For an impressive seven years, the title of "world's healthiest diet" has been awarded to a particular way of eating that not only boasts general health benefits but also offers specific advantages for heart health, diabetes, and bone and joint well-being.
It's also praised for being easy to follow and suitable for family meals.
The diet in question is the Mediterranean diet, which emerged triumphant from an extensive evaluation by medical and nutritional specialists.
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The experts assessed various famous diets across categories such as nutritional completeness, health risks and benefits, sustainability, and evidence-based results,
The Mediterranean diet came out on top with a score of 85.1 per cent.
What is the Mediterranean diet?
This diet is so simple yet so varied, you might not even consider it a 'diet' at all. It involves eating the kind of foods which are popular in Mediterranean regions such as Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey.
The diet involves eating a wide range of the following foods:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Legumes
- Wholegrains
- Cereals
- Fish
Moderate consumption of meat, dairy (notably natural or Greek yoghurt), and alcohol (particularly red wine) is also part of the regimen.
What are the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet?
The experts behind the healthiest diet report have praised the Mediterranean diet, stating: "The Mediterranean diet is one of the easiest diets to follow for good reason. Rather than taking a highly restrictive approach that eliminates certain nutrients or food groups or being highly rigid about specific macronutrients, the Mediterranean diet provides general guidelines that are versatile enough to be adaptable to any cuisine or lifestyle – making it a sustainable approach to eating."
However, the benefits don't stop there. The Mediterranean diet can also be beneficial for weight loss, even though it was never designed for this purpose.
Studies have shown evidence for weight reduction and weight management over time when following this diet. As well as this, four meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials have shown a greater reduction of body weight and BMI with this diet compared to other diets, according to the experts at BBC Good Food.
And the healthy foods consumed in the Med diet may also help to slash the risk of cancer. According to the Cancer Centre, research shows the nutrients in the popular diet may help lower cancer risk, boost treatment effectiveness for patients and even prevent it from coming back.
What is the unhealthiest diet?
As for the least recommended diets, the raw food diet was ranked at the very bottom. Researchers acknowledged that while it might help increase fruit and vegetable intake, it could also lead to insufficient calorie or protein consumption and "restricts some major heart-healthy food groups".
The report also placed the Dukan diet near the bottom, criticising its approach by stating: "This extremely restrictive low-carb, high-protein plan claims major weight loss, but there's little evidence it works."
The keto and Atkins diets didn't fare much better, with researchers noting that keto can lead to rapid short-term weight loss, yet they cautioned about long-term health risks such as nutritional deficiencies. A writer who tested the keto diet reported that the weight "fell off" within four weeks, which you can read more about here.
The researchers expressed concerns about the Atkins diet as well, noting that although it might be effective for temporary weight loss, maintaining that loss could prove difficult. They continued, "The restrictive plan is not nutritionally adequate, especially for people with kidney disease or history of kidney stones, athletes and people diagnosed with osteoporosis."
