INTRODUCING PLANT POINTS

A simple way to a varied diet that's packed with benefits

INTRODUCING PLANT POINTS

A simple way to a varied diet that's packed with benefits

We’re proud to be the first high street retailer to include Plant Points on the packaging for our food range, making it even easier than ever to reach your goal of 30 different plants a week – a key factor for a happy and healthy gut.

What are Plant Points?

Think of Plant Points as an upgrade to your 5-a-day.

For many years, we’ve been advised to eat five fruits and vegetables daily to encourage us to eat healthier. Plant Points go beyond just fruits and vegetables, allowing you to earn “points” from whole foods, powdered foods, herbs, and spices.

Emphasising variety over just quantity, Plant Points are a really handy way to make sure you’re eating a nutrient-packed diet.

Why 30 Plant Points a week?

Studies have shown that eating 30 plant foods a week can play a positive role in leading a healthy lifestyle.¹ For example, the 2018 American Gut Project study highlighted that participants who ate a broader range of plants had more diverse gut microbiomes – which play a huge part in human health and disease.

But, here’s the twist: your 30 plants a week need to be different. So, if you eat an apple a day, it’ll only count as one Plant Point instead of seven.

How to count Plant Points

We know it might sound tricky and a little confusing, which is just one of the reasons why we’ve made counting Plant Points easier at H&B.

Counting Plant Points follows a simple point system, where:

• whole foods, like an apple, earn one Plant Point

• powdered whole foods, like a scoop of spirulina, earn 1/2 point

• herbs and spices get 1/4 point

If you’re unsure how many Plant Points a product accounts for, just check the packaging. We've conveniently listed Plant Points for average portion sizes on all our packaging to help you track your progress towards 30 different plants a wee

How can you earn your 30 Plant Points a week?

To reach your 30 plants a week, you’ll want to aim for just over four Plant Points from different sources every day.

Looking for inspiration to reach your target? We’ve got you covered.

Check out our range of plant-powered recipes, where we’ll give you the lowdown on the Plant Points included. For instance, if you were making our Flamingo Pea & Smoky Red Pepper Stew, you'd include:

• H&B flamingo peas: whole food = one Plant Point

• red peppers: whole food = one Plant Point

• tomatoes: Whole Food = one Plant Point

• flat leaf parsley: herbs and spices = 1/4 of a Plant Point

So, you have three and a 1/4 Plant Points…and that's before we add the rest of the ingredients, like our H&B Red Sauce, Passata and Kimchi.

What are the benefits of Plant Points?

Increasing the variety of plant-based foods isn’t only a great move for your gut health but your overall health too. This is because:

• different fibres promote the growth of different bacteria

• different fruits and vegetables contain a range of phytonutrients

• different fruits and vegetables contain a variety of essential nutrients

• plant-based foods tend to have lower energy densit

Alex Glover, Nutritionist

“Plant Points is a build on 5-a-day, and focuses on the total number of plants we’re consuming within the diet, not just fruits and vegetables. Increasing our intake of plants allows us to feed our gut bacteria more diverse foods and the more diverse our gut becomes the more our gut can look after us.

Good gut health doesn’t need to take over your life. Think about what you’ve eaten today so far and how you can add extra Plant Points to that. For example, let’s say for dinner you’re making a stir fry. Why not add pepper, spinach and some nuts on top? It’s easier than you think.”

Our top tips…

For an easy, quick and delicious way to add Plant Points to your diet, why not try our fantastic range of H&B Trail Mixes with Benefits? We have three to choose from, all delicious and here to support your nutritional needs.

Our expertly crafted Tummy Love Trail Mix has a whopping nine Plant Points – a fantastic way to boost your weekly intake.

You can also browse our recipe selection and discover countless ways to incorporate Plant Points into your diet and reach your goal of 30 plants a week for a happier, healthier you!

Start exploring our Plant Point-powered food range today.