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The Plant Prescription 🌈🌿

The Plant Prescription 🌈🌿

Have you ever wondered how your plate's fruits, herbs, and vegetables shape your health from the inside out? Join me in exploring all the colours of the rainbow and the science behind nature’s pharmacy

Dr Cam Rogers
May 05, 2025

The Plant Prescription celebrates the vibrant world of plants—from roots hidden underground to leaves dancing in the sun—and their powerful role in nurturing our microbiome and preventing disease.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away 🍎🩺

This timeless saying, rooted in Welsh tradition since 1866, encourages us to embrace simple, healthy choices. Expressed initially as “Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread,” it transformed into its modern form by 1913.

While scientific evidence doesn't fully support the idea that a daily apple prevents doctor visits, apples are undeniably nutritious. They are rich in fibre, flavonoids, and antioxidants that help prevent diseases. For example, apple fibre pectin acts as a prebiotic, promoting a healthy gut microbiome and reducing the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Prioritising apples in your diet is a wise choice for better health.

Prebiotic: non-digestible food components that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut. They serve as food for probiotics, helping to maintain a healthy digestive system.

Flavinoids: a diverse group of plant compounds known for their vibrant pigments and powerful antioxidant properties, playing a crucial role in protecting plants from environmental stressors. Imagine biting into a juicy apple or sipping on a cup of green tea; both are rich in flavonoids, with quercetin in apples being a prime example, offering potential health benefits like reducing inflammation and supporting heart health.

Antioxidants: molecules that protect your cells from damage caused by free radicals, which are unstable atoms that can lead to illness and aging. A well-known example is vitamin C, found in citrus fruits, which helps neutralize these harmful particles and supports overall health.

5 A DAY 5️⃣💪

We’ve all heard the mantra: “Eat your five a day.” Thanks to Mr. Potato from Peppa Pig, even my two-year-old can recite it! But have you ever wondered where this guideline comes from—or if it’s enough?

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Fruit and vegetables keep us alive; always remember to eat your five

Mr Potato, Peppa Pig

The answer traces back to the World Health Organization (WHO), which in the early 1990s recommended at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables daily to help prevent heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers. This advice took root in the UK’s “5 A Day” campaign in 2003 and quickly became a staple of public health messaging.

But here’s the real question: is five the magic number or just the starting line? Research suggests that five servings—ideally a mix of two fruits and three vegetables—offer the greatest benefit for a longer, healthier life.

Yet, most of us still struggle to hit that target! So, let’s dig deeper into the colourful world of plants, explore their power to transform our health, and discover whether aiming even higher could help us thrive.

The “5 A Day” guideline is meant as a minimum target, not a maximum. Research from Harvard and other health authorities shows that five servings per day offer substantial health benefits, but eating more—such as 7–8 servings—may provide additional advantages, especially for heart health and longevity

Just what the doctor ordered

There are several limitations to the 5 A Day recommendation

Not all count: Potatoes, yams, and plantains don’t make the cut; beans/pulses only count once, no matter how many you eat.
Juice & smoothies: Only 150ml counts per day-extra servings don’t.
Processed foods: Tiny amounts in processed snacks (like fruit yogurts) don’t count.
Evidence: The benefits are based on associations, not proven cause-and-effect.
Hard to reach: Many people struggle to hit 5 A Day due to cost, access, or cooking skills

Current evidence suggests that while the “5 A Day” guideline is a valuable and achievable starting point for most people, aiming for more than five servings of fruits and vegetables daily can offer additional health benefits, including increased fibre intake

Duthie SJ et al. Effect of increasing fruit and vegetable intake by dietary intervention on nutritional biomarkers and attitudes to dietary change: a randomised trial. Eur J Nutr. 2018 Aug;57(5):1855-1872. doi: 10.1007/s00394-017-1469-0.

Some studies indicate that increasing your intake to seven to ten servings per day may further lower the risk of chronic disease and boost nutrient and fibre intake.

However, large-scale research also shows that the greatest reduction in mortality risk is seen at around five servings per day, with little additional benefit observed beyond this amount for overall longevity.

Eat the Rainbow 🌈

Eating a variety of colours in fruits and vegetables is key to overall health because each colour group provides unique phytonutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants that support different aspects of your well-being

Phytonutrients: also known as phytochemicals, are naturally occurring compounds found in plants that contribute to their colour, flavor, and disease resistance, and are believed to provide various health benefits when consumed as part of a balanced diet.

The phrase “Eat the Rainbow” isn’t attributed to a single inventor. It gained popularity in the early 2000s when the USDA launched campaigns to encourage children and families to eat a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables

Large-scale studies and umbrella reviews show that diets rich in a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables are linked to lower risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain cancers

Each color group offers specific benefits; for example, red foods (lycopene) support heart and brain health, orange/yellow (carotenoids) boost eye and immune health, green (chlorophyll, isothiocyanates) aids detoxification, and blue/purple (anthocyanins) support brain and heart health

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/eat-the-rainbow-for-good-health/?utm_source=perplexity

If you only eat from a limited color range, you miss out on the full spectrum of phytonutrient benefits

Practical Tips to Eat the Rainbow:

Aim for 2-3 different colours at every meal and at least one at every snack
Rotate your choices weekly to cover the full spectrum and maximize benefit
Remember, artificial colours in processed foods don’t count - focus on natural whole foods.

Common misconceptions about Eating the Rainbow

Myth	Fact	Ideas
Eating every colour guarantees balanced nutrition	There’s no scientific evidence that simply balancing colours on your plate ensures a balanced intake of all nutrients.	While coloured fruits and vegetables contain different phytochemicals, what matters most is variety and overall diet quality, not just colour diversity
You must eat every colour every day	It is not necessary to consume every colour daily	The key is to include a range of colours over the week, as nutrient needs are met over time, not in a single meal or day

Myth

Fact

Ideas

Eating every colour guarantees balanced nutrition

There’s no scientific evidence that simply balancing colours on your plate ensures a balanced intake of all nutrients.

While coloured fruits and vegetables contain different phytochemicals, what matters most is variety and overall diet quality, not just colour diversity

You must eat every colour every day

It is not necessary to consume every colour daily

The key is to include a range of colours over the week, as nutrient needs are met over time, not in a single meal or day

All colorful foods are healthy

Not all colorful foods are nutritious - I am certainly not advocating to Eat the Rainbow of Skittles as per the adverts.

Eat the Rainbow refers to natural plant-based foods, not processed foods with added colour.

White or beige foods lack nutrients

White vegetables like cauliflower, onions and garlic are often overlooked but provide valuable nutrients and health benefits

People who ate garlic at least five times a week had about a 10% lower mortality rate compared to those who rarely ate it, which translates to living bout 1 year longer

(Dr Michael Greger - How Not to Age)

Making Fibre Sexy: Why Gut Health’s Hottest Trend Deserves the Spotlight

While low-carb diets like keto and protein-centric regimes dominate headlines, fibre remains the unsung hero of optimal health.

Modern diets prioritize macros (carbs, fats, proteins) but sideline the 30g of daily fibre recommended by global health authorities-a target most adults miss by half. Enter lessons from Tanzania’s Hadza hunter-gatherers, whose microbiome-boosting, fibre-rich diets (100g+ daily) fuel a gut ecosystem teeming with diversity. Their seasonal feasting on tubers, berries and wild honey sustains microbes like Prevotella and Treponema, linked to reduced inflammation and chronic disease. Unlike Western diets laden with processed foods, the Hadza’s plant centric intake - packed with microbiota accessible carbohydrates - showcases fibre’s role in nurturing gut bacteria that regulate immunity, metabolism and mental health.

Fueling your microbiome doesn’t have to be costly. The real takeaway message is simpler: swap refined* carbohydrates for whole plants and let fibre give you the power to transform health from the inside out

(*refined carbs - processed to remove much of their natural fibre, vitamins and minerals e.g. white bread, white rice, white pasta, cakes, cookies, pastries, many breakfast cereals such as cocopops, syrups, sugar sweetened beverages and fizzy sodas e.g. Coke, Fanta.)

From Plate to Power: Let Plants and Fibre Transform Your Health

The world of fruits, veggies and whole plant foods is far more vibrant and vital than any diet trend or catchy slogan. ‘Eating the rainbow’ isn’t just about making your plate look pretty; its about unlocking a spectrum of nutrients and powerful plant compounds that support every system in your body.

While '“5 a Day” is a great place to start, aiming higher- especially when it comes to fibre - can supercharge you gut health, energy and disease prevention.

Let’s take inspiration from hunter-gatherer communities, whose fibre - rich, diverse diets nurture a thriving microbiome and lifelong wellness. Instead of focusing only on protein, carbs or fats, lets give fibre the spotlight it deserves.

By choosing more whole, colorful and minimally processed foods, you are not just following a guideline - you are making an essential investment in your health and happiness.

So remember - every colour counts, every bite of fibre makes a difference and every small change brings you closer to your healthiest self.

Rome wasn’t build in a day! Great achievements take patience, persistence and time - whether you are transforming your health, your habits or your relationship with food.

Alan Watts the philosopher, beautifully echo’s this idea of embracing the journey and being present in the process.

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This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play

Alan Watts

Both remind us meaningful change doesn’t happen overnight. Be patient with yourself, enjoy the process.

Dr Cam’s homework for anyone who has read this —> at your next trip to the supermarket or online shop, can you add one fruit and one veg you have either never eaten or not eaten in recent months. Go colorful if you can! Grow your gut garden…thrive, don’t just survive.

Thanks if you have read this far

Dr Cam

Over and out.

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