A Gutsy tray and seven-tray box on a sunlit kitchen worktop
A Gutsy tray on a desk by a window overlooking the sea
Two people sharing a Gutsy tray on a picnic above the sea
Open the tray
Top-down view of the Gutsy tray showing all 30 compartments

Thirty foods you walk straight past.

Most of us eat the same few plants on repeat. Research links eating 30 or more different plants a week with a more varied community of gut bacteria. Here they are, in one tray.

For each food you will see its serve size, what it does in your gut, and an estimate of what one serve provides. NRV is the share of the EU daily reference for an adult.

Please note: the tray photo is enlarged and generously filled to show each food clearly. Real serves are smaller; the weight shown for each food is what your tray contains.

Keep scrolling to meet all thirty
01
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Almonds

Serve: 2 whole almonds, about 2.4 g

A source of vitamin E and fibre. Most of an almond's polyphenols sit in its brown skin, which is why these are whole and unblanched.

For your gut

Almond fibre and skin polyphenols reach the large intestine largely intact, where they feed gut bacteria.

Energy
14 kcal
Protein
0.5 g
Fat
1.2 g
Carbs
0.2 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Vitamin E0.61 mg, 5% NRV
Magnesium6.5 mg, 2% NRV

Usually eaten roasted and salted, if at all.

Allergen: tree nuts

02
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Walnuts

Serve: Half a walnut, about 2.5 g

The richest everyday nut in ALA, the plant form of omega-3. Walnuts also contain ellagitannins, which gut bacteria convert into compounds called urolithins.

For your gut

Gut bacteria convert walnut ellagitannins into urolithins.

Energy
16 kcal
Protein
0.4 g
Fat
1.6 g
Carbs
0.2 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Manganese0.09 mg, 4% NRV
Copper0.04 mg, 4% NRV

Mostly saved for baking.

Allergen: tree nuts

03
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Pistachios

Serve: 3 shelled kernels, about 1.8 g

One of the more fibre-rich nuts, with lutein in the green kernel and anthocyanins in the purple skin.

For your gut

Pistachio fibre and skin polyphenols are fermented by gut bacteria.

Energy
10 kcal
Protein
0.4 g
Fat
0.8 g
Carbs
0.3 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Vitamin B60.03 mg, 2% NRV
Potassium18 mg, 1% NRV

Usually a bar snack by the handful.

Allergen: tree nuts

04
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Hazelnuts

Serve: 2 whole hazelnuts, about 2.8 g

A source of vitamin E and manganese, with proanthocyanidins concentrated in the thin brown skin.

For your gut

The proanthocyanidins in hazelnut skins are mostly broken down by gut bacteria rather than by your own digestion.

Energy
18 kcal
Protein
0.4 g
Fat
1.7 g
Carbs
0.2 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Vitamin E0.42 mg, 3% NRV
Manganese0.17 mg, 9% NRV

Most people only meet them in chocolate spread.

Allergen: tree nuts

05
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Pumpkin seeds

Serve: A small pinch, about 1.5 g

Among the richest plant sources of magnesium, and a source of zinc, with a different fat profile from tree nuts.

For your gut

Adds seed fibre from the gourd family, found nowhere else in the tray.

Energy
8 kcal
Protein
0.5 g
Fat
0.7 g
Carbs
0.1 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Magnesium8.9 mg, 2% NRV
Zinc0.12 mg, 1% NRV

Scooped out and thrown away every Halloween.

06
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Sunflower seeds

Serve: A small pinch, about 1.5 g

Rich in vitamin E, and a source of selenium and folate. From the daisy family, unrelated to anything else in the tray.

For your gut

Adds fibre from the daisy family, widening what your gut bacteria are fed.

Energy
9 kcal
Protein
0.3 g
Fat
0.8 g
Carbs
0.2 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Vitamin E0.53 mg, 4% NRV
Selenium0.80 µg, 1% NRV

Thought of as bird food.

07
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Chia

Serve: A level pinch, about 1.0 g

About a third of chia's weight is fibre, much of it the soluble kind that turns to gel. Also a source of ALA omega-3.

For your gut

Its soluble, gel-forming fibre is fermented by gut bacteria.

Energy
5 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.3 g
Carbs
0.1 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Calcium6.3 mg, 1% NRV
Magnesium3.4 mg, 1% NRV

Bought once for a pudding, then forgotten.

08
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Ground flaxseed

Serve: A level pinch, about 1.0 g

The richest food source of lignans. Gut bacteria convert them into enterolignans, so what you get from flax depends partly on your own microbes. Ground, because whole seeds often pass straight through.

For your gut

Gut bacteria convert flax lignans into enterolignans.

Energy
5 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.4 g
Carbs
0.0 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Magnesium3.9 mg, 1% NRV
Copper0.01 mg, 1% NRV

Whole flaxseed is common; ground is rare.

09
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Sesame

Serve: A level pinch, about 1.0 g

Contains the lignans sesamin and sesamolin, plus calcium and copper.

For your gut

Sesame lignans are also converted by gut bacteria.

Energy
6 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.5 g
Carbs
0.1 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Calcium9.8 mg, 1% NRV
Copper0.04 mg, 4% NRV

Usually just a scattering on a burger bun.

Allergen: sesame

10
Nuts, seeds and cacao

Cacao nibs

Serve: A small pinch, about 1.5 g

Crushed roasted cocoa beans with no added sugar. Cocoa is rich in flavanols, many of which reach the large intestine, where gut bacteria break them down.

For your gut

Cocoa flavanols are largely metabolised by gut bacteria.

Energy
8 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.7 g
Carbs
0.0 g
Fibre
0.5 g
Magnesium3.8 mg, 1% NRV
Iron0.06 mg, 0% NRV

Few people have tasted cocoa this close to the bean.

11
Nuts, seeds and cacao

85% dark chocolate

Serve: 1 small piece, about 2.5 g

The same plant as the nibs, in its most familiar form. At 85% cocoa it carries far more cocoa solids and far less sugar than milk chocolate.

For your gut

Brings cocoa polyphenols, which gut bacteria break down.

Energy
15 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
1.1 g
Carbs
0.9 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Iron0.30 mg, 2% NRV
Copper0.04 mg, 4% NRV

Too bitter for most, until they try a small piece.

May contain milk

12
Fruit

Dried blueberries

Serve: A small pinch, about 1.5 g

Rich in anthocyanins, the blue-purple pigments. Only a small share is absorbed; much of the rest travels on to the colon, where gut bacteria break it down.

For your gut

Most anthocyanins are not absorbed and are broken down by gut bacteria instead.

Energy
5 kcal
Protein
0.0 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
1.1 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Manganese0.01 mg, 1% NRV
Vitamin K0.90 µg, 1% NRV

Fresh ones are pricey and spoil quickly.

13
Fruit

Sour cherries

Serve: 2 or 3 cherries, about 1.5 g

Deep red and tart, with a different mix of anthocyanins from blueberries, and from a different plant family, the rose family.

For your gut

Like the blueberries' anthocyanins, most of the cherries' are handled by gut bacteria.

Energy
5 kcal
Protein
0.0 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
1.1 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Potassium4.5 mg, 0% NRV
Vitamin A0.60 µg, 0% NRV

Rarely sold fresh in Spain or the UK.

14
Fruit

Goji berries

Serve: 6 to 8 berries, about 1.5 g

Among the richest food sources of zeaxanthin, a yellow-orange carotenoid. Goji belongs to the nightshade family, alongside tomatoes.

For your gut

Goji polysaccharides and fibre pass to the colon to be fermented.

Energy
5 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
1.0 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Iron0.10 mg, 1% NRV
Vitamin C0.72 mg, 1% NRV

Seen in health shops, rarely bought.

15
Fruit

Dried mulberries

Serve: 4 or 5 berries, about 1.5 g

Naturally sweet, with fibre and their own mix of polyphenols. A relative of the fig.

For your gut

Fibre and polyphenols from the mulberry family, fermented in the colon.

Energy
5 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
0.9 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Iron0.10 mg, 1% NRV
Calcium3.0 mg, 0% NRV

Most people have never seen one.

16
Fruit

Dried fig

Serve: A quarter fig, about 3.0 g

One of the highest-fibre dried fruits and a plant source of calcium, packed with tiny seeds.

For your gut

Fig fibre, including pectin, is fermented by gut bacteria.

Energy
7 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
1.6 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Calcium4.9 mg, 1% NRV
Potassium20 mg, 1% NRV

Mostly eaten at Christmas.

17
Fruit

Dried apricot

Serve: Half an apricot, about 3.5 g

A source of potassium, with beta-carotene giving its orange colour.

For your gut

Apricot's soluble fibre, mainly pectin, is fermented by gut bacteria.

Energy
8 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
1.9 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Potassium41 mg, 2% NRV
Vitamin A6.3 µg, 1% NRV

Left at the bottom of the fruit and nut bag.

May contain sulphites

18
Fruit

Freeze-dried raspberries

Serve: A few pieces, about 0.8 g

Raspberries are among the highest-fibre fruits and, like walnuts, contain ellagitannins for gut bacteria to work on. Freeze-drying keeps the colour and flavour.

For your gut

Gut bacteria turn raspberry ellagitannins into urolithins.

Energy
3 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
0.3 g
Fibre
0.4 g
Vitamin C1.2 mg, 2% NRV
Manganese0.04 mg, 2% NRV

Fresh raspberries last about two days.

19
Beans and grains

Roasted chickpeas

Serve: 4 or 5 chickpeas, about 2.0 g

Fibre, including resistant starch, and plant protein. Legume fibre is fermented by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate.

For your gut

Resistant starch and legume fibre are fermented into short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate.

Energy
8 kcal
Protein
0.4 g
Fat
0.1 g
Carbs
0.9 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Folate5.0 µg, 2% NRV
Iron0.10 mg, 1% NRV

Most people only eat them as hummus.

20
Beans and grains

Roasted edamame

Serve: 4 or 5 beans, about 1.5 g

Young soya beans with plant protein, fibre and isoflavones. Some people's gut bacteria turn the isoflavone daidzein into a compound called equol; others' don't.

For your gut

In some people, gut bacteria turn the soya isoflavone daidzein into equol.

Energy
6 kcal
Protein
0.6 g
Fat
0.3 g
Carbs
0.2 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Iron0.06 mg, 0% NRV
Magnesium3.3 mg, 1% NRV

Usually only at a sushi restaurant.

Allergen: soya

21
Beans and grains

Roasted fava beans

Serve: 2 beans, about 2.4 g

Broad beans, or habas, with protein, fibre and folate.

For your gut

Legume fibre for fermentation, from a different bean species.

Energy
9 kcal
Protein
0.6 g
Fat
0.1 g
Carbs
0.9 g
Fibre
0.5 g
Folate7.2 µg, 4% NRV
Iron0.16 mg, 1% NRV

Everywhere in Spain, yet few of us eat them.

Not suitable for people with G6PD deficiency (favism)

22
Beans and grains

Puffed quinoa

Serve: A small pinch, about 0.5 g

A seed from the amaranth family, containing all nine essential amino acids and a different fibre from cereal grains.

For your gut

Adds fibre from the amaranth family.

Energy
2 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
0.3 g
Fibre
0.0 g
Magnesium0.98 mg, 0% NRV
Manganese0.01 mg, 0% NRV

Bought once, cooked badly, never again.

23
Beans and grains

Toasted buckwheat

Serve: A small pinch, about 1.5 g

Not related to wheat and naturally gluten-free. A source of rutin, a flavonoid found in few other foods.

For your gut

Buckwheat's resistant starch and rutin reach the colon, where gut bacteria act on them.

Energy
5 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
1.0 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Magnesium3.3 mg, 1% NRV
Manganese0.02 mg, 1% NRV

Most people have never cooked it.

24
Beans and grains

Oat flakes

Serve: A small pinch, about 1.5 g

A source of beta-glucan, the soluble fibre oats are known for.

For your gut

Oat beta-glucan is fermented by gut bacteria in the colon.

Energy
6 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.1 g
Carbs
0.9 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Manganese0.05 mg, 3% NRV
Phosphorus6.2 mg, 1% NRV

Familiar, but porridge has lost out to toast.

Contains gluten unless certified gluten-free

25
Vegetables, mushroom, seaweed and fermented

Beetroot crisps

Serve: 2 thin slices, about 1.0 g

Coloured by betalain pigments and naturally rich in nitrates.

For your gut

Adds beet fibre, including pectin, for fermentation.

Energy
3 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
0.5 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Folate6.0 µg, 3% NRV
Potassium26 mg, 1% NRV

Fresh beetroot stains everything, so it gets skipped.

26
Vegetables, mushroom, seaweed and fermented

Kale crisps

Serve: A few pieces, about 0.8 g

A brassica, rich in vitamin K and in glucosinolates, which gut bacteria can convert into compounds called isothiocyanates.

For your gut

Gut bacteria convert kale glucosinolates into isothiocyanates.

Energy
3 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.1 g
Carbs
0.0 g
Fibre
0.3 g
Vitamin K28 µg, 37% NRV
Calcium19 mg, 2% NRV

Easy to buy, easy to leave wilting in the fridge.

27
Vegetables, mushroom, seaweed and fermented

Shiitake crisps

Serve: 2 thin slices, about 0.8 g

Not a plant but a fungus, bringing fibres plants don't have, including beta-glucans and chitin.

For your gut

Fungal beta-glucans and chitin are fibres only gut bacteria can break down.

Energy
2 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
0.5 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Copper0.04 mg, 4% NRV
Zinc0.06 mg, 1% NRV

Most people stop at white button mushrooms.

28
Vegetables, mushroom, seaweed and fermented

Nori

Serve: A few small pieces, about 0.5 g

A red seaweed whose fibre, porphyran, is unlike anything from a land plant. It is also a source of iodine.

For your gut

Human enzymes cannot digest porphyran, the fibre in nori. In some Japanese people, gut bacteria carry genes that can.

Energy
2 kcal
Protein
0.2 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
0.1 g
Fibre
0.1 g
Iodine7.5 µg, 5% NRV
Iron0.06 mg, 0% NRV

Only eaten wrapped round sushi, if at all.

29
Vegetables, mushroom, seaweed and fermented

Carrot flakes

Serve: A small pinch, about 1.0 g

A source of beta-carotene and pectin fibre, and a familiar taste among the unfamiliar.

For your gut

Carrot pectin is fermented by gut bacteria.

Energy
3 kcal
Protein
0.1 g
Fat
0.0 g
Carbs
0.6 g
Fibre
0.2 g
Vitamin A35 µg, 4% NRV
Potassium25 mg, 1% NRV

The one you already know.

30
Vegetables, mushroom, seaweed and fermented

Freeze-dried kefir bites

Serve: 2 or 3 drops, about 1.0 g

Fermented milk, and the tray's one fermented food. Freeze-drying keeps some of the cultures, but numbers vary, so we make no live-culture claims.

For your gut

A fermented food, the food group that increased microbiome diversity in Stanford's 2021 trial.

Energy
4 kcal
Protein
0.3 g
Fat
0.1 g
Carbs
0.4 g
Fibre
0.0 g
Calcium10 mg, 1% NRV
Vitamin B120.02 µg, 1% NRV

Most people have never tried kefir.

Allergen: milk

That's thirty. About 47 grams, every day.

Peel back the lid, eat them one by one, and a fresh tray waits for tomorrow.

Choose your plan

Why variety matters more than volume

Your large intestine is home to trillions of microbes. Different species feed on different fibres and plant compounds, so the wider the range of plants you eat, the wider the range of microbes you give a reason to stay.

01

Variety feeds variety

In the American Gut Project, one of the largest citizen-science studies of the gut, people who ate more than 30 different plants a week had more diverse gut microbes than people who ate 10 or fewer.

dietary plant diversity and recent antibiotic use predict both microbial and metabolomic diversity

mSystems commentary on the American Gut Project, 2018
02

Your microbes digest what you can't

Human digestive enzymes can't break down most fibre. Gut bacteria can, turning it into short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, the main fuel for the cells lining your colon. In Japan, some people's gut bacteria even carry genes, picked up from marine bacteria, for digesting seaweed.

supply digestive enzymes missing from the human genome

Nature, on Hehemann et al., 2010
03

What goes missing can disappear

In a Stanford study in mice, a low-fibre diet thinned out gut microbes. Within one generation the change could be reversed, but across several generations species were lost that returning to fibre could not bring back.

a progressive loss of diversity, which is not recoverable

Sonnenburg et al., Nature, 2016 (a study in mice)
15–30%

Lower death rates among the highest fibre eaters

A review of 185 studies and 58 clinical trials found that people who ate the most fibre had 15–30% lower death rates, from all causes and from heart disease, than those who ate the least. The biggest benefits appeared at 25–29 g of fibre a day. These are associations across whole diets, not the effect of any one food.

convincing evidence for nutrition guidelines to focus on increasing dietary fiber

Reynolds et al., The Lancet, 2019
10 weeks

To change the microbiome with food

In a 2021 Stanford trial, 36 healthy adults ate either more fermented food or more fibre for ten weeks. The fermented-food group's microbiome diversity rose and markers of inflammation fell. In the fibre group, diversity held steady over the same period.

a simple change in diet can reproducibly remodel the microbiota

Professor Justin Sonnenburg, Stanford Medicine, 2021

Why this isn't a snack pack

A snack pack is built around taste and volume. Gutsy is built around range: as many different plants, families and fibre types as one tray can hold, in portions just big enough to count.

28
different plants
from 19 plant families, plus a mushroom and a seaweed
6 g
fibre per tray
about a quarter of the EU daily reference of 25 g
210
kcal per tray
about the same as a small handful of nuts
47 g
per tray
30 serves of 0.5 to 3.5 g each

Built for range

Nuts, seeds, berries, beans, grains, vegetables, a mushroom, a seaweed and a fermented food. Each brings a different kind of fibre or plant compound.

Sized to count, not to fill

Each serve is a pinch or a piece. The point is how many different foods reach your gut each day, not how much of any one.

Chosen for what gut bacteria do

Lignans, ellagitannins, anthocyanins, beta-glucans, resistant starch: compounds your gut bacteria break down and transform.

Per tray, estimated: 210 kcal, 7 g protein, 11 g fat, 16 g carbohydrate, 6 g fibre. All nutrition figures on this page are estimates from standard food composition tables and will be confirmed by laboratory analysis before sale.

What the science does and doesn't say

What it shows

  • Eating a wider range of plants is linked with a more diverse gut microbiome.
  • Higher fibre intake is linked with lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer.
  • In a controlled trial, more fermented food increased microbiome diversity.
  • Gut bacteria break down fibres and plant compounds your own body can't.

What it doesn't

  • No study has tested a daily tray like Gutsy.
  • The 30-plant finding is an association; it doesn't prove plant variety alone causes the difference.
  • One tray gives about a quarter of your daily fibre. The rest has to come from your meals.
  • Gutsy is a food. It doesn't treat, cure or prevent any disease.

A pill can hold a list of vitamins. It can't hold thirty foods.

For most healthy adults, large research reviews have found that daily multivitamins do little to prevent heart disease, cancer or early death. Whole foods bring fibre and thousands of plant compounds no tablet contains.

A daily multivitamin

  • A fixed list of isolated vitamins and minerals
  • No fibre for gut bacteria to feed on
  • The same tablet, every day

A Gutsy tray

  • Thirty whole foods, from nuts to seaweed
  • Many fibres from many plant families
  • A menu that changes through the year

If a doctor has prescribed you a supplement, keep taking it. Gutsy is food, not a medicine.

Gutsy tray on a desk with a laptop and coffee

At your desk

No fridge, no preparation. Seven trays in a slim box on the shelf.

Gutsy tray shared on a picnic blanket

Out in the sun

Thirty small tastes, made for passing around.

The science behind the tray

2010

Seaweed-digesting gut bacteria

Hehemann et al., Nature

Found genes for digesting nori in gut bacteria from Japanese people, but not from North Americans.

2015

The Diet Myth

Professor Tim Spector

Argues that a wide variety of real, minimally processed food supports a more varied community of gut bacteria.

2016

Diet-induced extinctions

Sonnenburg et al., Nature

In mice, a low-fibre diet over several generations caused gut microbe species to be lost for good.

2018

American Gut Project

McDonald et al., mSystems

People eating more than 30 plants a week had more diverse gut bacteria than those eating 10 or fewer.

2019

Carbohydrate quality and health

Reynolds et al., The Lancet

Higher fibre intake was linked with 15–30% lower all-cause and heart-disease death rates.

2021

Fermented food trial

Wastyk et al., Cell (Stanford)

More fermented food increased gut microbiome diversity and lowered inflammation markers in 10 weeks.

Not suitable for people with food allergies

Every Gutsy tray contains:

  • Tree nuts: almonds, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts
  • Sesame
  • Soya
  • Milk
  • Oats, which may contain gluten
  • Dried apricot, which may contain sulphites

Trays are packed where other allergens are handled, so cross-contact cannot be ruled out. Fava beans are not suitable for people with G6PD deficiency. If you have an allergy, are pregnant, or have a medical condition, check with your doctor before eating Gutsy.

Choose your plan

Pause, skip or cancel at any time.

Weekly

€70
per week
  • 7 trays
  • Delivered weekly or fortnightly
  • Full 30-plant menu
Choose weekly
Best value

Monthly

€240
per month
  • 28 trays in one delivery
  • Lower price per tray
  • Full 30-plant menu
Choose monthly

Low sugar

€270
per week or month
  • Less dried fruit
  • More nuts, seeds and beans
  • Dark chocolate stays
Choose low sugar

Packed to leave nothing behind

Each tray is moulded from natural kraft fibre and sealed with a clear compostable film, so you see all thirty before you open it. The seven-tray box is recyclable card, stamped in copper foil.

Delivered by subscription across mainland Spain and Gibraltar, and found in the fruit and vegetable aisle at selected stores.

Questions

Is Gutsy safe for people with allergies?

No. Every tray contains tree nuts, sesame, soya and milk, oats that may contain gluten, and apricot that may contain sulphites, and cross-contact with other allergens cannot be ruled out. Gutsy is not suitable for anyone with a food allergy.

How should I store the trays?

Somewhere cool and dry, out of direct sunlight. No fridge needed. Every tray carries a best-before date.

Does the menu change?

Yes. Some compartments rotate each month, so you keep meeting new plants.

Can I pause or cancel?

Yes, at any time from your account.

Where do you deliver?

Mainland Spain and Gibraltar.

How do I contact you?

Email hello@lovegutsy.com.