat. It’s really that simple! You can buy your plants or grow them at home. In the picture above I show off a first attempt at growing cauliflower. Why do we count plant points? To keep our guts healthy, and that is a pretty big deal.
Cauliflower is 1 plant point
Who Cares About Plant Points? Your Gut!
Your gut is a central component to your health. According to Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (2020), your immunity, metabolism, hormonal balance, cognition, and gene expression all rely in part on your gut (p. 8). In fact, 70% of our immune system relies and is housed in our gut (Bulsiewicz, 2020). Moreover, doctors have found specific micro bacteria in our guts to significantly decrease our risks of chronic disease and cancer. For more on this check out my posts on health here.
So, your gut supports you holistically, and in turn, it relies on a plethora of micro superhero bacteria to function. You’d think that we could pay it back the favor and support it! Consider this, every single thing we consume goes through our gut. However, many of the vitamins and good for you bacteria we need are only available through the food we eat. Therefore, what you eat and how often is REALLY IMPORTANT.
On average we eat about 3 lbs of food per day (Bulsiewicz, 2020). Back of the envelope calculation puts that at about 1000 pounds of food per year. If you live until you’re 80, you would consume approximately 80,000 pounds of food.
We can do backflips to mitigate high cholesterol, poor blood circulation due to clogged arteries, heart disease, high blood pressure, skin irritations, and more. But at the end of the day, the food we eat and its associated-or lack thereof- micro superhero bacteria matters. It adds up and provides benefit to our gut. And our gut provides benefit to us.
Everything Needs Balance and That Includes Your Gut
We all need balance in this world. We talk and read about work-life balance. Balance between family time and social time. Balance in a marriage. Balance in spirit and body. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our guts need balance too. Maybe that’s why your mom wouldn’t let you only eat macaroni and cheese (aka my toddler’s dream). But, guess what? If all you ate was cucumbers, after reading my post about cucumbers and how healthy they are for your gut, you would not be healthy inside. You would be unbalanced. This is why we count plant points, and each plant counts as one point.
What Counts As a Plant?
You wouldn’t think I would have to write this section, but of course we optimistically would like to will certain things to be plants. I would like wine to count as a plant. My older son Christian would probably like juice-or better yet, Gatorade-to count as a plant. But, alas I have yet to find a Gatorade tree. And, I’m pretty sure there is a complicated process to produce wine. At least I think I remember paying attention to some of that on my last wine tour.
Whole Plant Foods and Plant Points
Plants are…plants. Like, a whole plant. That thing that grew in the ground at a farm or your backyard garden box. So, do french fries count? Nope! How about the white bagel you may have had for breakfast? No again.
Plant (noun).
1) A young tree vine or herb planted or suitable for planting.
2) Any of a kingdom (Plantae) of multicellular eukaryotic mostly photosynthetic organisms typically lacking locomotive movement or obvious nervous or sensory organs and possessing cellulose cell walls (Merriam-Webster)
For our purposes:
- Food that has grown in the soil or on a tree
- Food that has not come in a box or package
- Food without an ingredient list (Bulsiewicz, 2020, p. 179)
Now that you know what a plant is, it should be pretty easy to count points. You just count the plants, each plant is a point. If you have 2 onions, that is only 1 point. One point for onion. If you make the recipes here on Kait’s Cupboard, I’ve done the work for you! Each plant has been counted and tallied in the Plant Points at the top of the post.
How many Plant Points Should I Get Per Day?
Dr. Bulsiewicz (2020) has a nice table in his Fiber Fueled book outlining how many plants you should shoot to eat per day. For a three meal day, that number is approximately 32.
| Plant Points Per Day | Gut Health |
| Less than 21 | Just Beginning |
| 21 | Making Progress |
| 25 | Getting Healthier |
| 28 | Healthy Gut |
| 32 | Master of Plants |
There are also some really great handouts from the Richmond Integrative and Functional Medicine Institute that I am linking and adding here. One is on eating the rainbow of plants and their associated benefits.
The other is a similar handout geared toward kids.
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