Mediterranean Diet Ranks Best Six Years In A Row
The Mediterranean diet has been named the healthiest way to eat for the sixth year in a row by a panel of experts for US News & World Report.
The eating plan, based on a traditional consumption patterns in countries like Greece, Italy and Spain, includes plenty of vegetables, healthy fats like olive oil, lean protein such as seafood and complex carbohydrates like whole grains and beans.
The Mediterranean diet has dominated the rankings in recent years, in part because it balances good nutrition with being easy to follow, according to Gretel Schueller, managing health editor at U.S. News & World Report.
“The diets that rise to the top are ones we’ve known for years use a common sense approach to healthy eating, incorporate whole foods, and are flexible.”
The Mediterranean diet has evidence-based health benefits, incorporates a wide range of foods that make it easy to stick to long-term, avoiding the restrictiveness and extremes that tend to cause diets to fail long-term, according to experts.
The rankings were determined by a panel of specialists in nutrition, heart health, diabetes, and weight loss, who ranked 24 diets (down from 40 last year).
The panellists weigh considerations such as long-term sustainability, accessibility of ingredients, potential for weight loss and research on how the diets may affect risks of chronic illnesses.
The Mediterranean diet checks all the boxes by emphasizing a balanced variety of unprocessed foods, without specific calorie or nutrient limits, according to Schueller. Other top contenders like the DASH diet and flexitarian diet have similar traits.
In addition to being named the best diet overall, as well as the best plant-based diet overall, the Mediterranean diet ranked highly for heart health and diabetes management.
It also tied for first place in two categories that are new to the rankings this year, best diets for bone and joint health and best family friendly diets. The family-friendly designation reflects the fact that the Mediterranean diet includes accessible ingredients, meals that are easy to prepare and can be appropriate for all ages.
“It’s looking at real-world constraints like budget and how easy it is to find ingredient, as well as nutritional value for different ages, so that everyone more or less could eat from the same table.”
While the Mediterranean diet may help with weight loss long-term, it ranked poorly for fast weight loss and doesn’t mandate how much you should eat, or specific meal plans.
