It’s not really NEW news, but for the fifth year in a row the Mediterranean Diet is the best diet overall according to the annual ranking from U.S. News & World Report. It’s also top-ranked for easiest diets to follow, best diets for healthy eating, best plant-based diets, best heart-healthy diets and best diets for diabetes. That’s a lot of bests!
For the uninitiated, the Mediterranean diet advocates heart-healthy foods that include:
- Legumes(including chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils, peas, black beans and soybeans)
- Nuts
- Fruits and vegetables
- Wheat
- Olive oil instead of butter
- Herbs and spices instead of salt
- Fish and poultry instead of red meat
- And PS? A glass of red wine on occasion is fine as well!
Also, according to a study done by the British Medical Journal “Gut” in February of 2020, research found that older adults could have positive effects within a year by replacing “bad” bacteria in the gut with “good” by using the diet. Other diets that ranked high were the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and the Flexitarian diet (which is a modified vegetarian diet that limits animal products).
Check out the full article at USA Today