Are you eating a rainbow everyday?

I have been researching for my upcoming summer series about how to live like a centenarian. I came across some interesting information about gut health and longevity. In today's day and age people are getting rid of entire categories of food. I know what you are thinking, "Um, you don't eat meat, that's a huge category you are missing." I may not eat animal protein, but I am not getting rid of ALL protein. So many subscribe to a lo carb, high fat, paleo, low fruit blah blah blah way of eating. Afraid to eat a potato, rice, corn, mangoes, bananas, etc. All of these different carbs are important at building up our microbiome. Each brings a different "flavor" to the gut in turn keeping us healthy.

Here's the stats: 36% percent of Americans reported following a specific eating pattern or diet within the past year, The top eating pattern cited was intermittent fasting (10 percent). Diets considered at least somewhat restrictive of carbohydrates were well-represented, including Paleo (7 percent), low-carb (5 percent), Whole30 (5 percent), high-protein (4 percent), and ketogenic/high-fat (3 percent).

When we eliminate whole categories of food we are ruining our gut and setting ourselves up for disease in the body. I am a creature of habit and can get stuck eating the same foods for a while. Rarely it works for me. One year in college, it was bagels and breadsticks...not good! One year is was cereal and bread with jelly...not good! One year it was meat, veggies, and eggs everyday....not good! I have learned to diversify my plant based eating and I am still a work in progress. On average, Americans only eat the same15 foods annually. I decided to write down all the different foods I ate in the last 2-3 days to see where I compared:

oats, cinnamon, apples, wild blueberries, dates, bananas, kale, power greens, green leaf lettuce, cucumber, onions, pepper, potato, sweet potato, corn, avocado, jalepenos, limes, cilantro, refried beans, black beans, spiralina, balsamic, olive oil, brown rice, mango, pear, broccoli, peas, carrots, celery, salsa, hemp hearts, raspberries, and coconut milk.

I encourage you to write down all the different foods that you have eaten over the last few days to see how you match up. Variety is truly the spice of life and the way to true health.

Some tips on diversifying would be:

1. Try to create a rainbow at each meal. Eat as many different colors as possible.

2. Don't eat the same EXACT

thing everyday.

3. Choose a different food from each food category for every day of the week:

Example: Starches: One day you eat a potato, next a sweet potato, next a squash, next a kohlrabi, etc.