News
Med Diet named 2019 Best – in 6/8 categories The 2019 US News Best Diet rating left no doubt as to the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet, ranking the olive oil-rich eating regime #1 in the Best Diets Overall category with a score of 4.2/5. The US government-endorsed DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) came in second, followed by the descriptively-named Flexitarian diet. Interestingly, both emphasise an increase in plant-based foods and a decrease in saturated fats, also integral elements of the Mediterranean diet and a shout-out to fruit-derived, mono-unsaturated olive oil.
Olive oil at the core
The Best Diets website in fact references the consumer-friendly Mediterranean diet pyramid developed by the Harvard School of Public Health and non-profit food think tank Oldways, which lists “core foods to enjoy every day” as “whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, herbs, spices, nuts and healthy fats such as olive oil”. It also refers to olive oil as “a cooking staple in Mediterranean recipes, and a key salad dressing ingredient”.
Med Diet rankings
The Mediterranean Diet took the top spot among the 41 diets reviewed for the 2019 rankings, named #1 in the Best Diets Overall category for being “relatively easy to follow, nutritious, safe, effective for weight loss and protective against diabetes and heart disease”. It also claimed the #1 position in five of the additional seven diet categories, moving down the rankings only in terms of weight loss: • #1 - Best Diets Overall • #17 (tie) - Best Weight-Loss Diets • #1 - Best Diabetes Diets • #1 - Best Diets for Healthy Eating • #30 (tie) - Best Fast Weight-Loss Diets • #1 (tie) - Best Heart-Healthy Diets • #1 - Best Plant-Based Diets • #1 - Easiest Diets to Follow
NUMBER ONE
MED DIET The ranking process
Now in its ninth year, the annual US News Best Diets listing ranks the current most popular diets across a number of categories, rating their effects on everything from heart health to weight loss. US News staffers create in-depth profiles for a shortlist of top diets, investigating how each works, whether it does what it claims, possible health risks and the practicalities of following the diet. The profiles are then reviewed by a panel of nationally recognized experts in diet, nutrition, obesity, food psychology, diabetes and heart disease, and rated across seven categories: ease of following, ability to produce short-term/long-term weight loss, nutritional completeness, safety and potential for preventing and managing diabetes and heart disease. The experts’ ratings are then converted to scores and stars from 5 (highest) to 1 (lowest), from which the eight Best Diet category rankings are calculated. The Med Diet’s total came in at 4.2/5 overall, scoring 2.9 and 3.1 for short and long-term weight loss respectively, 3.8 for being easy to follow and an undisputable 4.9 for its health benefits. Source: www.usnews.com.
Issue 111 • March 2019 • Australian & New Zealand Olivegrower & Processor • 5