The new year often serves as a wake-up call for people who want to be healthier after feasting on their favorite foods during the holidays.
In view of this, the US news and world report reviewed an expert panel with more than 40 eating plans and then ranked the 20 best diets of 2021 to help people “lose weight and improve your overall health.” In the first place was the Mediterranean diet, followed by the DASH and Flexitarian diets, which were tied for place 2, followed by the WW, keto and Dukan diets.
Yahoo Life spoke to nutritionists about the best eating plans – with some astonishment at how some diets have cut.
Mediterranean diet
This heart-healthy, plant-oriented eating plan is considered the best overall diet. According to the Mayo Clinic, the Mediterranean diet includes lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and olive oil. Fish, poultry, eggs and beans are eaten weekly along with a moderate amount of dairy products, while red meat is limited. Unlike many diets, red wine was also moderately allowed.
The eating plan is designed according to MedlinePlus to stabilize blood sugar, improve cholesterol and triglyceride levels and reduce the risk of heart disease, but some people lose weight on the Mediterranean diet by making healthier food choices.
Leah Groppo, a clinical dietitian at Stanford Health Care, was not surprised that this healthy eating plan ended up on top of that, and told Yahoo Life that “there is decades of research on this diet.” Groppo adds: “I like the idea of eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds because it contains a lot of fiber and healthy fats, and provides us with energy.”
Unlike fast diets, the Mediterranean eating plan is not too restrictive, making it easier to follow and more sustainable. “No food is out of bounds,” said Keri Gans, a registered dietitian and author of The Diet for Petty Cash, tells Yahoo Life. ‘It encourages a very healthy, well-balanced diet that includes lots of healthy fats, 100 percent whole grains, nuts and seeds and lots of fish. It contains low-fat dairy products. There are no gimmicks. There is no food that is forbidden. Even red meat is included, but they eat more fish and poultry. It’s all comprehensive and that’s what I love very much. ”
As Groppo puts it: “It’s not even a diet – it’s a lifestyle.”
DASH diet
This healthy eating plan joins second place with the Flexitarian diet (below). Like the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet – which stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension – also focuses on improving heart health.
The meal plan, based on studies sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), includes eating a variety of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, along with fat-free or low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, nuts and vegetable oils, according to the NHLBI. Foods high in saturated fats, including full-fat dairy products and fatty meats, are limited to the meal plan, along with sweets and sugary drinks.
While the DASH diet is considered a less salty plan, Gans explains that you can consume up to 2300 mg of sodium (about 1 teaspoon) per day, which is the same daily amount recommended by the government’s dietary guidelines for Americans. (According to the Food and Drug Administration, Americans have an average of 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day.)
By looking at your sodium intake and eating a variety of healthy, whole foods, the DASH diet helps lower high blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels, which reduces the risk of heart disease, according to MedlinePlus.
Although the DASH diet is designed as a dietary approach to control high blood pressure, Gans explains that you do not have to have high blood pressure to follow this healthy eating plan. In fact, she says most people should eat that way anyway. “In general, it emphasizes all the foods we are told to eat,” says Gans.
Flexible diet
The Flexitarian eating plan, created by dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, consists of following a vegetarian diet the most of the time – namely eating a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains. However, you can still sometimes have meat-based foods, while also limiting sugar and sweets.
Goose likes that ‘you do not have to cut out the food you love – you just have to focus on being more vegetarian’, she says. By encouraging people to eat more plant meals and consume less meat, Gans says they can reduce the risk of heart disease.
“It’s a plant-based diet that gives you flexibility,” says Groppo, noting that plant-based foods are often high in fiber and tend to contain fewer calories, while meat is mostly saturated fat. Groppo adds that eating a well-planned vegetarian diet ‘is generally better for our body and our environment’.
WW (formerly Weight Watchers) Diet
WW’s customized, flexible weight loss plan of myWW program came fourth after the DASH and Flexitarian diets. The program uses WW’s SmartPoints system, which assigns numbers to each food and beverage based on the number of calories, as well as how much saturated fats, sugar and proteins it contains.
According to the plan, no food is off limits. “Any diet that includes all foods, I really can not condemn,” says Gans.
While the other healthy eating plans are free, in addition to the cost of food, WW does have membership fees, which rise from $ 3.22 per week to $ 13.85 per week. Goose says the eating plan is not for everyone, but it can be helpful for those who need more structure and guidance. “It’s also just about the community of WW,” Gans says. “Those who do good are for the community.”
Groppo says that ‘people can do really well on WW’ and that with his scoring system they basically did all the ‘backend’ calculations for you, ‘so you don’t have to count calories. Groppo adds: “It helps you reduce calorie intake and have healthier options.”
However, the experts were surprised by some of the other popular eating plans that the US news and world report‘s best diet list – namely the keto and Dukan diets.
Keto diet
The keto diet has been a popular weight loss plan for the past few years, but not every nutritionist is a fan. Goose calls it a “diet of deprivation” and adds, “Atkins, supercharged, is really what it is.”
The protein-rich, very low-carbohydrate diet is meant to put a person’s body in ketosis – a metabolic condition in which your body uses glucose as its primary fuel source to break down rather stored fat, Groppo explains.
Groppo tells Yahoo Life that some research shows that the keto diet can help with weight loss, along with lowering blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes (talk to your healthcare provider before starting the keto or any other diet). But, says Groppo, ‘This is not a sustainable diet’, adding: ‘The diet is very restrictive. Normally, if you want to improve your health or lose weight, you want to do something that is sustainable. ‘
Although the protein-heavy keto diet may have benefits, Gans says there is a “greater body of evidence” showing that “diets high in saturated fat” – found mainly in animal products such as meat – can cause heart disease. Goose adds: ‘The jury is looking at how long one can maintain the keto diet and what other health risks can be associated with it. We do not know long term. ”
Dukan diet
The Dukan diet, developed by the French doctor Dr. Pierre Dukan was created, was put in the spotlight after Kate Middleton apparently followed it before marrying Prince William. The weight loss plan has four phases: attack, speed, consolidation and stabilization. The protein-rich, low-fat, low-carbohydrate diet allows fans to eat 100 foods (68 types of protein and 32 different vegetables), as well as a small amount of oat bran. Followers can add more food as they reach different stages.
“When I hear something with ‘phases’, it should immediately be a red flag because it’s not a lifestyle for me,” says Gans, who calls the eating plan “so confusing”. Groppo also questions how healthy it is to cut out whole food groups as needed at the beginning of the diet. “You’ll probably lose weight,” Groppo says. ‘But is it sustainable? I do not think so. ”
Whether you want a healthier weight or simply want to eat better, Gans says it’s important to focus on sustainable lifestyle changes, while also looking at how much sleep you get, how often you are physically active. , and what your stress levels are. “Let’s look not just at our food intake, but at our entire self,” Gans says.
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