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NUTRITIO
BOTANICA

An appreciation of the plants that feed us.

ExploreMethod
Diet at the level of plant species.
What does a year of eating look like,
analysed plant by plant?
A 12-month, species-based dietary log

Botanical diversity on the plate

11'148

Consumption records

Each record represents one plant species consumed on a given day – independent of quantity or frequency.

206

Species

A total of 206 botanical species recorded across the year.

30.5

Average

Average number of different plant species consumed per day.

24%

Staple Foods

The ten most frequently consumed species account for nearly a quarter of all records.

16

Rarities

Species that appeared only once – the long tail of the diet.

0.87

Seasonality Index

Maximum observed seasonality across all recorded species.

These figures capture consumption.
Their relevance lies beyond the numbers themselves.

Why Nutritio Botanica?

Seeing diet through the lens of botany

We usually quantify food by nutrients, calories, or macros. Nutritio Botanica shifts the focus to a more fundamental question: Which species are we actually eating?

Plants are the foundation of human existence. Through photosynthesis, they produce the oxygen we breathe and form the basis of almost all our food — either directly, when we eat plants, or indirectly, when they feed our livestock. Yet in modern diets, the organism often disappears behind the product.

Nutritio Botanica restores the plant to the center of the narrative — not as a mere ingredient, but as a living organism.

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From eating to measuring diversity

Instead of quantities or health claims, the project looks at presence:
Which plant species appear in the diet, how often, how evenly across the year –and which do not.

This species-based perspective makes patterns visible that remain hidden in aggregated nutrition studies:

  • daily diversity versus overall diversity
  • clusters of closely related plants
  • gaps within the botanical tree
  • a long tail of rarely consumed species

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A unique, systematic data set

Nutritio Botanica is based on a complete dietary log covering twelve consecutive months. Every plant consumed was recorded and assigned to its botanical species.

Th result is a taxonomically precise data set that allows diet to be explored in away more commonly associated with ecology than with nutrition.

The results show:

  • A surprisingly high daily diversity (average of 30.5 plant species per day).
  • A pronounced ‘long tail’ of rarely used plants.
  • Significant gaps within the angiosperms (only 32 of 61 orders are represented).
  • Low seasonality in the consumption pattern of most plants.
  • High specialization of some plant orders in how they contribute to diet, multi-functionality in others.

Note: This data reflects a personal journey and is intended as a case study, not a representative population sample.

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Invitation to interactive exploration

The website invites you to explore the data interactively, discover patterns and make comparisons.

The goal is to raise awareness of the botanical diversity of our diet – without moral appeals, health promises or self-optimisation rhetoric.

It's all about the joy of plants, culinary diversity and scientific curiosity.

Explore all plantsView results & visualisationsUnderstand the methodology
On this page
A wooden table with a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts, grains, and a bowl of colorful salad, set in front of a window with blurred greenery outside.