There are around 40 trillion bacteria in your body, most of which are found inside your gut and are incredibly important for overall health. Many factors - including the food you eat - can impact the type of bacteria found in your digestive tract. Dr. Megan Rossi, nutritionist and gut health expert, joined Cheddar News to explain the importance of a plant-based diet. 

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Transform Your Health with Plant-Based Foots

Welcome back to Chester's news wrap, what have we told you? The secret to a healthier body and mind is through a healthy gut that's right there around 40 trillion bacteria in your body, most of which are found inside your gut and are incredibly important for overall health. Many factors including the food you eat can impact the type of bacteria found in your digestive tract. Joining me now to discuss is dr Megan rossi were now nutritionist and gut health expert. Dr rossi Welcome to the show. What is the secret to improving your gut health and what kind of changes will people notice with a healthier gut? Look, the number one tip of advice is eating more plants now this is a science back way to nourish those trillions of bacteria. That's certainly something I research at King's College in London where we're finding that doing this like reduces your sick days um improve things like your mental health and your mood and you're also you're meant performance and things like focus, hormonal health has been improved your skin health, happier body weight as well. There are so many factors that we see that targeting the gut can really help people read those health benefits. So we hear a lot about plant based eating what walk us through the spectrum of it. What is it? Exactly? Yeah. So essentially it is the foundation of your diet being mostly plants now. One end you've got veganism so 100% plant based and the other end you've got flexitarian is um where you still eat a lot of plants but actually you've added on animal foods on top of that now, according to the science, actually, wherever you sit on that spectrum, you can have a brilliant gut health. And that's what the new book, how to eat more plants is all all about, highlighting that as long as the foundation of your diet is on plants that you can absolutely thrive in terms of things like, you know, your mental health, your hormonal health via nourishing those microbes. I'm so glad you mentioned your book How to eat more plants to introduce a new school of thought on our relationship with food, our approach. What does it don't diet diversify? Mean, how is it done properly? Yeah. Look, you know, I've been a clinician for the past 15 years and I've seen thousands of people fall victim to these really restrictive diets that end up actually harming their metabolism and leading to things like, you know, higher body weight, for example, lower mood and all the things we want to avoid. So essentially, that's where howdy more plants comes in. It's based on the diversity diet which is backed by these five or six key principles. The first one is enjoying mostly plants, but like I said, that doesn't need to be only plants. I think there is a huge myth out there that if you want to have good health, you have to go vegan 100% plant based. That's not true. We know that things like oily fish actually is really beneficial for the gut. The second principle is diversity, diversity all the way. So trying to add in as many different types of planets as possible. In fact, I talk about in the book the super six and I recommend that people try to get in six each of these six in most days. So it's your whole grains, your nuts and seeds, your fruit, your veg, your legumes and your herbs and spices. And each different category actually provides our gut bacteria with different types of fertilizer. So if you're cutting out one of these super six, you actually could be doing damage. And this is certainly what we see in our research at King's College in London, which is why diversity is really important. The third principle is going for whole and not refined. And this comes back again to some of the research we're doing. Looking at food additives. What we find that certain types of food additives and a lot of these like healthy vegan foods that have been ultra processed may actually have a negative impact on the gut. So in the book I have a range of 80 plus really practical and simple strategies including the recipes of how you can spend 10 minutes to make something like, you know, a veggie party instead of getting these ultra processed vegan burgers. I'm sorry. Please continue any means interrupt doctor. No, no, no. I was gonna say the fourth principle is about inclusion, not exclusion and this is really important for people's relationship with food. So yes you can still enjoy things like chocolate. But what I've done with some of the recipes in the book is yes it's got chocolate in it. My prebiotic chocolate bark. What I've done is adding a load of plants so that instead of things like the process biscuits I've added in some popcorn there the chewy texture comes from things like dried fruit and the crunchiness comes from dried nuts and seeds. And what I've done there is made a tasty food even tastier but also nourishes those gut bacteria and helps with things like better blood sugar regulation as well. I have about less than a minute. I'm sorry to rush this answer but I think it's so important. Can you tell us about the misconceptions of diet culture? Yeah I mean I understand you know why people think that they have to be on this restrictive diet in order to achieve their health gains. Like I get it. That's what being drilled into us on social media and all the blogs that we read. But you know if you review the actual scientific literature you will see that that's not how you achieve you know your ideal body weight in the long term. Yes in the short term if you restrict your diet you may lose a little bit of weight. But but what happens is that that can actually damage your gut microbiome And that explains why most often people not only regain that weight, but actually gain much more in the long term. So if you want to really achieve your health goals, live longer, feel better. You really need to focus on the gut microbiome and add more plants into it. Alright, great advice. Dr Megan rossi were now nutritionist and gut health expert. Her book How to eat more plants is available on august 16th. Thank you so much.