Your microbiome—the good to bad bacterial organ of about 4 to 6 pounds deep inside your gut—rules your health. It craves diversity.

You sustain a DIVERSE microbiome with a DIVERSE diet.

Farming practices today raise less diverse foods. We are a country of monotone eaters.

You remember Seinfeld. There were the tonsil people and the non-tonsil people. There were the sponge worthy people and the non-sponge worthy people.

Well there are the monotone eaters and the non-monotone eaters.

Be a diverse muncher, not a monotone muncher, to achieve more energy.

I used to struggle with my health.
But now I have so much energy people are always commenting on it.
I want you to have that energy and vibrancy and hope.

One of the ways is to change up your diet, and spice it up, too.

Most menus are made up of the same approximately 8 to 12 boring “dead-like” foods such as wheat, eggs, milk, meat, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, chips, and often not much else. Okay, maybe candy.

To achieve unstoppable health, we should be eating about 5 to 12 veggies a day, at least. Lots and lots of veggies.

And we need to mix our proteins up. Not just meat or even chicken. But more fish, nuts, beans, sprouts and various healthy oils.

You can make a salad with a lot more creativity: 2 to 3 kinds of sprouts, grated zucchini, tips of raw asparagus, capers (one of highest food in rutin and quercetin), walnuts, olives, goat cheese, diced onions or chives, shredded cabbage (the blue color has similar benefits of the blue color in blueberries), arugula, grated broccoli crowns, and more.

On top? My three musketeers: olive oil, granulated garlic and sea salt. Add some balsamic vinegar. Or a Tbsp. of tomato paste for the anti-cancer lycopene. Or some olive tapenade. Be creative.

Protein should be the side dish. Now it’s the main dish. Make veggies your main dish. And switch them veggies about.

I am not talking about bland tasteless food. There are so many ways to make food delicious and diverse, the 2 D’s.

I wish I could invite you into my kitchen. I use lots of herbs.

Herbs generously sprinkled count as veggies as they are veggies in a way, too.
Parsley for example, is one of the highest foods in PQQ, which protects mitochondria and brain volume and function. It is also high in apigenin, a flavonoid that protects hormone health and turns the killing machine back on deep inside cancer cells.
I make a limeade drink with it often.

Your kitchen should be jiving with color, plant life, sprouts, aliveness, and then you too… will be more alive.

The more alive you feel, the more hope and energy you have, the more you can do positive things with your life and focus on what’s out there, not just on your aches and pains and fatigue.

I wish you colorful health. It starts with making your microbiome jamming with diversity because so are your kitchen and meals!

Mark L. Heiman, Frank L. Greenway. A healthy gastrointestinal microbiome is dependent on dietary diversity. Molecular Metabolism, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.molmet.2016.02.005