Can You Get 30 Plants In One Single Supplement?

For many years, five-a-day was the go-to health mantra, but recently this was overtaken by a new goal: consuming 30 plants a week. This might seem like a lot – but a new supplement from personalised nutrition company Zoe is claiming you can get your dose in one simple scoop. Launching this week is the Daily 30+, a whole food supplement containing a blend of over 30 plants. So could this be the answer to our plant diversity goals?

Zoe’s Daily 30+ Supplement: Everything You Need To Know

What Is The Daily 30+?

The Daily 30+ is a new plant-based supplement from Zoe, a science and nutrition company founded by Professor Tim Spector. Designed to address the top dietary risks associated with poor health, it contains over 30 carefully selected plants, delivering over 7000 plant chemicals and 5g of fibre in every scoop.

Instead of a tablet, the supplement is served as a 15g scoop akin to a seed mix. Spector describes it as having a ‘delicious, savoury taste thanks to ingredients such as thyme, parsley, rosemary, carrot flakes, red beetroot flakes and sunflower seeds.’ He adds: ‘It’s designed to be the perfect complement to savoury meals, adding texture and crunch, and pairs especially well with foods that are great for you such as beans, legumes, vegetables and whole grains. I love to add it to salads, soups and eggs.’ In fact, Spector didn’t want to label it as a supplement at all, but it was a legal requirement (‘I’d call it food’, he told The Sunday Times). Rather than being recommended as an alternative to food, the Daily 30+ is designed to be an added nutritional boost for your diet.

Speaking about the launch, Spector said: ‘ZOE Scientists have formulated Daily 30+ to set a new standard for the supplements industry. We are supporting better health through encouraging dietary change to include additional plants which the gut microbiome thrives on. Nothing else in the current supplements market is formulated for this purpose, instead they offer synthetic micronutrients in untested combinations that are touted as “healthy” but lack any evidence and are unregulated. It’s time for a change in the way we all view and use supplements.’

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by ZOE | Nutrition (@zoe)

Which Plants Does It Contain?

One serving of the Daily 30+ contains 4g of fat, 3g of protein, and 63 calories. The mix includes:

• 8 fruits and vegetables: carrot flakes, red beetroot flakes, garlic, chicory root inulin, onion, garlic, baobab fruit pulp, buckthorn
• 8 functional mushrooms: white mushroom, chaga, lion’s mane, shiitake, maitake, tremella, reishi, cordyceps
• 5 herbs and spices: thyme, parsley, turmeric, cumin, rosemary
• 6 seeds: flaxseed, grape seed, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds
• 3 nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts
• 2 legumes and whole grains: red lentil flakes, puffed quinoa
• Nutritional yeast flakes

What Does The Science Say?

The advice to eat 30 plants a week is based on a 2018 study from the American Gut Project, run by the University of California alongside Spector himself. This looked at the diet of thousands of people, finding that the people who ate the largest variety of plant foods had the healthiest microbiomes. However, lots of us are struggling to hit the magic 30: research commissioned by Public Health England shows 90 percent of us aren’t eating enough fibre, which can lead to a number of health conditions.

The Daily 30+ was created as a direct response to this. To test the supplement, 350 people were trialled: one group was given dried croutons, while the other was given Daily 30+. After a six-week period, 51 percent of the supplement takers reported improvements in energy and saw a significant change in their gut microbiome. Just under half reported a boost in mood (45 percent), 35 percent said they were sleeping better, and 55 percent reported an improvement in indigestion. 

‘We know how impactful small daily dietary changes can be for long-term health and that just 5g of added fibre daily can reduce inflammation and heart disease risk, reduce the risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and improve mental health,’ says Dr Federica Amati, Head Nutritionist at ZOE.

Is The Supplement Processed?

The Daily 30+ describes itself as ‘minimally processed’ – however, this doesn’t mean it contains additives or synthetic ingredients. Spector explains: ‘The majority of ingredients are simply freeze-dried. The cell structure and fibre are the same, which is important. A few we’ve had to pulp or squeeze, some of those cells might be damaged and not in their original state, that’s why we call it minimally processed.’

How Much Does It Cost?

Monthly and four pack subscriptions are available for £39 and £133 respectively via zoe.com, with discounted pricing for Zoe members at £33 a month and £113 for a four pack subscription. As an introductory offer, Waitrose will be selling a seven-day pack for £10, which will normally cost £13.50. A single-serve pack will also be available for £2.25.

While it’s not cheap, Spector argues that it would cost far more to get all these ingredients in your weekly shop – plus he hopes the launch will start a trend, and cheaper alternatives will follow. ‘If this is a success, there undoubtedly will be copycats. It would be great if that happens, really.’