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The Mediterranean diet focuses on eating plenty of plant-based foods and moderate amounts of dairy, poultry, eggs, seafood.
If eating healthier is one of your New Year's resolutions and you're still looking for the best diet trend to follow, you're at the right place. The U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking recently revealed the best eating plans for 2021. For the fourth consecutive year, the Mediterranean diet was named the Best Diet Overall, when the list was announced earlier this week. The traditional eating pattern of the Mediterranean region has also grabbed the No. 1 spot in the Best Diets for Healthy Eating, Easiest Diets to Follow, Best Diets for Diabetes, and Best Plant-Based Diets and Best Heart-healthy categories.
However, Mediterranean region may not be the best diet for weight loss. It was ranked 15th in the Best Weight-Loss Diets category and 24th in the Best Fast Weight-Loss Diets category on the U.S. News & World Report's list.
The Mediterranean diet focuses on eating plenty of plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes. It permits moderate amounts of dairy, poultry, eggs, seafood and red wine, but red meat should be eaten only occasionally.
A panel of nutritionists and experts in the field of diabetes, heart health, and weight loss picked the Mediterranean diet as their top choice out of 39 eating plans. The DASH and the flexitarian diets together secured the No. 2 position for Best Overall Diet category. While the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) stresses on lowering the followers' blood pressure, the Flexitarian diet is a modified vegetarian diet that allows consumption of animal products in moderation.
Surprisingly, the most searched Atkins, Whole 30 and Keto diets were ranked at 33, 35 and 37 positions respectively in Best Diets Overall category on U.S. News & World Report's list. Dukan Diet was listed last on the list of 39 eating plans. Created by Dr. Pierre Dukan, a French general practitioner who specializes in weight management, the Dukan Diet is a high-protein, low-carb weight loss diet. It is based on the theory that counting calories isn't the key to weight loss; protein is. But the panel of health experts concluded that the diet is too restrictive and there's no evidence it works.
The Word Health Organisation (WHO) has also recognized the Mediterranean diet as a healthy and sustainable dietary pattern. Research has linked Mediterranean Diet to a host of health benefits, including weight loss, heart and brain health, cancer prevention, and diabetes prevention and control. By reducing the risk of chronic diseases, this diet may also help prevent premature death.
A new study published in Cancer has also suggested that following Mediterranean diet may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. The researchers found that men with localised prostate cancer who reported a baseline dietary pattern that more closely follows the key principles of a Mediterranean-style diet fared better over the course of their disease.
"A Mediterranean diet is non-invasive, good for overall health and, as shown by this study, has the potential to affect the progression of their cancer," said Justin Gregg, M.D., assistant professor of Urology and lead author of the study.
Another study that looked at the Mediterranean diet's effect on gut bacteria found it could have a positive effect within just one year for older adults by reducing the "bad" ones and increasing the "good." The results of the study were published in February 2020 by the British Medical Journal Gut.