Dr Megan Rossi on good gut health and eating MORE to be healthier

Virgin Radio

11 Jan 2022, 11:27

Eat whatever you want and still be healthy? Yes, please. The Gut Health Dietitian & Researcher joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about how to smash out delicious food and give your gut a break.

The food guru told Chris about her latest book: “It's about tapping into the latest scientific evidence about how our bodies and importantly our gut microbes work best and I've translated that hard science into a simple to follow and delicious way of eating which I have called the Diversity Diet. 

"It's talking about trying to get in as many different types of plants as you can but there are really three key principles that underpin the diet; it doesn't have to necessarily be only plants, but you should be placing most of the emphasis in your diet on plants. 

“There's more of them than there are human cells and the research is showing that they actually do change our taste perception, because we not only have those trillions of bacteria that live in the lower part of our gut, we also have our oral microbiome so we have this community of millions of bacteria in our mouth and they actually are changing things like our taste perception and taste buds. A lot of people in clinic say, oh my God, this is magic. All of a sudden, I enjoy the taste of plants. I say, You know what? It's not, it's science. We see it all the time.

“My husband Thomas was also a massive meat eater. He's an NHS GP and you'd think he'd know a little bit better about trying to get more plants in but he just said he hated them. So what I did was to slowly start to introduce lentils into his lasagna, cut down the meat, instead of having just ricotta and cheese in pasta, I added mixed beans to it and slowly over time it's changed his taste perception and now he actually craves plants."

On the principles of the diet, she explained: "We talked about this plant-based spectrum so on one end you've got veganism, the other end you've got flexitarianism. According to the science, wherever you sit along that spectrum is completely fine. You can have a very long and healthy life and brilliant gut health as long as you're basing a diet on plants. Whatever you layer on top of that is up to you. 

“The second principle is diversity, the trying to get in as many different types of plants. So I think when we talk about plants, people are like, boring green leaves. The two and five campaign is so outdated, because it doesn't take into account the latest scientific evidence about these trillions of bacteria, which actually need plants from all six food groups - it includes things like your wholegrains, your nuts and seeds, your fruit, your veggies or legumes, your beans and pulses, and herbs and spices. 

“Now so many people think, I'll just get my fibre from my veg or my wholegrain and they're not getting in that diversity and in turn they’re starving off some really important bacteria that are important for things like hormone regulation, metabolism and that's actually what we're seeing with a lot of these fad diets, like the keto diet and the Paleo diet which cut out some of these really important plant-based food groups.

"People who go on these diets not only do they regain the weight they may have lost in the short term, they actually gain extra and we think that's probably due to some of the damage that it's done to their gut metabolism communication.

“That brings the third principle; inclusion, not exclusion. So this is the focus that actually you know what, there is no food off limits here. You can eat whatever ever you want. It's just about thinking about what you can add in, so for example you can still have chocolate but it's just about adding in extra plants. 

“I don't know about you, but if someone tells me I can't eat something maybe I could comply for a couple of weeks, but then I just start to think of nothing else but that food, I start to fixate on it and then that's when people binge and have unhealthy relationships with food."

Eat More, Live Well is out now.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.