MedDiet Named World’s Best for Eighth Straight Year

U.S. News & World Report has named the Mediterranean diet the best for the eighth year.

The pub­li­ca­tion asked a panel of 69 med­ical doc­tors, reg­is­tered dieti­tians, nutri­tional epi­demi­ol­o­gists, chefs and weight loss researchers to ana­lyze 38 pop­u­lar eat­ing plans across 21 cat­e­gories.

When con­sid­er­ing the ​‘best over­all diet’ cat­e­gory, the pan­elists com­pared the diets’ nutri­tional com­plete­ness, health risks and ben­e­fits, long-term sus­tain­abil­ity and evi­dence-based effec­tive­ness.

The Mediterranean diet was rated 4.8 out of 5, beat­ing the DASH, Flexitarian and MIND diets for the best over­all diet.

The pan­elists also iden­ti­fied the Mediterranean diet as the best eat­ing pro­gram for arthri­tis, dia­betes, diver­ti­c­uli­tis, fatty liver, gut health, healthy eat­ing, high cho­les­terol, inflam­ma­tion, men­tal health and pre­di­a­betes.

Furthermore, they found the eat­ing pat­tern, which also stip­u­lates reg­u­lar phys­i­cal activ­ity, ade­quate rest, social­iza­tion and drink­ing plenty of water, to be the eas­i­est to fol­low.

“The Mediterranean diet focuses on qual­ity and lifestyle rather than a sin­gle nutri­ent or food group,” senior health edi­tor Shanley Chan and assis­tant man­ag­ing edi­tor Elaine Hinzey wrote.

The tra­di­tional diet of many olive-grow­ing regions encour­ages eat­ing fruits, veg­eta­bles, whole grain cere­als and extra vir­gin olive oil at every meal with daily serv­ings of nuts, olives seed and low-fat dairy and weekly serv­ings of legumes, fish and seafood.

Instead of pro­hibit­ing the con­sump­tion of cer­tain foods, the Mediterranean diet rec­om­mends one to two serv­ings each week of red, white and processed meat with less than two serv­ings of sweets.

“Numerous stud­ies have shown that this dietary model reduces the risk of cer­tain chronic health con­di­tions, such as car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and Type 2 dia­betes, while pro­mot­ing longevity and improv­ing qual­ity of life,” Chan and Hinzet wrote.

Indeed, fol­low­ing the Mediterranean diet is asso­ci­ated with favor­able health out­comes, includ­ing a lower risk of demen­tia, reduced risk of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases and lower inci­dences of can­cer.

Many of these improved out­comes are asso­ci­ated with the antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties of the polyphe­nols found in many extra vir­gin olive oil and veg­eta­bles, along with the olive oil’s monoun­sat­u­rated fat and the omega‑3 fatty acids com­mon in fish and seafood.

A range of recent research has also linked Mediterranean diet adher­ence with a lower risk of atrial fib­ril­la­tion, pos­i­tive oral health out­comes and alle­vi­a­tion of PTSD symp­toms.

Furthermore, a low-carb Mediterranean diet was found to aid dia­betes patients in achiev­ing remis­sion, while the Mediterranean diet and exer­cise were asso­ci­ated with bet­ter gut health in older adults.

U.S. News & World Report also iden­ti­fied the MIND diet as the best for brain health and the DASH diet as the most heart-healthy. Both diets include olive oil as a pri­mary fat and are heav­ily influ­enced by the Mediterranean diet, which fin­ished sec­ond in both cat­e­gories.

The Mediterranean diet also fin­ished sec­ond for high blood pres­sure (behind DASH), menopause (behind menopause), plant-based (behind flex­i­tar­ian) and weight loss (behind WeightWatchers).

• U.S. News & World Report