Plant Points

What are Plant Points?

Plant Points are a simple way to track the variety of plants you eat in a week. Each unique plant you eat gives you a point. The more plants you eat, the more points you get. If you have already eaten a plant that week, you do not get a point for it again. The goal is to get 30 points per week. Can you complete the 30-Plant Challenge?

Does 30 seem like a lot? Don't worry it's not just fruit and vegetables like your 5 a day. Wholegrains (like brown rice, oats, barley and quinoa) vegetables, fruit, legumes (think lentils, chickpeas and beans), nuts and seeds all count as plants.

Herbs, spices and even teas count as plants. Due to being a smaller amount of fibre, they are not counted as a full plant and are worth 1/4 of a point. Small amounts of plants can add up to a lot of points.

The goal is variety. It's not just variery of species that counts, but also different colours. Red apples and green apples both count towards your weekly total. This is because they are different enough from each other to contain different beneficial polyphenols. This can make geting the 30 much easier.

Tips on how to eat 30 different plants per week

30 can seem like a lot but it can be done. The secret is cooking! Preparing your own food is the best way to make sure you are getting the variety you need. It also has other benefits like saving money and avoiding ultra-processed foods. We have some suggestions for each meal of your day.

Breakfast

Your first meal of the day can be a great time to get some plants in. Our recomendation is to make your own seed mix. Get a mason jar and fill it with your favourite seeds. These could include hemp seeds, chia seeds, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and many more. A soon full of those seeds and some oats on a plain greek yogurt is a great breakfast option. That could be 6 points already! Then you could also add some nuts. Pecan, hazelnuts, wallnuts are all great additions to this meal. Fruit and berries can add a lot of taste and colour to this meal. Frozen berries contain the same nutritional benefits as fresh berries and are much easier to store. You could have a different nut and berry each day to maximise your plant score.

Lunch

Salads are a great way to get a lot of plants in one meal. Get creative and try different combinations. Try Tabbouleh, Caesar, Nicoise, or a simple green salad with a range of vegetables. Use different colours to boost your score. Bell peppers come in red, green, yellow and orange.

Another simple meal could be hummus (mashed chickpeas) with a range of raw vegetables to dip in it. Cucumber, peppers, carrots and celary all great options here. Bonus points if you can get your hands on a purple carrot.

Dinner

The evening meal is a great time to add some additional herbs and spices to your score. Seasoning your food is a great way to enhance the meal and improve your health at the same time. If you are a meat eater remember to add some when cooking. For chicken you could try tarragon and basil. For salmon you could add Dill, Parsley, Lemon and Black Pepper. For Lamb you could add Rosemary, Thyme and Garlic. Along side the meat you can switch between potatoes, rice, couscous, bulgur or quinoa. Then add some vegetables. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, asparagus all work great here. Frozen vegetables are just as good as fresh. 3 or 4 different vegetables will get you a lot of points.

Curry is a fantastic option for adding a lot of plants to your diet. Different curries contain different spice blends and can diversify your diet fast. A lentil based Dal can be a great way to start. It is not very spicy so even children can enjoy it. Lentils also come in a variety of colours. Soaking them in water before hand to soften is important. The darker the colour the longer they take to soften and cook.

Batch cooking is a great way to save time and make sure you have healthy meals ready to go. When you cook a meal make more than you need and freeze some portions. Eat them the next week to get those points again without spending more time cooking.

How can the app help you?

The Plant Points app is a simple way to keep track. You add the plants you eat and it tells you how many you have eaten this week. The app lets you record meals for faster logging next time. The app even gives helpful suggestions to get you to your goal.

Need help getting motivated? The app gives achievements for meeting your goals and continuing your streak. Helping you to make eating 30 plants a lifestyle change and not just another diet.

Struggle to remember to track your plants? You can set multiple reminders in the app so are prompted to add your plants whatever the time you usually eat is.

Plant Points has everything you would expect from a modern app. You can customise the colour, brightness and font size however you like. Perfect for anyone visually impaired.

This app takes your privacy very seriously. All the data entered into the app is stored on your device. We couldn’t sell your information even if we wanted to. The app does track app usage data, this is limited to what City you are in and what pages you have looked at. This is optional and can be turned off at any time.

The app is available for both iOS and Android.