A growing supplements market may be capitalizing on claims about gut health, but scientists still do not know what a truly healthy gut microbiome looks like.
The concept of eating 30 different plants per week stems from a 2018 study involving over 10,000 participants in the US, UK, and Australia.
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Researchers found that those who ate more than 30 plant foods weekly had a more diverse gut microbiome than those who ate fewer than 10.
However, experts warn this does not make 30 a magical health threshold. The difference between eating 25 or 30 plants a week is likely less significant than marketed.
Arbitrary Number
"Thirty is pretty arbitrary," says Prof Daniel M Davis, head of life sciences at Imperial College London and author of Immune Health: A Myth-Busting Guide.
"It's not as though researchers compared 10 plants, 20 plants, 30 plants and 35 plants and found a clear cut-off point."
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The underlying study also fails to prove that eating 30 plants a week directly improves overall human health.
While a highly diverse microbiome is linked to a lower risk of certain diseases, researchers cannot define the exact composition of a healthy microbiome.
"People eating more than 30 plants a week are probably doing a gazillion other things differently as well," says Davis.
Factors such as physical exercise, sleep quality, and stress levels also impact the microbiome, making it difficult to isolate diet's importance.
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Consumers should remain cautious of individuals using the 30 plants message to profit through expensive supplements that promise to help achieve the target despite minimal independent evidence.
