A couple of things are not clear from the brief reports of that study here outlined (I didn't read the original paper).
Do they mean plant as in leafy plus starchy vegetables or do they include any plant specieses (nuts and seeds, vegetables, fruit, cereals).
What about quantities of each amount of plants? Is there a minimum threshold below which the species does not add up to diversity?
Though I haven't read the original paper neither, I do think they would specify if with different plant eaten last week they wouldn't mean any plant. Off course, if someone eats 80% as wheat or rice the remaining amounts would probably be to small to make much difference.
By surprise I turned out with a high diversity microbiome: https://www.longecit...ndpost&p=825010
But then, with above study results, not so much; When my health journey started 10 years ago with the diagnosis of PAD, I was fascinated by the detail that traditional diets associated with longevity contained easily a 100 different natural foods within a year, each again with up to 100, in most cases not even identified yet, phyto-nutrients.
Tried sort of replicating that by supplementing plant extracts (from up to 80 different plants). About 6 year ago that got another boost by adding in Ayurvedic plant extracts (an other 130 plants, though from 1 g/d down to most in mg amounts only).
Plants I ate for example almost every of the last few weeks: sauerkraut, red cabbage, natto, pickled cucumber, olives, beets, bitter gourd, bell peppers, carrots, tomato paste, chickpeas, blueberries, apples, oranges, macadamia, walnut, hazelnut, pekan nut, flax seed, pumpkin seed, black seed, coconut, spirulina, cocoa powder, coffee beans, tulsi tea, red wine (eggs, mackerel, sardines, honey, curds, aged cheese).. Therefore about ~25.
Such diverse dietary ingredients plus supplemental does explain my recent most diverse microbiome, even if my health hasn't totally caught up yet.
Edited by pamojja, 08 June 2018 - 04:13 PM.