Editor’s Note: This story is part of an ongoing column, “The 30 Different Plants Per Week Challenge, Retail Edition.”
As the retail editor for The Packer, I have the opportunity to view the produce department through the lens of a consumer as well as an editor. While I spend my days analyzing industry shifts and supply chain logistics, I also spend my evenings navigating the same aisles as the shoppers we serve.
I decided to merge these two perspectives by creating the 30 Different Plants Per Week Challenge, Retail Edition. This series is designed as a real-time experiment in how plant-forward shoppers interact with the produce aisle. By documenting this journey, I intend to offer retailers a front-row seat to the shopper’s decision-making process, uncovering the merchandising cues and educational gaps that determine what ultimately makes it into the cart.
Why 30 Different Plants
A trend that doesn’t look like it’s slowing down, the “30 Different Plants Per Week Challenge, Retail Edition,” originated from a landmark 2018 study conducted by the American Gut Project, one of the largest citizen-science microbiome research initiatives in the world. Led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the study analyzed stool samples from over 10,000 volunteers across the U.S., U.K. and Australia. The core finding was that participants who consumed more than 30 different types of plants weekly had significantly more diverse gut microbiomes than those who ate 10 or fewer. This diversity is linked to better immune function, reduced inflammation and improved mental health.
As of 2026, the 30-plants-per-week movement has evolved from a niche social media challenge into a structural shift in how consumers approach the produce department. For retailers, understanding these search and consumer trends is the key to capturing what is now sometimes called the “Diversity Diet.”
While the traditional “five-a-day” message focused on volume, 2026 search data shows a surge in interest regarding microbiome diversity and plant points. Consumers are no longer just looking for more food; they are looking for different food. This trend is driven by:
- The rise of personalized nutrition: Companies like Zoe have mainstreamed the idea that a healthy gut requires a wide variety of fiber types. Search queries for “prebiotic diversity” and “polyphenols” have moved out of clinical labs and into the produce aisle.
- The “GLP-1" effect: As weight-loss medications (such as Ozempic and Wegovy) continue to dominate health conversations in 2026, a massive subset of “fiber-forward” shoppers is emerging. These consumers are searching for high-fiber plants such as jicama, artichokes and legumes, to manage digestive health while on these medications.
- The “plant point” economy: Shoppers are gamifying their grocery trips. Search interest in “what counts as a plant” shows that consumers are delighted to discover that coffee, dark chocolate and even popcorn count toward their weekly goal.
Why Me?
Eating more plants has been part of my lifestyle for a while. Not as a diet, not as a reset and not as a temporary challenge, but as a way to bring more variety, flavor and intention into everyday eating, including more fiber, improved gut health and more nutrients. Rather than eating less of any one food group, I aimed to incorporate more fresh fruit, vegetables and other plant foods. Like many shoppers, I already considered myself a “produce person.” I cook often, I shop the perimeter and fruits and vegetables regularly land in my cart. I seek out what fruits and vegetables are celebrated seasonally in different regions when I travel, I’m an avid home cook and I’m a preservation enthusiast who cans, freezes and dehydrates produce to enjoy year-round.
Since I also happen to be the retail editor for a produce industry magazine, it means my interest in eating more plants goes well beyond personal experience. I spend my days talking with growers, shippers, retailers and marketers about how and why consumers shop the produce department.
But when I started paying closer attention to variety and not just volume, I realized how often I rely on the same familiar items week after week. Spinach, broccoli, apples, tomatoes. Healthy, yes; diverse, not always.
That’s what drew me to the idea of eating 30 different plants per week, and why I’m turning it into an ongoing column that can benefit consumers as well as the retail grocers where they shop.
The idea of 30 different plants itself isn’t arbitrary. To better understand the science behind plant variety, I spoke with Janel Ohletz, director of agriculture for Plantd and a classically trained chef who holds a doctorate in soil science. She explains that the 30-plants goal is rooted in the unique nutritional profiles found across different plant species — even those within the same family, like kale and cabbage.
“Every single different type of species has different nutrients in them that hit different parts,” Ohletz says. A diverse intake allows different plants to “fill in the gaps” of others, creating what she describes as a “really great balance across that spectrum.”
By hitting these various nutritional markers, Ohletz says, consumers can worry less about tracking individual vitamins day by day. Beyond the microscopic benefits, she also emphasizes the practical reality: Variety makes healthy eating more sustainable.
“I would say variety is the spice of life,” she says. “I eat with my eyes first and then with my mouth, and it helps fill me up better when it’s more interesting than just some bland brown thing on my plate.”
Bridging the Gap: From Consumer to Retailer
The goal of this weekly column is to bridge personal experience and professional observation.
- For consumers: It offers a realistic, non-prescriptive way to think about variety focused on curiosity rather than restriction.
- For retailers: It provides an unfiltered look at how a plant-forward mindset changes shopping behavior in real time.
Each week, I’ll share what helped me buy more produce and what small details made a difference. Each month, I’ll synthesize these observations into a video roundup highlighting what worked, where shoppers get stuck and what retailers can replicate.
Stay tuned for the first installment, “Surviving a Storm and Finding Strategy in the Aisles.” If you want to learn more about the 30-plants challenge in the meantime, I wrote about it last year in this article: What retailers should know about the gut-healthy 30 plants a week challenge.
