‘The Full-Body Fat Fix:’ Eat 30 Different Plants a Week to Make Weight Loss Easy

We’ve all heard that “variety is the spice of life,” but the standard Western diet has become anything but varied. And experts say that variety is truly what our modern diets (and metabolism) crave right now. Consider this sobering stat: Only six plants — wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans and sugar cane — make up a whopping 75% of the total calories people consume from plants these days, according to research published in the journal Functional & Integrative Genomics. That bland and boring approach is the literal opposite of a diverse diet. A better approach: eating a diverse array of plants, as outlined in the new bestselling book The Full-Body Fat Fix. Keep reading to learn how eating 30 different plants per week can transform your health and speed weight loss like no other diet before.

Why food variety matters in our diet

Our gut microbiome is made up of trillions of good and bad bugs that help engineer every aspect of our health, weight and mood. It turns out the more plant diversity in our diet, the happier and healthier those gut bugs are. In fact, a growing body of research shows the key is eating 30 different plants per week, says New York Times bestseller Stephen Perrine, author of The Full-Body Fat Fix. He’s spent his career researching and reporting on the biggest health stories of our time. His bottom-line message? Anti-inflammatory foods — mainly plants — are highly healing when it comes to weight problems. He explains, “When you control your inflammation, you control your destiny.”

Improving gut health is key to weight loss success

The easy, refreshing 30-plant eating strategy isn’t limited to The Full-Body Fat Fix. It is also one of the major takeaways of the UC San Diego American Gut Project. This massive database of health data is helping experts know exactly how to build a better gut microbiome: one with a thick, protective intestinal lining, rather than a damaged, leaky one.

Consuming a high quantity of various plant-based foods and fiber doesn’t just repair and protect the gut lining, it can also lead to weight loss. In research published in Scientific American comparing people living on different continents, those who ate the widest variety of plants had 164% more types of beneficial microbes in their gut and 45% less body fat, compared with Americans who ate fewer plants and carried more weight.

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How diverse eating helps you reach your weight-loss goals

1. Inflammation vanishes. A healthy gut can snuff out body-wide inflammation that fuels weight gain. Perrine shares, “A healthy microbiome is the master controller of inflammation.”
2. Gut-brain communication improves. Experts have known for years that bad gut bugs, like Candida yeast, can drive sugar cravings and sabotage weight-loss efforts. But when the right diversity of microbes populates the gut, they send happy signals to the brain that our hunger is satisfied. This essentially curbs appetite like prescription drugs like Ozempic do.
3. Calories are diverted. Scientists have shown that when the gut is inhabited by a variety of beneficial microbes, those bugs gobble up some of the calories we eat, so they don’t contribute to weight. Perrine says, “You lose as much as 400 calories per day to belly bugs.” That could translate to losing 4 pounds every month!

Results on ‘The Full-Body Fat Fix’ diet plan

The more types of plants you eat per week on The Full-Body Fat Fix diet, the leaner you become. Vincent Pedre, MD, author of The GutSMART Protocol, also recommends eating an array of plants. He calls it one of his “tried-and-true strategies that have helped thousands of people overcome gut issues worldwide.” He promises, “You will improve the diversity of your microbiome to help you feel great and prevent or even reverse disease — and even lose weight in the process.” Just ask Jamie Leiss: She lost 104 pounds eating more plants — dropping as much as 8 pounds in one week!

‘The Full-Body Fat Fix’ is about variety, not single superfoods 

“What I’m not talking about is what every other nutrition hype machine seems obsessed with: superfoods,” says Perrine. He fears focusing on superstars like blueberries or spirulina gives people tunnel vision and excludes the diversity that’s crucial to gut health. He says, “There is only one superfood out there. It’s whatever plant food you’re not eating!”

“Keep in mind the huge variety of foods you have to choose from,” adds Dr. Pedre. “It’s meant to keep you from feeling deprived.”

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How to count your plant intake on ‘The Full-Body Fat Fix’ diet

Simply tally your daily plant intake and add it up at the end of the week to know where you stand. Good news: varieties of the same plant — for example, Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji and Granny Smith apples — all count toward your weekly 30. “While they share a common ancestry, they have different phytochemical makeup,” says Jim Germida, PhD, from the Department of Soil Science at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. He’s hinting at the complicated and unique “matrix” of all the good stuff in plants — vitamins, minerals, bioactives, antioxidants and other phytonutrients.

There’s no limit to dietary diversity on ‘The Full-Body Fat Fix’

The goal of dietary diversity has also given rise to a trend: eating more so-called “orphan crops,” as Stanford University researchers call them. These are plants that have been largely forgotten by mainstream agriculture. These crops aren’t mass-produced. They are often grown by local farmers and are sold ­seasonally or available at local farmers markets or online.

Tuning into these lesser-known crops is just one way to be exposed to a variety of plant species you may not have tried before. Some crops catching attention are yams, teff, persimmons, guava, sorghum, cassava, grass pea, lablab bean and African eggplant. The list is endless. One group, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, even named millet as the orphan crop of the year.

Try ‘The Full-Body Fat Fix’ diet plan for yourself

Ready to try eating an array of plants? For the best results, simply follow these tips for as little as one week, while cutting out refined carbs and sweets:

1. Fill your plate. At every meal, strive to fill your plate with 3⁄4 plants — at least two different kinds. Then fill the remaining portion with healthy protein (25 to 30 grams per meal, even at breakfast) and healthy fats from sources such as dairy, seafood, seeds, olives, avocado or nuts.
2. Start with a protein-packed breakfast. Try a smoothie — filled with at least six different plants, plus a scoop of whey protein powder­ — to satisfy hunger and get fat-burning revved for the day.
3. Make flavorful swaps. We are all creatures of our food habits. But putting this “variety” virtue in play in your everyday life is easy. “It can be as simple as buying fruit salad instead of apples; mixed nuts instead of almonds,” says Perrine. “Instead of spinach salad, opt for spring mix. You could quadruple the number of plants with this one simple swap!”
4. Concoct better cocktails. “Take something sinful and make it soulful,” quips Perrine, about taking a nutritionally lacking item like alcohol and boosting it with a bit of plants. He suggests adding a bit of fresh ginger to a rum cocktail or enjoying the garnish of muddled mint in a mojito, berries in a gin drink or that celery stalk in a Blood Mary.
   Read More: How bitter greens and bitter liquers can help your weight.

Simple upgrades to boost your plant count on ‘The Full-Body Fat Fix’

• Swap a black bean side dish for a bowl of 12-bean chili
• Swap wheat bread for multigrain seeded bread
• Swap steamed cauliflower for a vegetable medley
• Swap fresh strawberries for mixed fruit salad
• Swap white rice for rice pilaf with almonds and chickpeas

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