Are YOU getting your 30-a-week

Forget five-a-day. One of Britain’s top nutritionists says she’s found the secret to optimum health — and happiness. So . . .

Everyone knows the traditional healthy eating routine: five fruit and veg a day, plenty of vitamins, a balance of protein, carbs and fats.

The problem is, new research has found those rules show only half the picture. In fact, following them alone probably won’t lead to optimum health, however many apples and carrots you eat.

That’s because the science now shows that this type of diet completely ignores the needs of the 40 trillion bacteria living in our gut.

And those bacteria aren’t just passengers, they are integral to our mental and physical wellbeing.

A healthy microbiota (the community of gut bacteria) is thought to lower the risk of certain cancers, reduce the chance of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and massively increase our happiness. But only if you look after it.

For good mental and physical health, we need to stop eating only for ourselves and start eating for our bacteria, too. only by feeding them properly and helping them to thrive will we fully thrive in turn.

To do that, there are two new food numbers you need to know.

First, forget just five a day — we need to eat and drink at least 30 different plant foods each week. That’s not just fruits and vegetables, but anything that has been grown, such as seeds, spices and wholegrain. A LTHOUGH

I’m not suggesting that we all go vegetarian — I enjoy meat and fish as well — gut-wise, protein is unimportant.

Second, your diet should be derived from across all six different plant groups: fruit, veg, seeds, nuts, wholegrains and legumes (such as lentils, chickpeas and beans).

Following these two principles will allow the trillions of bacteria that line your gut to flourish because each type of bacteria — and there are thousands of different strains — likes a different kind of plant food.

And as each bacteria does a different job — including producing vitamins, hormones or chemical messengers; training our immune system; helping regulate our appetite or deactivating toxins — each brings its own unique health benefits.

So it’s crucial to nurture as many different ones as possible. Limiting our diet limits our bacteria and that limits our health. This new gut-friendly diet might seem daunting, but the key is simply increasing diversity.

Don’t have the same breakfast, lunch or dinner all the time. Try new foods. Sprinkle mixed seeds on your breakfast and switch which grains you eat each day.

Think it sounds hard? It really isn’t. First, take the quiz to gauge your gut health . . .

Ten ways you are harming your health Not enough time outside

PeoPLe who stay indoors all day may not be exposing themselves to enough bacteria. outside, bacteria are everywhere and just exposing yourself to them in the air can boost our bacterial diversity.

Walking in the woods lets you breathe in an array of different microbes which can help colonise the gut. Playing games in the grass or doing a spot of gardening is even better.

Eating too much protein

MoST protein is absorbed high up in the gut and doesn’t reach the bacteria that lives lower down, in the large intestine. For example, a large steak can overwhelm the body’s ability to digest it. Therefore, it passes into the large intestine.

once it’s there, it is fermented by the bacteria and produces potentially harmful chemicals associated with serious ailments such as colon cancer and heart disease; bacteria typically do bad things with excess animal protein.

It’s fine to have steak, but stick to a small, absorbable portion — so 70g, not the 250g most restaurants serve.

Scientists have long known that large amounts of red meat

probably aren’t good for us; recently, through understanding gut bacteria, we have worked out why.

Overdoing the alcohol

A drink or two is fine, but large amounts can increase gut leakiness in the short term, which allows more things to get through from the gut into your body and trigger inflammation.

Sweeteners and additives

While scientists still argue about the health effects of these, i think it best to limit them, as evidence from animal studies suggests they could well decrease the health of our gut bacteria.

Taking medication

it’s not just antibiotics that damage our microbiota — a recent study found over a quarter of nonantibiotic medications (of more than 900 tested) may harm gut bacteria growth, too.

ibuprofen and pain medications could do damage, while anti-reflux drugs such as omeprazole lower the gut’s acidity, altering the environment and changing which bacteria can survive.

the way we react to drugs is highly individualised. in some people, bacteria ferments ibuprofen, damaging the gut lining, so they get gut inflammation, but others experience no ill-effects.

Not having a sleep routine

like human cells, our bacteria have their own body clocks. studies have shown that after just two to three days of disrupted sleep, our bacteria change, because their sleep/wake cycle has been disrupted, too.

it might seem surprising for something so tiny, but bacteria are immensely powerful: they have 200 times more genes than us.

Pressuring yourself

it’s not only bacteria that affect brain health; the state of our brain is also thought to affect bacteria.

the brain can stimulate the nervous system and cause inflammatory and hormonal changes that impact the gut and its bacteria.

relaxation strategies such as cognitive behavioural therapy, yoga and meditation have been shown to influence gut health because they help steady messages from the brain. the stretching in yoga can also helping with gut movements.

You can be TOO clean

extreme cleanliness is linked to an increased risk of allergy, particularly in young children, who need exposure to a range of bacteria to train their immune system. We think the same applies for adults. if we’re forever disinfecting our houses, we don’t pick up microbes that might inhabit our gut.

Not filling up with fibre

FiBre feeds your gut bacteria and if you don’t eat enough of it, you are starving your bacteria. Given that we can’t survive without our bacteria, that is very unwise.

Yo-yo dieting

sudden weight loss through restricted eating can alter bacteria function. in one study, researchers put mice through a rapid weight loss/weight gain cycle, then transplanted bacteria from their guts into other mice. the mice which received the bacteria sample were more likely to gain weight faster.

We think that’s because dieting alters bacteria to make them trigger weight gain. however, eating the right bacteria-boosting foods has been shown to reverse this.