Diversity-First Eating
Skip the diet labels; eat the widest variety you can.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 72%
Anderson rejects rigid diet labels (vegan, paleo) in favor of maximizing dietary variety to build a diverse microbiome. She recommends actively seeking unfamiliar foods, including from ethnic grocery stores, to acquire different bacteria from around the world. She favors eating clean and moving toward organic in baby steps to avoid glyphosate, which targets beneficial bacteria. She also uses intermittent fasting less for weight loss than because starving bacteria during a fasting window increases microbial diversity.
Origin
Anderson formed this view from frustration with competing diet labels and from microbiome research showing modern humans eat a far narrower range of foods than their ancestors.
Core principles
- 01A diverse microbiome comes from a diverse diet, not a single dietary label.
- 02We eat far fewer foods than our ancestors, narrowing our bacteria.
- 03Eating cleaner and more organic reduces glyphosate hits to good bacteria.
- 04Time-restricted eating lets bacteria proliferate and increases diversity.
How to run it
- 1
Drop the label
Stop optimizing for a single diet identity and optimize for variety of whole foods instead.
Pro tip Aim for mostly vegetables on the plate while keeping the range wide.
- 2
Seek unfamiliar foods
Deliberately eat foods you don't normally eat, including from ethnic grocery stores, plus varied roots and tubers.
Pro tip Different foods carry different bacteria from different parts of the world.
- 3
Eat cleaner in baby steps
Gradually shift toward more organic produce to reduce glyphosate, which selectively kills good bacteria.
Pro tip Small increments beat overwhelming overhauls you won't sustain.
Watch out Glyphosate in conventional produce targets only the beneficial bacteria.
- 4
Add a fasting window
Use a time-restricted eating window so bacteria proliferate during non-eating periods, increasing diversity.
Pro tip Value fasting for microbial diversity, not just weight loss.
In the wild
Anderson suggests visiting ethnic grocery stores and eating many different types of foods, roots and tubers to acquire bacteria from all over the world.
→ This broadens the microbiome beyond the narrow food range most modern diets provide.
Common mistakes
Chasing one diet label
Locking into vegan or paleo narrows food variety and therefore microbial diversity, the opposite of the goal.
Is it for you?
Best for
People stuck in rigid diet camps or eating a narrow rotation of foods.
Not ideal for
Those with medical dietary restrictions or eating disorders needing clinical guidance.
From the transcript
“I just feel like we should be eating a diverse group of foods... we wanna get all this different bacteria from all different parts of…”
“when you starve your bacteria, it also will cause increased diversity in our bacteria”
From the episode
Tina Anderson: Change Your Gut, Change Your Life. How to Level Up Your Health in 2023
Tina Anderson