As the New Year progresses, the role of choosing the right diet tends to become more active.
Yet, with so many out there, one would wonder, “How do I go about this”?
You may be confused about keto, or even thinking of going meatless. “Which diet do I choose?”
The objectives keep multiplying.
We all have our own reasons to look into a particular diet. It can be due to a lifestyle disease, being keen on fitness, or imply being influenced by a celebrity you look up to, etc. As long as the foods you’re consuming play a positive role in benefiting your body, the diet is ideal to pay attention to.
While the motivation to follow a certain diet can vary from one person to another, it can certainly make a difference when the foods you consume result in a healthier you.
Because, while many popular healthy diets – from Paleo to Mediterranean and vegetarian – share many of the same central principles, it’s helpful to get into the nitty-gritty if you’re really going to dive into one in particular.
To help you compare some of the most common diets, we’ve compiled the basics, here, for side-by-side
evaluation.
Ketogenic:
The One Liner
Instead of just low-carb, it’s “almost no carb” and lots of fat.
The ketogenic diet is a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate eating pattern, which differs from general, healthful eating recommendations. On a keto diet, carbs from all sources are severely restricted.
With the goal of keeping carbs below 50 grams per day, keto dieters often consume no breads, grains or cereals. For most people, this diet requires making big shifts in how they usually eat.
The Bottom Line
Research points to the fact that it could provide real benefits for certain people. The key is to ask yourself: Am I one of those people? If you have health reasons that make you want to try it and eating bacon and eggs and steak salads very day sounds amazing, maybe you could swing it. Just focus on minimizing bad carbs like pasta and cereals and focusing on whole grains, veggies, fruit, and legumes to meet your body’s carbohydrate needs. And by all means, eat fat!
Mediterranean:
The One Liner
Inspired by the traditional diets of people who live around the Mediterranean Sea, it emphasizes plant-based foods like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, plenty of extra-virgin olive oil, and fresh fish.
The Bottom Line
The basics of this diet mirror the basic principles of good nutrition: whole foods, tons of veggies, and healthy fats. Its health benefits are also the most well-documented (of ALL diets, seriously) by research studies.
Bonus: the Mediterranean Diet recognizes the importance of enjoying meals (and a really nice bottle of red) with family and friends, which comes with additional mental health benefits.
This diet not only ranked first in Best Overall Diet, but it also won for other categories such as Best Heart-Healthy, Best Plant-Based, Best Diabetics Diet, and The Easiest Diet to Follow in various award nominations.
This diet’s high rankings come as no surprise when you learn of its long list of potential health benefits. Following this way of eating can lead to better heart health, brain health, better control and prevention of diabetes, and even the prevention of some cancers.
With that being said, it also depends on your personal health goals.
The Mediterranean Diet limits your consumption of ultra-processed foods and added sugar. If you’re looking at it as a diet pyramid, things like added sugar and red meat are at the very small triangle at the top, with foods like fruits, vegetables, beans, olive oil, fish, yogurt, and chicken toward the middle and bottom.
Paleo:
The One Liner
The Paleo diet, also referred to as the caveman or Stone-Age diet, includes lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
It focuses on mimicking how our pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer ancestors ate as closely as possible, using foods available now.
Followers say it will help minimize your risk of chronic disease (based on the premise that those ancestors didn’t suffer from the ones we now face) and lead to weight loss.
The Bottom Line
Eating high-quality meats and fish with tons of veggies and no processed foods is basically a great formula for weight-loss and long-term health. However, too much of anything is…too much…and with all grains, beans, and dairy off the table, Paleo eaters often end up leaning way too heavily on meat.
Raw Food:
The One Liner
Raw food devotees are generally vegans who believe that plant foods should be consumed in their most natural form—uncooked and unprocessed—because natural enzymes in “living” food make it best for the body. Nothing you eat is cooked over about 115 degrees.
The Bottom Line
A healthy diet you can’t follow isn’t a healthy diet at all, so for most people, sticking to raw food one hundred percent of the time is unnecessary and will just make eating well harder. However, if you happen to try raw veganism and feel amazing and find that you LOVE dehydrating spinach and blending almonds into butter, by all means, go for it. Just be extra careful about getting in a wide variety of foods in order to avoid nutrient deficiencies.
Plant-based Diet:
A plant-based diet doesn’t have to be 100% plants or vegan, but it can be if you wish.
The goal is for a majority of the foods you are eating to come from plants. These foods include bright, colorful fruits and vegetables.
But they can also include other foods, such as soy, spices, herbs and seasonings, nuts and seeds, whole grains, beans, and legumes.
It’s important to think about a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables because each contains different phytonutrients to support your overall health and support your immune system. When possible, it is also good to select locally-grown, in-season foods and sometimes organically grown produce to get the most nutrient-rich foods while reducing your exposure to chemicals and pesticides.
People’s dietary changes have caught the attention of businesses and created a booming vegan market where even traditional meat industry giants have gotten into the faux meat game. People’s reasons for adopting a plant-based diet range from personal health to animal rights to environmental concerns related to factory farming.
In particular, those adopting plant-based diets are wise to make sure they’re getting sufficient levels of vitamins and minerals, from B12 to omega-3 fatty acids.
Researchers defined that the plant-based diet has “substantially higher intake than a typical diet of whole grains, legumes, fish, fruits, vegetables, and included a handful of nuts, while reducing red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and refined grains.”
Balanced Diet:
Eating a healthy, plant-based, balanced diet can not only help you manage your weight, but may also help reduce your risk for developing certain cancers, while supporting your immune system, helping you feel well during treatment, and promoting healthy survivorship.
Eating a balanced diet means primarily choosing minimally processed and natural foods. In addition, drinking plenty of water and choosing plant-based or lean protein (fish, low-fat dairy, lean meats) is part of a balanced diet.
Completely overhauling your diet all at once can be a recipe for disaster. Instead, try to incorporate some of the small changes listed above to make your diet healthier, and slowly even try substituting meat with clean, green plant protein made by Evolved Foods or many other plant-based meat brands.
Some of these tips will help you keep your portion sizes reasonable, while others will help you add nutrients or adapt to something new. Together, the more balanced the diet is, the better the impact it will have in making your overall diet healthier and more sustainable, without a huge change in your habits.
