If you’ve vowed to sort out your gut health in 2025, then you’ve probably started spending a fortune on fibre supplements and kefir already. But there’s only one habit that you actually need to adopt to make a significant difference straight away: eat more plants. At least, that’s the conclusion of a huge new study by the team at Zoe, who analysed over 21,000 vegans, vegetarians and omnivores and found that plant-based diets are reshaping the gut microbiome – in a good way.

With more and more people cutting down on meat globally, Zoe researchers wanted to find out what impact these planet-friendly dietary changes might be having on the colonies of bacteria that live in our gut. Each dietary pattern was found to have a unique gut profile, but the team found three stand-out conclusions. 

Vegans have the healthiest guts

Plant-based diets came out top for healthy levels of beneficial bacteria that are linked to better gut health. Vegans have more bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which work to support the gut lining, reduce inflammation and help to maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Meat-eaters tend to have more bad bacteria

Red meat eaters have a higher abundance of bacteria associated with inflammation and poorer cardiometabolic health, including species linked to an increased risk of colon cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

We should all aim for 30+ plants a week

The study highlighted the importance of heating a diverse range of plants for good gut health and builds on Zoe’s previous research into the link between having at least 30 plants a week (including fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, beans and spices) and improved immune function, digestion and chronic disease prevention.  

“This study underscores how important diet is in shaping the gut microbiome and our overall health,” said Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of Zoe. “We found that a plant-rich diet, particularly one high in a variety of fruits and vegetables, leads to a healthier microbiome composition, which is important for better health outcomes in the long run, including a reduced risk of chronic diseases.”

Last year, I took the Zoe test and my findings correlate with the results of this study: I was deemed a ‘gut unicorn’ thanks to my high levels of good gut bacteria, blood fat levels and blood sugar control. I’ve been a vegan for almost a decade and have been actively chasing the 30 plants a week goal ever since Dr Spector spoke on the subject at Stylist Live.

This isn’t the first study that Zoe has done into dietary differences. Dr Spector previously ran a twin cohort study and found that the vegan twins tended to have lower gut diversity but a healthier gut microbiome overall.  

While this new research once again confirms that eating a plant-based diet boasts huge benefits for our guts, it also offers the promise of better gut health to meat-eaters too. A diet high in red meat might be bad for us, but researchers found that the amount of healthy plant-based foods in your diet can transcend overall diet patterns. That means if you do eat meat or fish regularly, you can counteract more of the negative gut implications by sticking to that 30+ plants goal. In fact, researchers concluded that omnivores could share the same gut profile as vegans if they incorporated similar amounts of plant-based foods into their diets. The issue is, the study found, that most omnivores tend to consume significantly fewer plants than vegans or vegetarians – confirming yet again that good gut health is more about what you add in than what you take away.  

Images: Getty