There is no “best” diet
US News has done it again Ranking of all dietswith the groundbreaking result that… they are all different ways of consuming food. While your website provides a nice comparison of the pros and cons of different diets, the entire concept of calling one diet better than another is broken from the start.
The whole idea of a “best” everything assumes that each thing competes with the others and that those at the top of the list are better than those at the bottom. (US News says they are Evaluation Diets and nothing more rank them – but I’m sorry, if you make a list with the “best” items at the top, that’s a ranking. And it feeds the misconception that all you have to do is find the right diet, the “best” diet, to solve what you see as a weight loss or health problem.
Why lists of the “best diets” are nonsense
Before you even start ranking (sorry, Evaluation) the “best”, the question arises as to what a “diet” actually is. The diets on US News lists are a bizarre mix. Some are vague approaches to nutrition, such as the “flexitarian diet,” which simply refers to the concept of not eating meat very often. Some are commercial products that are intended to help you lose weight, such as the subscription app Noom or the multi-level marketing product Optavia. Some are diets intended to treat a medical condition, such as the low FODMAP diet. It doesn’t really help anyone to group these disparate elements together.
And while I appreciate that US News no longer features crash diets like Master Cleanse, this year’s list includes the “BRAT diet,” which is not a competitor to the above diets (nor is it a marketing tool for Charli XCX). It’s a reminder of four foods – bananas, rice, applesauce and toast – that are considered mild enough not to cause nausea in patients with gastrointestinal illnesses. Restricting patients to these four foods is not even recommended by medical professionals anymoreSo it’s great that US News decided to add it to their list as a “new” diet this year.
How to actually choose the right diet
First, if you want to lose weightrecognize that All weight loss diets work the same damn way: They give you a framework to consume fewer calories than you burn. The “best” diet for this is the one that is easiest for you to stick to, as long as it still provides you with an adequate amount of proteins, vegetables, fats, and micronutrients like vitamins.
Some people feel great on a keto diet; Some find intermittent fasting practical; Some people prefer to eat a low-fat and vegan diet. It doesn’t really matter as long as the calorie deficit is not too extreme and you are not depriving yourself of important nutrients such as fiber, vitamins or proteins.
Whether you’re trying to change your body weight or not, the basics of a healthy diet are pretty simple: lots of fruit and vegetables, enough protein, not too much sugar. If you have specific health concerns that you have discussed with a doctor, be sure to consider them. (For example, the DASH “diet” is a list of guidelines you can follow if you need to lower your blood pressure. This includes, among other things, consuming less sodium and more potassium.) If you’re willing to pay for help, you’ll be better off Consultation with a nutritionist than buying the latest expensive weight loss product.
Do you want to eat healthier, lose weight or manage a health condition? Find a nutritional approach that meets your goals and that you can stick with. If you want some structure, it’s no problem to buy a book that includes recipes and a fancy name for the diet. The highest rated diet that Mediterranean dietis OK. But the paleo diet at number 23 (sorry, rated), despite its silly premise — that cavemen, if I understand correctly, made a lot of fake pizzas out of almond flour and coconut oil — might just as well serve its purpose.
