Mediterranean Diet Tops Annual List for Fourth Consecutive Year

The Mediterranean diet has been declared the best diet for 2021, mak­ing it the fourth year in a row that it has been rec­og­nized as the best over­all eat­ing plan by the U.S. News and World Report.

In addi­tion to being ranked as the best over­all reg­i­men, the Mediterranean diet was hailed as the world’s best plant-based diet and tied with DASH for the title of best for healthy eat­ing.

The Mediterranean diet also topped the charts as the eas­i­est eat­ing plan to fol­low, tied with the DASH and Ornish diets in the best heart health cat­e­gory and drew even with the Flexitarian diet as the most effec­tive diet for dia­betes.

The diets were judged by a panel of 24 whose exper­tise ranged from food psy­chol­ogy, diet and nutri­tion, heart dis­ease, dia­betes and obe­sity, fol­low­ing exten­sive research.

Diets were scored on a num­ber of fac­tors includ­ing how healthy and safe they were. The judges also took into account how easy they were to fol­low and their suc­cess in aid­ing with long-term weight loss as well as their abil­ity to pre­vent or reduce con­di­tions, includ­ing dia­betes and heart dis­ease.

The high­est rated diets were those which focused on the con­sump­tion of fresh fruit, veg­eta­bles, whole grains and healthy fats, such as olive oil, whilst restrict­ing calo­rie-rich processed foods and refined sug­ars.

In 2020, the Mediterranean diet which is rich in olive oil, fruits, veg­eta­bles, whole grains, nuts and seeds was found to be the most effec­tive diet for reduc­ing the risk of heart dis­ease and in 2018 was found to be ben­e­fi­cial for reduc­ing the risk of frailty in aging adults.

• CNN
• Insider